Several of the well-known and beloved children’s books by Roald Dahl have been rewritten to remove controversial language. English words such as “fat” and “ugly” (Fat and ugly) have been removed. The publisher announced that most of the changes went to words that were related to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race, write is The Independent.
Roald Dahl’s intellectual works are managed by The Roald Dahl story Company, which became acquired by streaming giant Netflix in 2021.
Publishers and sensitivity readers
Among other things, Augustus Glup from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is no longer described as “fat”, but as “enormous”.
According to Puffin publishers, they have hired what they call “sensitivity readers”. The Guardian. According to the newspaper, hundreds of changes have been made to the original text, and some new text passages not written by Dahl have been added. An example of addition can be found in “The Witches”. In the section where it is explained that witches are bald under their wigs, there is a small text:
“There are many other reasons why women can wear wigs, and there is nothing wrong with that,” it says.
The publishing house Gyldendal informs TV 2 that they will make corresponding changes in their Norwegian translations of Dahl’s children’s books
– Should be ashamed
Salman Rushdie, who is known for publishing the book satanic verses, and who was stabbed at a literary function this autumn after having had a Fatwa hanging over him since the eighties because of his books, was scathing in his criticism of the publisher and censorship.
– Roald Dahl was no angel, but this censorship is absurd. Puffin Books and the Dahl trustees should be ashamed, he wrote in a post on Twitter on Saturday.
Suzanne Nossel from American Pen also rages against the changes in thirteen Tweets.
– Far too much literature can be interpreted as an insult to someone based on race, gender, religion, age, socio-economic status and a myriad of other factors, she points out, and believes that this practice has no logical limit. They risk destroying the literary heritage.
Tanning on dry is fine, double chin is out
The comedian David Baddiel pointed to a passage from the book The Twits (In Norwegian: Dustene) where it says that “You can have a crooked nose and crooked mouth and a double chin and dry teeth”. In the new version, the publisher has removed the double chin.
The problem with the Dahl bowdlerisation is that it has no logical consistency. Here, double chin has been cut, presumably to avoid fat shaming. But what about wonky nose or crooked teeth shaming? Once you start on this path you can end up with blank pages. pic.twitter.com/BKbArYIGrh
— David Baddiel (@Baddiel) February 18, 2023
– The problem is that this is illogical. Double chins are out, presumably to avoid “fat shaming”, but what about the teeth on dry? If you start like that, you can end up with a blank page, writes Baddiel.
Other writers point out how the child genius Mathilda will no longer read Joseph Conrad or Rudyard Kipling, but these are replaced with Jane Austen and John Steinbeck. For those who have read all four of these authors, it is, to say the least, difficult to understand why the latter are okay if the former must be canceled in a children’s book.
The publisher and “The Roald Dahl Story Company” say in a press release that it is not unusual to revise language in new publications, in addition to other details such as covers and page layout. They have been working on the new edition since 2020, and say that after a thorough assessment they have made small changes to the text.
Egner and Vesle Hoa
In Norway, too, we have had a debate about a popular children’s book author. When the poem about Vesle Hoa was omitted from a new edition of Torbjørn Egner’s poem book in 2006. Cappelen forlag then denied that it was a case of censorship.
The poem about weasel Hoa was written fifty-two years earlier, and was about the Hottentot weasel Hoa who came from the Babu tribe.
After NRK Barntime changed Pippi’s father from “negro king” to “southern king”, the media are said to have asked Egner’s rights owners what they wanted to do with visas. Then they decided to remove it from the collection if it seemed offensive to anyone.
“Egner’s work has been revised with every new publication as long as he lived, there is nothing special about this”, Anders Heger said at the time, and believed that the change in question was in Egner’s spirit. (Source: The Children’s Book Institute)
Also at the time, writers such as Ingvar Ambjørnsen believed that this was problematic.
– I myself fully believe that it is high time to get the word “negro” out of our language. But who will decide that this is where the border is? he said to Dagbladet in 2006.
The changes that are being made today in Roald Dahl’s works are thus far more extensive, and are much more extensive.
Dahl himself made changes
Changes must also have been made at an earlier time, but then the author Roald Dahl must have been responsible for them himself. At the time, it was the famous Ompa Lompas who work at Willy Wonka’s factory in Charlie and the chocolate factory that was changed from black to orange.
In the new edition, another change has been made: They are no longer “little men” but “little people”.
Ambjørnsen’s question from the debate about Egner’s texts appears relevant today, because who decides where the limit for editing in classic novels is?
