Roald Dahl

[Katharine]

I'm wondering why the word 'scholarship' has been altered?

[Katharine]

Tony and I know from speaking to people at Hachette that they feel that context is important when it comes to the language used in older books.

I don't know if I'm madder with Hachette or the so-called journalist...

https://nybreaking.com/five-wake-up-eni ... offending/

When did Enid change gender????

[Daisy]

I heard yesterday that Ian Fleming's James Bond books are now under scrutiny!

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

Tony and I know from speaking to people at Hachette that they feel that context is important when it comes to the language used in older books.

I don't know if I'm madder with Hachette or the so-called journalist...

https://nybreaking.com/five-wake-up-eni ... offending/

When did Enid change gender????

I've been given a copy of yesterday's Daily Mail, source of the original article by Neil Sears.

I seems that 'journalist' James was both inept at copying-and-pasting and too lazy to check the gender of the author he was decrying, seemingly to veer from he to her.

[Anita Bensoussane]

https://nybreaking.com/five-wake-up-eni ... offending/

That's a poorly-written article. The headline says that "Enid Blyton's Books Get a Modern Revise". Within the article we have "sensitive readers" rewriting the books (delightfully comic, albeit unintentional!), Quentin saying that George "wants a good talk, too", and a number of clumsy sentences such as "After the boys' heroic adventures come to a close with them (spoiler alert) finding hidden gold, Blyton had an important moment for his tomboyish character, finally earning his father's respect." (As Katharine has pointed out, Enid Blyton is male in some paragraphs but female in others!)

As far as the Famous Five books are concerned, weren't those changes made for the 1997 editions?

I can't understand why "tall, dark-haired girl, quiet in her own way" (First Term at Malory Towers) would be changed to "tall, quiet girl in her own way." The new phrasing is so clumsy that I suspect the article-writer hasn't got it quite right! As for deciding to omit the hair colour at all, is that because any mention of "dark", "black" or "white" is now viewed by some as being connected to racism, whatever the context?!

Edit: The original piece, published in The Daily Mail, can be read here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... fence.html

Regarding the the Malory Towers edit, the original article says:

On arrival in the dormitory, Darrell and her housemates were originally told to get in bed by ‘A tall, dark girl, quiet in her manner’. In 2023, it is ‘A tall girl, quiet in her manner’.

As "dark girl" would have referred to the girl's hair, it still puzzles me that that was changed. I don't know when the Malory Towers alterations were made but it's possible that they date from some years ago.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

I heard yesterday that Ian Fleming's James Bond books are now under scrutiny!

Here is a good discussion about Bond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVXbHtmrDqM

[Moonraker]

About 35 minutes into last Thursday's BBC Question Time, this matter is discussed. I am wondering why it is hitting the headlines and under so much discussion in the media. There is nothing new in this. Agatha Christie's work has been 'amended' many times - probably the work most changed in what is currently known as And Then There Were None. This book has had three titles* deemed offensive (yes, the first one had to be changed), location names as well, as the setting in the original was N***** Island, so named as it resembled the shape of the head of a n***o (not sure if I'm allowed to even write this word, but it rhymes with Café Nero. And let's not start on our very own Enid Blyton's books and stories. Certain changes needed to be carried out, but changing JoJo, Bessie, Fanny and so on (although Fanny is all right in the Five's) is ridiculous. Yet we hear nothing of this from the media - and I do realise these changes were carried out decades ago. I wondered that nobody mentioned this decades-old tradition of changing words wasn't new.

*Ten Little N******
Ten Little Indians
And Then There Were None

[Courtenay]

I seems that 'journalist' James was both inept at copying-and-pasting and too lazy to check the gender of the author he was decrying, seemingly to veer from he to her.

Excuse me — this simply means that Enid themself is now the poster individual for the new modern woke movement, having at last been outed as gender non-binary!!!

That aside, after seeing Lucky Star's posting of the Matt cartoon on this topic (in the Jokes thread), I'm wondering — is Roald Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World still in print at all? The entire plot unashamedly glorifies the poaching of game fowl. Isn't this teaching young people that stealing is perfectly OK as long as a) the person being stolen from is rich and nasty, and b) your dad assures you it's heaps of fun??

(And I vividly remember first reading that book with Mum when I was 6, re-reading it multiple times over the subsequent years, thoroughly enjoying it, and never once having the impulsion to poach any pheasants myself. )

[Anita Bensoussane]

I love Danny the Champion of the World too, because it evokes a close father-son relationship so beautifully - and it hasn't given me an urge to go poaching either!

About 35 minutes into last Thursday's BBC Question Time, this matter is discussed. I am wondering why it is hitting the headlines and under so much discussion in the media. There is nothing new in this. Agatha Christie's work has been 'amended' many times - probably the work most changed in what is currently known as And Then There Were None. This book has had three titles* deemed offensive (yes, the first one had to be changed), location names as well, as the setting in the original was N***** Island, so named as it resembled the shape of the head of a n***o (not sure if I'm allowed to even write this word, but it rhymes with Café Nero. And let's not start on our very own Enid Blyton's books and stories. Certain changes needed to be carried out, but changing JoJo, Bessie, Fanny and so on (although Fanny is all right in the Five's) is ridiculous. Yet we hear nothing of this from the media - and I do realise these changes were carried out decades ago. I wondered that nobody mentioned this decades-old tradition of changing words wasn't new.

*Ten Little N******
Ten Little Indians
And Then There Were None

I think it's the timing of the latest alterations to Roald Dahl's books that have made them so newsworthy. Identity politics, censoring (especially revising things of the past to fit present sensibilities) and cancellation culture are hot topics at the moment. Although Roald Dahl has been edited before (the descriptions of the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory were altered during his lifetime, probably by his own hand), the current changes are part of a massive campaign affecting street names, statues, paintings and all sorts of things, literature being just one. Some public figures have even been "cancelled" for airing views which don't fit the fashionable narrative. It seems that the new revisions to Roald Dahl's books have sprung out of this movement and been hastily done, which perhaps explains why many of them are so irrational, uninformed and graceless.

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

Dr David Starkey on form!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDhpt8L-6Ww

[Debbie]

I wonder whether there's been a bit of a reaction because they've done a lot in one and gone, as far as I can can tell, too far.

So with EB it's been just one of her series at a time, and the first time maybe it was changing Anne liking frocks to shorts, currency, and a few things like that.
So things where you can understand why people might want to change it-the first just for making it up to date.
But then each little change happens one at a time, and not the whole lot at once.

With Roald Dahl, it's all the books and not just things that can be considered a definite problem but also some things that look OTT.

If EB books had been totally left alone without more than things like money updating and then suddenly all the books had all the alterations like in the RD books then there might have been a similar upsurge of protest.

[Moonraker]

Dr David Starkey on form!

Yes. I'm on Team Starkey!

I see "ugly" has been censored from Dahl's C&TCF. Does this mean that Cinderella's stepsisters will now have to be known by another name?

[Fiona1986]

I'm baffled that the Daily Mail seems to think they've stumbled upon some sort of breaking news. We've known about changes being make for decades now...

Given that they've changed the BFG's black cloak (black to blend in with the night as he creeps around blowing dreams into bedrooms) to just a cloak I wouldn't be surprised if they had just run 'find and replace' on the document without checking the context of it.

[Anita Bensoussane]

It is surprising that Puffin accept such incompetence. Some of the changes are so senseless (and, ironically, lacking in sensitivity) that they might well be the work of a robot!

[Viv of Ginger Pop]

I certainly think that the robot you asked to write a poem about Enid Blyton would have had more heart and soul...