Roald Dahl’s books are being rewritten. Publisher Puffin has employed sensitivity readers to rewrite Dahl’s books. Words like fat, ugly and female have been removed. For example, “Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now described as ‘enormous’.” Is that much better than fat?
To bastardise the books even further, some new text has been added.
In The Witches, a paragraph explaining that witches are bald beneath their wigs ends with the new line: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.” […]
References to ‘female’ characters have disappeared. Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, once a “most formidable female”, is now a “most formidable woman”.
Gender-neutral terms have been added in places – where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Oompa Loompas were “small men”, they are now “small people”. The Cloud-Men in James and the Giant Peach have become Cloud-People.
The Guardian
Australia also covered the story.
In James and the Giant Peach, Puffin, part of global books giant Penguin Random House, has changed the character of Miss Sponge so she is no longer described as “the fat one”, Miss Spider’s head is no longer “black” and the Earthworm has given up its “lovely pink” skin for “lovely smooth skin”. […]
In Matilda, the description of Mrs Trunchbull’s “great horsey face” has been changed to just “face”, and “eight nutty little idiots” now reads “eight nutty little boys”. […]
“We want to ensure Roald Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today,” a spokesman for the [Roald Dahl Story Company], which is ultimately owned by Netflix, told Fox News Digital.
news.com.au
The review started before the Dahl company was acquired by Netflix in 2020.
New Zealand Herald also reported the alterations, headlining the article as “cancel culture”.
Neil Oliver covered a similar subject a few days ago. Halfway through this 10-minute video he talks about collecting editions of books while you still can: books that date “from a period before the madness settled in”.
Discuss it on The BFD.
