Censorship or rewriting ?

So much depends on the director of a play like M of V though. The Al Pacino film version is very far from being anti-Semitic for instance, but in the hands of other directors it can be very much so - an illustrated book is very different.

Similarly, the reporting of this story is interesting. The emphasis shifts so much depending on who is talking about it. ‘The tractors can’t just be tractors who happen to be black’ is not strictly the case - originally they were ‘murderous, black-looking machines’, which is rather different. Changing that to ‘brutal-looking’ alters none of the sense, but removes any ambiguity surrounding racism. Similarly, Augustus is not described as ‘enormous’ instead of ‘fat’, but instead of ‘enormously fat’ . Admittedly neither is flattering, but it’s not meant to be. There is a difference, but again, none of the impact or sense of the original is lost.

I am not a fan of mollycoddling young adults, and think that (for example) trigger warnings on literary texts in universities is ridiculous, but children are different, and shifting the language slightly so that they don’t see upsetting phrases as normal can’t do any harm.

I’m surprised the new Google pixel add hasn’t been pulled.
In it AJ Adudu complains that with her old phone all you could see was her teeth.

Censorship of anything should be an individual's choice. Next thing someone 'who knows best' will be dictating everything in our lives!

Leave things be!

Censorship shouldn't be happening....

Moderation in all things: slightly adjusting text or images that are overtly racist, sexist, or encourage bullying dont belong in children literature IMO.

this illustration was in the original Charlie and the Chocolate factory. it was changed in the 1970's

[url=https://postimages.org/][img]https://i.postimg.cc/FKtvL5yn/Unknown.jpg[/img][/url]

sorry will try and reproduce the image:

Who gets to decide that then? What money would you put on the tweets of those working in the publishing house being pure enough for scrutiny.

This is so sad. What happened to common sense.
It’s a slippery slope.
Those ‘who know best’ will be changing the bible, Shakespeare, etc, etc , the list is endless.
…… And yet we allow the internet to thrive with easy-ish access for children read & view to all sorts of dreadful things.

I find David Walliams books deeply sexist, I have read both him and Dahl extensively to children and with regard to treatment of women Walliams is worse.

I take it that the offending words will be banned in our language now as being offensive. Are we allowed to speak of the fat on bacon, meat or will be saying "trim the adipose tissue from the food". Will food labelling have to be changed to remove the fat content advice? Has Shakespeare's works been scrutinesed? Absolutely ridiculous.

Censorship by another name. Some unnamed person dictating what words/expressions are/are not permissible. It’s just like Winston’s job at the ‘Ministry of Truth’ in ‘1984’ isn’t it? Frightening.

I agree @Henetha, the world is going mad, there are too many people being 'offended' by history. Surely best to not read this stuff if you don't like it, why should we change our history anyway, regardless of whether it offends, you can't change it, it's gone, passed, leave it alone.

Galaxy

I find David Walliams books deeply sexist, I have read both him and Dahl extensively to children and with regard to treatment of women Walliams is worse.

I find Walliams very creepy. Maybe having Dahl’s books censored will make his books more popular? He’s very influential.

Sorry, MayBee - who will make who more popular? Who is the more influential?

I find it hard to believe that DW doesn’t have a ghost writer tbh

Or, MayBee70, maybe people will look at his work with new eyes... ?

It's absolutely ridiculous that Ronald Dahl's stories can be rewritten to appease those who are supposedly offended. I watched Crocodile Dundee on TV the other day and was horrified that two important scenes had been partially edited out. These were the ones where the taxi driver is warning Dundee that the "girl" he is flirting with is actually a man in drag which was confirmed when he grabbed the man's crotch. This was then continued into the scene where Dundee is introduced to the older, predatory woman who aged features make look a bit Manish and he grabs her crotch too in order to check and the old woman is delighted. It's a sight gag but edited out 40 years later as we turn more and more wokish

Amalegra

Censorship by another name. Some unnamed person dictating what words/expressions are/are not permissible. It’s just like Winston’s job at the ‘Ministry of Truth’ in ‘1984’ isn’t it? Frightening.

No one (‘unnamed’ or otherwise) is ‘dictating’ anything.
It was a decision between the publishers and The Dahl Foundation.
It is theirs to do with it what they wish.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

One of the GC has Mr.Stink by David Walliams as their free reading book it is sexist and in my opinion not an easy ready due to DW’s writing style.

(I had to explain what a waz was last night, GC looked puzzled and said why can’t he just say a wee )

Galaxy

I find David Walliams books deeply sexist, I have read both him and Dahl extensively to children and with regard to treatment of women Walliams is worse.

This is an interesting point. The age group I teach is above that of Walliams readership. But I'll cast a speculative eye over one when I'm next in the library.

Leave them as they are! Total madness to change anything. My daughter loved his books as does the 6 year old grand daughter. The language is rich and humorous plus really aimed at adults. Crazy idea!

I cant remember which book it was but the page 3 stepmother sticks in my mind 🤦‍♀️

Grandetante excellent post.
It’s very difficult to discuss context and historical perspectives when you are just trying to get a bunch of six year olds engaged and reading.
(I know someone will come along and say that they have had some marvellously enriching conversations with KS1 pupils; but my experiences have been chiefly with children with SEN or who are new to EAL, and my main objective has been to get the so and so’s reading and enjoying it!)

Galaxy

I cant remember which book it was but the page 3 stepmother sticks in my mind 🤦‍♀️

Billionaire Boy!
The TV adaptation is very funny!

However, Galaxy, Walliams himself features in drag as a dinner lady; so I appreciate that it’s not to all tastes.

But…period 6, Friday afternoon with 15 ‘spirited’ Y7 lads.
Come on, cut me some slack!