The Enid Blyton Society

I can kinda live with Fatty saying he was not going to be a smoker - ultimately, views on smoking have changed a great deal since the forties and much more is known about how harmful cigarettes are.

Do they still have the bit in Disappearing Cat where Fatty carries dog ends around to smell 'cool'?

Michael - I have some of the new MT books and I absolutely loathe the illustrations. They've made a big mess of upgrading the money, too. The point in book six, for instance, was meant to be that Josephine Jones (I hated that she was named that ) had far too much money but they've kept the bit where she says 'I'm getting five pounds for my birthday' - hardly a large amount in decimal currency! Then later she actually gets twenty five pounds but it's still nowhere near equivalent to the pre decimal five pounds that she got originally.

Yak wrote: Do they still have the bit in Disappearing Cat where Fatty carries dog ends around to smell 'cool'?

No, as I found out recently — we had a discussion about it here: http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... 15#p313954" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I can understand why they removed that bit, but what they've replaced it with makes no sense!!

LOL!! Yes that makes absolutely no sense .. they would have been better off just removing that reference all together.

Yes - the matches thing makes no sense at all! the fact Fatty was carrying around cigar ends, to make him smell of tobacco 'like an adult' was absolutely spot-on of Enid - very perceptive - showing just how many young boys think!

I think views on smoking have changed a lot since my generation (I am 42) though. My nephew's generation all seem to think that it is considerably 'uncool' .. possibly because it is so much more expensive than it used to be.

Rob Houghton wrote:Yes - the matches thing makes no sense at all! the fact Fatty was carrying around cigar ends, to make him smell of tobacco 'like an adult' was absolutely spot-on of Enid - very perceptive - showing just how many young boys think!

Yes, exactly. I wonder, couldn't they have kept it in and done something similar to what they did in the newer editions of Pantomime Cat by having Fatty assure the others (once he was found out) that he didn't really smoke at all and was never going to? It would make the scene slightly less funny (part of the amusing side in the original is that Fatty doesn't actually admit that he's lying about smoking the cigar ends), but at least it would still make sense and still be typical both of young boys' attitudes and Fatty's legendary vanity!!

It's especially pertinent to Fatty, because as we all know he loves to disguise himself and likes to believe he's an adult and likes to disguise himself as an adult too - so he would be looking for all the things (such as smelling of tobacco) that might be considered 'adult' (whether it's PC/healthy or not - adults DO still smoke!!)- so its a shame they removed the reference. I agree though, it would have been better, as Courtenay suggests, to have Fatty say something similar to in Pantomime Cat.

Maybe they should have modernised it to him carrying empty beer bottles in his pocket so he could smell of alcohol, lol!

Rob Houghton wrote:Maybe they should have modernised it to him carrying empty beer bottles in his pocket so he could smell of alcohol, lol!

Don't the older kids stand outside the school gates selling cigarettes to the younger ones on the sly anymore then? They used to always be at it when I was at school and I very much doubt it was from reading about Fatty carrying around cig butts in an EB book! Removing references to things is ridiculous, it isn't going to make kids not do something, if they want to try smoking their going to no matter what's in any book, same as if they want to try beer or anything else 'adult'. My younger brother had never read an EB book, didn't stop him running into the house to ask for a white pencil to use as a cigarette 'like the grass cutter men have' when he was four! He's not grown into an actual smoker from it either, anymore than I have from those chocolate cigarettes in edible white paper you used to get, that you'd sit there pretending to smoke . Some nowadays would have a fit if they saw those!

Such a shame that people can't leave things alone, they seem intent on re-writing or removing the past . I wouldn't pay a penny for a modern edition as I wouldn't wan't to be supporting them in any way whatsoever. If you don't mind not having a wrapper the hardback originals can be found for a fairly reasonable price on Ebay and the older paperbacks are cheap enough on Abebooks.

I agree about smoking. I used to be a smoker, but as a child I was very, very anti-smoking - even telling my friends they shouldn't smoke. I was certainly never influenced by any Enid Blyton books when I started smoking aged 16. I was more influenced by the old actors I saw in Hollywood movies, as I was a fan of the classic films and my mom's 'Hollywood Album' books and 'Picturegoer'. Unfortunately it led me into smoking - which I've stopped and started over the years since - but it wasn't Blyton's fault.

Yak wrote:I can kinda live with Fatty saying he was not going to be a smoker - ultimately, views on smoking have changed a great deal since the forties and much more is known about how harmful cigarettes are.

     I guess it's difficult to know how to handle things like this. I have not modernized in keeping with the times in many ways, but one way in which I probably have is that I am not an enthusiast for, nor advocate of, smoking - and one of the mistakes I did *not* make in life is that I never took up smoking early in life - never even tried it once behind the bike shed (or similar) at school. I literally do not know what it is like to smoke; but the idea does not appeal to me in the slightest, and I think breathing in the fumes of a burning, stinking weed might very likely make me feel sick.
     I was once even a bit militantly anti-smoking when I was younger and angrier, and tended to glare at people in trains or similar places who smoked illegally (or even legally but inconsiderately) - mainly because I disliked having the unpleasant reek forced on me. While I have not become any more pro-smoking more recently, perhaps I've softened a bit now and have more of a let-live attitude, and I do now tend to think that modern authorities are conducting a witch-hunt against smokers that seems quite in excess for the situation. These people are not evil people who deserve to be hounded; they are addicted, and nicotine is reportedly more addictive than heroin, and harder to kick. I would probably cut smokers more slack now, and simply move away without any words, any glares.
     I'd forgotten the passage where Fatty said he wouldn't smoke until he was 21 (my copies would certainly have been old enough to say that, rather than "not at all"). But I have to say it wouldn't bother me at all to come across that now - I simply don't invest that much emotional energy any more into being anti-smoking, although I don't like it. These are novels, and I don't see them in any way as being or containing political or social screeds, or as role models, or as anything more than entertaining stories that depict characters with both their good points and their faults.
     So what if Fatty expresses an intention to (possibly) smoke once he turns 21? So he's doing something that is less than fully worthy. Well, I have news for the P.C. types who jump on things like this: characters have flaws, and don't always act in the best ways - just like real people, in fact. The P.C. fanatics need to stop being so precious about it, and stop constantly trying to correct everyone who doesn't meet their lofty standards but instead shows a bit of grubby humanness.

Yak wrote:Do they still have the bit in Disappearing Cat where Fatty carries dog ends around to smell 'cool'? :D

     Err... "dog ends"? What on earth are they, and how do they make you smell cool? Ends of dogs? (I shudder to think.)

Regards, Michael.

Yak wrote:Michael - I have some of the new MT books and I absolutely loathe the illustrations. They've made a big mess of upgrading the money, too. The point in book six, for instance, was meant to be that Josephine Jones (I hated that she was named that :D) had far too much money but they've kept the bit where she says 'I'm getting five pounds for my birthday' - hardly a large amount in decimal currency! Then later she actually gets twenty five pounds but it's still nowhere near equivalent to the pre decimal five pounds that she got originally.

     Yes, it's ridiculous. If they really *must* update the currency, then they have to do it right, and make the amounts bigger to be at least approximately equivalent to those already given, in terms of purchasing power - and even then, due to inflation, it will become all wrong in a few years' time, anyway. It's a fruitless quest.
     I think it would be much better to keep it exactly as it was originally written, and perhaps add a note at the start explaining the currency and giving readers an idea of how lavish or poverty-stricken a given amount of old currency would be. I don't think they give young readers enough credit for intelligence, though, and so feel they must "update" everything that think could cause the slightest moment's confusion. In genuine cases, a short prefatory note would look after it quite well.

Regards, Michael.

MJE wrote:

Yak wrote:Do they still have the bit in Disappearing Cat where Fatty carries dog ends around to smell 'cool'?

     Err... "dog ends"? What on earth are they, and how do they make you smell cool? Ends of dogs? (I shudder to think.)

The joys of language! A 'dog-end' is just the name we use to describe the left over stub of a cigarette after its been smoked.

On the news just now, they were reporting about a new fighter jet that's being developed in the UK - called 'a Tempest'...