Penguin Will Publish Roald Dahl’s Books in Original Form After Censorship Backlash
“Readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer.”
Penguin Random House will publish 17 Roald Dahl’s in their original form after it received backlash after making changes “for modern sensibilities.”
It’s not that Puffin is updating the stories with a modern culture like cell phones, the internet, streaming, etc. No one is fat. They’re enormous. Boys and girls? Simply known as children. Descriptions are also gender-neutral. Matilda reads Jane Austen instead of Rudyard Kipling.
Genuinely laughing out loud at some of these awful purse-lipped tin-eared changes to Roald Dahl. Hilariously terrible. pic.twitter.com/kz7jNJDgNP
— Niall Gooch 👍🏴🇻🇦🚅🏏✒ (@niall_gooch) February 18, 2023
Penguin will publish the unredacted The Roald Dahl Classic Collection. The changed versions are under Puffin, a subsidiary of Penguin.
“Readers will be free to choose which version of Dahl’s stories they prefer,” Penguin wrote in the press release.
Here is the statement from Francesca Dow, the managing director at Penguin Random House Children’s:
“At Puffin we have proudly published Roald Dahl’s stories for more than forty years in partnership with the Roald Dahl Story Company. Their mischievous spirit and his unique storytelling genius have delighted the imaginations of readers across many generations. We’ve listened to the debate over the past week which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl’s books and the very real questions around how stories from another era can be kept relevant for each new generation.
“As a children’s publisher, our role is to share the magic of stories with children with the greatest thought and care. Roald Dahl’s fantastic books are often the first stories young children will read independently, and taking care for the imaginations and fast-developing minds of young readers is both a privilege and a responsibility.
“We also recognise the importance of keeping Dahl’s classic texts in print. By making both Puffin and Penguin versions available, we are offering readers the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl’s magical, marvellous stories.”
“Roald Dahl once said: ‘If my books can help children become readers, then I feel I have accomplished something important.’ At Puffin, we’ll keep pursuing that ambition for as long as we make books.”
It took the criticism to make Penguin realize “the importance of keeping Dahl’s classic texts in print?” Give me a break.
Queen Consort Camilla told authors on Thursday, “Please remain true to your calling, unimpeded by those who may wish to curb freedom of your expression limits on your imagination. Enough said.”
In her speech the Queen Consort made a reference to the Roald Dahl censorship row as she told assembled authors: ‘Please remain true to your calling, unimpeded by those who may wish to curb the freedom of your expression or impose limits on your imagination. Enough said.’ pic.twitter.com/pqlNZxhVlx
— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) February 23, 2023
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Comments
Perhaps this is an opportunity to revisit copyright law. Copyright protections have been extended to an insane length of time because of the influence on our laws from companies like Disney. Roll these laws back to a more reasonable time frame, and grandfather in those under current copyright protection.
Dahl’s family supposedly went along with this sick censorship. Perhaps that reinforces your point.
Readers are being offered a choice? No! Readers read what Dahl wrote, nothing more.
If we can have choices, let’s offer an alternative to Ibram Kendi’s crap.
How about regal consort? Queen smacks of gender.
So does drag queen… and yet as a term it’s quite de rigueur.
Now, let’s get Warner Bros to bring back the pre-Bowdler Bugs Bunny, and have Disney release a Region One disc for Song of the South.
Just FYI. Computer DVD drives can thread and copy other regions.
I know that. I’m talking offering the product without having to do technical things the average mother or father may not know how to do.
I hear tell that some clever people have taken a VHS copy of the film, digitized it and ran it through a high-quality AI upscaler to produce a quite sharp 1080p version of the film. Still in 4:3 ratio, but one works with what one has.
Not that I would have any idea where to find such a despicable thing, of course.
Will you please tell me where I can’t find it so I can not buy it?
I understand there is a Blu-Ray version of the upscaled, digitized Song of the South available for free download on the internet. I wouldn’t have any idea where to find such a despicable thing either.
Don’t know about upscaled and Blu-Ray, but there’s a half-gig version at archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/SongOfTheSouth_Disney
And get Hanna Barbara to bring back Yogi Bear.
And Quick Draw McGraw (that’ll trigger some lefties, pun intended), and Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy (“trans” heads exploding as I type).
And Rocky and Bullwinkle.
When you are a Penguin of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.
I’m thinking Mr. Milne would applaud you.
I’m not proud. /Applause
The management team of Penguin Books needs an enema.
It must be so embarrassing to be Francesca Dow.
This is a partial win, at best. The corrupted versions will be marketed as if they were Dahl’s work.
Vandalized might be a more accurate term but corrupted works as well.
I have long avoided Penguin Published books, choosing other publishers whenever possible for classic stories. I always hated the wording their editors chose when I would revisit childhood favorites. When I read “Heidi” to my daughter, I put the book on hold because I hated how they downgraded the language in their translation. It’s no wonder kids graduating from school can’t read or write properly. They are never required to do so thanks to publishers like Penguin/Puffin.
I am disheartened, as the “Penguin Classics” imprint has long been a source of — er, classics for me. Unabridged, unexpurgated, often the authors’ preferred texts, offered with scholarly introductions.
Several publishers have similar “Just the Words” paperback lines.
We were fed fertilizer by “the experts” regarding the transmission of the AIDS virus and the COVID 19 virus; there appears to be absolutely no question of how these Bowdlerized stories are infecting our children.
Does anyone have a “jab” to reduce the spread of this disease?
Think of your home bookcase as a pharma cabinet for the mind.
Much more likely found in the homes of those of us who grew up in the age of Brittanica than those who grew up in the age of America Online.
“It was a pleasure to burn.”
“Descriptions are also gender-neutral. Matilda reads Jane Austen instead of Rudyard Kipling.”
Gender neutrality. Until changing someone’s identity is necessary to make something politically correct.
Let’s REALLY cause some heads to explode: bring back the mystery Ten Little Indians under the original title.
I shudder to think of Tarzan’s fate at the hands of these literary butchers.
Still, Penguin is going to make a mint off this. I predict a great surge in orders.
One of the League for Decency groups complained that there was no record of Tarzan and Jane ever having been married, yet they had Boy, a son. I forget how that was resolved. But, this goes back decades.
Cheetah married them. It’s just that when LoD authorities went to verify his log, they failed to realize they were looking for a literal log.
It’s fraud.
Call it expurgated, redacted, bowdlerized, expurgated, sanitized, abridged if you must. Better, call it adapted from, inspired by, continuation of, in the world of…
Otherwise, it’s the author’s variation of Iowahawk’s maxim:
“Find a trusted institution.”
“Kill it.”
“Gut it.”
“Wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.”
If the CPSB wasn’t so busy banning / not banning gas stoves, maybe they’d have some time to look into consumer fraud.
Opus must be so disappointed.
Next they’ll be releasing a redacted Billy and the Boingers album. All 30 seconds of it.