It’s more serious than we thought. The pasteurization of books, in the Anglo-Saxon edition, has been widespread for quite a while, which we did not know. Any offensive references to blacks, Asians, lunatics, dwarfs, women (among others) started being tracked down about a decade ago. Unpleasant hints come to the surface in the light of recent attempts to rewrite the books of Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming: the former was anti-Semitic, and 007 asserted that “Koreans were a notch below the monkeys”. Today, saying like James Bond that women like “half rapes” is no longer acceptable. To postulate, like Dahl, that he “there is a trait in the Jewish character that causes animosity…even a bastard like Hitler didn’t go after them for no reason” is intolerable. But why purge the texts? Why not leave them in their foul juice? Answer: dough.
Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming and Company: The Pasteurization of Books
Basic data: Dahl’s books are translated into sixty-three languages with 600 million copies. A title is sold every 2.6 seconds, according to Luke Kelly, the author’s grandson, who manages the Roald Dahl Story Company (RDSC). In 2019, revenue was £26m. Also, the RDSC has just licensed the rights to sixteen stories to Netflix, for the (estimated) nice sum of… a billion dollars ! No question, therefore, of endangering the cash cow. As for Ian Fleming, after twenty-five 007 films (twenty-six counting “Never Again”), it is necessary to “reinvent everything” for the 27e. Here too, the figures speak for themselves: nearly 12 billion dollars at the box office since 1962. In April 2023, therefore, the books will be republished, duly reviewed by sensivity readers.
The sequel after the ad
Roald Dahl and cancel culture: “Great works rewrite themselves”
Political commissars
What is it about ? THE sensivity readers are proofreaders, employed by the piece (paid 0.0009 cents per word), to locate, before publication, the terms, sentences, opinions, descriptions “not acceptable”. Thus, in 2016, the author Jodi Picoult used the services of a sensivity reader to rake the manuscript of “Small Great Things”, where a black nurse must take care of a white baby (who dies). For ten years, the company “Inclusive Minds” (www.inclusiveminds.com), for example, prides itself on having “a network of experts” who scrutinize the texts to be edited or re-edited to promote “a more authentic inclusion in children’s books” (will have trouble with Grimm’s tales, especially with “The Jew and the Thornbush”, 1815). The firm “Salt & Sage” (www.saltandsagebooks.com) offers its services if “you need sensitive reading”and offers mini-biographies of its “experts”: Mikki Helmer specializes in “LGBT, lesbian and demi-gender issues” ; Taye Timko in the fields “biracial identity and non-monogamous relationships” ; Ronkwahrhakonha D focuses on “Ashkenazi Jews and the Mohawks”. Other reviewers sort through references to Algonquins, trans-male experiences, New Orleans residents, the disabled, eating disorders, bereavement, sexual abuse, hearing impaired, Southeast Asian religions, the poor, Mormons, etc. One wonders if bakers, roller skaters and opera singers will escape scrutiny. French publishing houses – shame! − have already called on these political commissars.
“What are these cases of rewriting the works of Ian Fleming or Roald Dahl, if not an offensive of stupidity? »
In the 19th century, the town councilors had vine leaves put on the antique statues, to hide the charcuterie. In 2020, the same charade took place in Rome, during the visit of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who could have been shocked, the poor cabbage. From now on, it is literature that toasts, victim of well-meaning fashion. Every year, there is a batch of idiots. This year, she is ahead. F.F.
