Wait… aren’t the people doing the editing the one’s doing culture wars? They are the ones who should stop caring. Leave the books alone and don’t read or promote them if you think they’re bad. There are literally millions of other amazing children’s books to read.
At a bare minimum, the new editions should have a stamp on the cover saying “Revised and updated by [editor’s name].” It’s fucked up and pretty creepy to rewrite someone else’s book to pretend it’s different than it was.
I’m undecided on the Dahl case in particular, but posthumously changing someone else’s work is hardly unprecedented.
I also don’t think we necessarily need to grant that a work that was once thought fit for children needs to remain available to children as-is in perpetuity, e.g.:
Taking that book out of school libraries is both correct and technically censorship. So, I don’t buy the idea that censoring children’s literature is always bad, and people are going to disagree about where to draw the lines.
Yeah they should probably not care either.
That’s the point. The shit doesnt matter. Be mad something else.
The act that you’re all getting mad at the same thing as a bunch of idiot mouth breathers who’ve never read a book should at least make you pause for second.
Adapting a story is miles apart from editing the original text to say something it didn’t say.
I have no idea who’s on what side. That’s not how I pick what’s right. I only read the article posted here and the edits range from deranged nonsense to blatant cover ups of racism. And why? To make money. I think that’s worth being mad about.
Why are we assuming bad or selfish intent?
Maybe they just want kids to enjoy the books more? Or for fat or ugly kids, or kids with disabilities that get bullied for being ugly, to read the books without feeling like shit?
I assume it’s about money because the people who own the publishing rights want to sell more books. A lot of money is also changing hands with the recent Netflix deals.
If the primary goal was justice or positive representation we would just let these books go out of print and promote the millions of other great books.
It’s gonna be sad to live in a world where this isn’t understood as satire:
Buy a mirror
Removing everything “offensive” from the canon is not “justice”. Confronting discomfort is one of the most significant aspects of human development. If everything kids read is inoffensive then they’ll be more comfortable, but that is not a good thing!
Meh, I think that argument might work for Huck Finn but not racist Oompa Loompas. The problem is that the racist stuff isn’t uncomfortable. It’s presented as funny + charming or whatever.
And that’s not really what’s happening here either.
Well, I wish you the best of luck in your efforts to publish Baby’s First Book of Giant Ejaculating Cocks.
This snow storm is censoring sunny southern california
I think the Dahl estate is largely controlled by grandkids. A non nefariousil interpretation is they want to keep beloved kids books in print, while taking out some bits that you might consider shitty.
Of course they want to make money. But these things arent exclusive.
You’ve posted half a dozen times on this topic since I posted that. Including responding directly to that specific post before.
Going back for this zinger is some real spirit of the staircase shit.
Holy fucking strawman.
When did “racism” become the only aspect of this censorship?
Obviously, there are legions of things that folks find offensive these days beyond racism.
Sure, but your post implied that “justice” could be a noble pretext for censorship. That may be true, but it is bad and wrong.
You’ve almost admitted you were wrong. Ironic given the topic.
