New editions of British children’s author Roald Dahl’s books are to be edited to remove vocabulary that could be considered offensive, a smoothing over of the original work that has sparked outrage and consternation.
References to weight, mental health, violence, or racial or gender issues have been redacted and rewritten, according to the conservative daily Daily Telegraph.
Thus, the term “gross” is no longer used to describe Augustis Gloop of Charlie and the chocolate factory. The “cloud men” of James and the Giant Peach become the “cloud people”.
All changes are “reduced and carefully considered”, assured a spokesperson for the Roald Dahl Story company.
“Roald Dahl was no angel”, reacted on Twitter the British writer Salman Rushdie, icon of freedom of expression victim of a violent attack six months ago, “but this is absurd censorship “.
The boss of PEN America Suzanne Nossel, an organization bringing together 7,000 writers for freedom of expression, judged that “selective editing to make the words of literature conform to particular sensibilities could represent a dangerous new weapon”.
The review launched in 2020 ahead of Netflix’s 2021 takeover of the children’s author’s catalog.
The deputy editor of the conservative newspaper Sunday TimesLaura Hackett, said she would keep her original Roald Dahl editions, so her children could “enjoy them in all their wicked, colorful glory”.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak believes the words should be “preserved” rather than “retouched”, his spokesman said Monday during a regular press briefing.
“If Dahl offends us, let’s not reprint it,” writer Philip Pullman told the BBC on Monday, noting that millions of his original books would remain in circulation for many years regardless of changes made to the BBC. new editions.
“When reprinting books written years ago, it’s not unusual to go over the language used and update other things like the cover and the layout,” the holder said. -word of the Roald Dahl Company, emphasizing the desire to retain story, characters, and “the irreverence and sharp wit of the original text”.
The Roald Dahl company has also indicated that it has worked with Inclusive Minds, a collective for the inclusion and accessibility of children’s literature.
The author, essential in the libraries of many children, died in 1990 at the age of 74.
At the end of 2020, his family had apologized for the anti-Semitic remarks made by the author 40 years ago. The creator of Matilda Or The Good Big Giant notably made openly anti-Semitic statements in an interview with the British magazine New Statesman in 1983, legitimizing anti-Semitism and seeming to find justifications for Hitler’s crimes.