Censorship or rewriting ?

My DDs are either side of 40 and can still be reduced to hysterical laughter by the late, wonderful Rick Mayal reading George’s Marvelous Medicine.
Why mess with things?

Ridiculous!

FannyCornforth

Same here GrannyGravy
I was a specialist Reading Teacher in working a mainstream Secondary School.
Most of my clientele were reluctant boys.

Four sons and a daughter here, DH and I were/are voracious readers all children were reluctant.

If it wasn’t for Roald Dahl, Tolkien and for the youngest JK Rowling I would have been pulling my hair out.

Same here GrannyGravy
I was a specialist Reading Teacher in working a mainstream Secondary School.
Most of my clientele were reluctant boys.

Rather than culture wash literature, statues and history isn’t it better to use them as a conversation starter to learn from the past and move towards a better understanding of humanity and the surrounding world?

FannyCornforth

The Witches was definitely anti- Semitic. They were hook nosed; bald under their wigs; printed money; and kidnapped children (a reference to blood libel conspiracies).
Dahl was notoriously anti Jew.
He said, ‘even a stinker like Hitler didn’t pick them for no reason’.

I've always regarded The Witches as a slur on older women, whose noses look longer and who lose their hair and steal children because they don't have any. They were balanced by Luke's grandmother who cared for him.
Dahl was unpleasant in a lot of ways.

FannyCornforth

It is true!

I have just found an article in a Jewish newspaper (2020) which confirms your post FannyCornforth

I doubt the age bracket reading Roald Dahl will be aware of his antisemitism in The Witches.

I am totally for any book/author that gets young children reading particularly boys.

It is true!

Every so often, Puritanical movements emasculate any literature that doesn't fit their ideas of perfection. In 1807 Thomas Bowdler and his sister Henrietta published their first version of "The Family shakespeare" “in which nothing is added to the original Text: but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a Family.” About 10% of the text was removed, mostly references to sex or violence. Among other bowdlerising, the prostitute character in Henry IV, Part 2 is omitted, and Ophelias suicide was replaced by accidental drowning, .

If this new wave of censorship takes off, it will progress to rewriting history to remove the disturbing bits, so that we no longer read that Anne Boleyn was beheaded - perhaps her sentence will be changed to 100 hours of community service. The hundred years war was will be shortened to a fortnight of verbal threats on Facebook, and Julius Caesar will be confronted by a deputation bearing a document of abdication to sign and a promise to devote himself to good works in the future, instead of being stabbed by most of the Senate.

Then there is the Bible, of course. That will be rewritten so that Christ doesn't get nailed to a cross, but instead is sent home to his mother's house and has to report to a probation officer once a week to learn how to conform to societal norms.

FannyCornforth

The Witches was definitely anti- Semitic. They were hook nosed; bald under their wigs; printed money; and kidnapped children (a reference to blood libel conspiracies).
Dahl was notoriously anti Jew.
He said, ‘even a stinker like Hitler didn’t pick them for no reason’.

That may or may not be true, FannyCornforth

The Witches is one of our GCs favourites along with Matilda, I think it’s because they show grownups as not perfect and well behaved.

What next Beatrix Potter?

The Witches was definitely anti- Semitic. They were hook nosed; bald under their wigs; printed money; and kidnapped children (a reference to blood libel conspiracies).
Dahl was notoriously anti Jew.
He said, ‘even a stinker like Hitler didn’t pick them for no reason’.

Gloriana and galaxy another here who really dislikes David Walliams language and his whole image but that’s a personal thing and I totally disagree with censorship

Leave it alone, if any questions come up answer them.
I don’t agree with censorship at all unless it is something written purely to insite

My son absolutely loved these books because they were a bit naughty (his take on them) and they were pretty much all he'd read at the time.. I really don't like the way so many things are being sanitized and censored nowadays.

This is just so ridiculous that I think the world is going mad.
For goodness sake!

I loathe censorship but I might also make an exception for DW. The portrayal of women in his books is generally quite unpleasant.

Some people love Dahl some hate him. I've usually found children engage with his stories at a certain age and then move on.
A child I taught, asked to recall something about the year he spent in my class, remembered "When Mrs X did the funny voices in "George's Marvellous Medicine"!" So something stuck!

I don't approve of censorship. If I was allowed a personal choice I'd ban David Walliams (but I know that's just personal prejudice!!!)

I don't see how that can be done without changing the very essence of the characters in his books. The characters will just become dull and unmemorable.

It is censorship, and I don't think anyone has the right to alter an author's final published work.
Self- censorship can, and is , applied which is why Penguin is altering the language, because adults who buy the books are less impressed by Dahl's use of language.
I loved his earlier work but began to lose faith with the advent of the increasingly crude Revolting Rhymes, and the stereotypical Matilda and personally chose not to use either with classes I taught.
But I would never alter or ban them. I suspect sales are falling.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover was banned, then Last Exit to Brooklyn in the sixties causing protests about censorship. Freedom was won. Now we are back to censorship. Kids love the kind of language in Dahl’s work. It’’s daring to be bold. Oh well back to Janet and John. Oh no we won’t be allowed that either.

David Walliams has similar language in his 'novels'. I don't see his work being edited. Children aren't daft. As long as it's use is put into context for them, then I call it censorship.

amp.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/20/roald-dahl-books-rewrites-criticism-language-altered

It was the publishers Puffin and The Roald Dahl Estate who decided to edit the books.
It’s been met entirely by criticism, so I expect it will be overturned

I’d like to know that too GMS.Who has made these decisions?

There were always some aspects of Dahl that were "off" and we discussed it with our children.
Sometimes even books we don't like much are a learning thing.