Words like “thick” and “ugly” disappear from the Norwegian-British author Roald Dahl’s children’s books. The books are being changed to be more inclusive and less offensive.
Among other things, the character Augustus Gloop in the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” will no longer be called fat, but huge. In addition, the character Mrs Dust in “Dustene” should no longer be described as ugly, but rather disgusting.
It is the publisher Puffin that is behind the changes in the English editions, writes that newspaper The Guardian.
The publisher Gyldendal informs TV 2 that they will make changes to their Norwegian translations of Roald Dahl’s children’s books:
– We follow up linguistic updates, adjustments and modernization in line with the line laid down by the rights manager Roald Dahl Story Company, says communications manager Steffen Aagedal in Gyldendal to TV 2.
– The Roald Dahl Story Company is therefore also the right person to answer the assessments that are the basis when changes are made to the language in the books, he says.
TV 2 asked Gyldendal these questions:
Forlaget Gyldendal received the following questions from TV 2. They were not answered in the response we received.
- What right does a publisher have to “correct” works?
- To what extent does the publisher protect works written by people who are no longer alive, and who cannot defend their works?
- Won’t a retouching of language and history give a misleading picture of the time Dahl lived in?
– Do you lose your rights if you do not follow the Roald Dahl Story Company’s guidelines? What makes you think this is correct?
– We relate to those who own the rights to these intellectual works and make changes in line with the wishes of the RDSC, Aagedal replies via SMS. He did not want to be interviewed over the phone.
No one is “crazy” anymore
Several hundred changes have been made to the original text, among other things, sections have been added that were not written by Dahl himself. Descriptive paragraphs written by Dahl are in some cases simply deleted from the text.
The changes in Roald Dahl’s children’s books have been made in new editions of English editions, and only in those of the author’s books that are aimed at children. Interview situation. Here is the British author during the launch of the book Matilda in Norwegian in 1989. Photo: Inge Gjellesvik / NTB
The Telegraph has compiled a huge overview of the changes in the books:
- At least 17 times, words like “crazy” have been removed, or in some cases changed to, for example, “silly”.
- In the book “The Witches” “ugly bald women” is changed to just “ugly women”. “Their feet had no toes” has been changed to “their feet were square at the tip”.
- In “Matilda”, a reference to how the title character used books to travel to “old sailing ships with Joseph Conrad” is changed to “19th century mansions with Jane Austen”. “to India with Rudyard Kipling” has become “to California with John Steinbeck”. “To Africa with Ernest Hemingway” has been allowed to stand.
- In “The World’s Biggest Peach” “screaming voice” has been changed to “annoying voice”. A similar change is made in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.
In “The Witches”, the sentence “You can’t go around tearing the hair of every lady you meet, even if she’s wearing gloves”, has been changed. Now it says instead “There are many other reasons why women can wear wigs, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.”
A Roald Dahl exhibition in north-west London in 2018. Photo: AFP/ROBIN MILLARD
Elsewhere in “The Witches” the sentence “If she then works at the checkout of a supermarket, or writes letters for a businessman” is changed to “If she then works as a leading researcher or runs a business”.
Reacts: – Absurd censorship
A spokesperson for the Roald Dahl Story Company claims that the changes that have been made are small and carefully considered.
– When you publish a new edition of a book that was written a long time ago, it is not uncommon to go through the language and also change other things, such as the book’s cover, the statement says.
Roald Dahl died in 1990, aged 74. The author had Norwegian parents and often visited Norway.
– Roald Dahl was no angel, but this is absurd censorship, says British author Salman Rushdie on Sunday.
REACTS: Author Salman Rushide comments on Sunday the changes that have been made to many of Roald Dahl’s books. Photo: Grant Pollard/Invision/AP
He comments on the news that the Roald Dahl Story Company and the publisher Puffin are making hundreds of changes to the Norwegian-British author’s children’s books.
– Puffin Books and the Dahl family should be shamed, says Rushdie.
Salman Rushdie, in the light of his own writing, has himself been in the debate about censorship for several decades.
He has lived with a so-called fatwa judgment against him, when Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah demanded his execution in 1989 for the controversial book “Satanic Verses”.
Among other things, the book came with an oblique view of Islam and the prophet Muhammad, which caused strong reactions in Islamic circles.
