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Roald Dahl books being rewritten to make them nicer


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4 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Quite a lot of the changes seem to be taking out references to fat people and most of Dahl's books had villians who were big fat women.

They changed the description of Mrs Twit to take out 'double chin' but keep in wonky nose and crooked teeth. 🤷‍♂️

My son went through a phase of watching old Disney movies on Disney Plus and some of them do have some stuff in it that's pretty jarring.  Lady and the Tramp is a lovely movie but the Siamese cats sequence would not fly today.  I also remember seeing a warning on Aliens (wasn't watching that with my four year old) advising that there were outdated and offensive attitudes in the movie.  I racked my brains but I think it must refer to when the marines wake up from hypersleep and one of them makes a joke about Vasquez  being "an illegal alien".

I'm watching Mad Men for the 3rd or 4th time and in the episode that one of the characters does an Al Jolson blackface routine, there is now a warning about it at the beginning of the episode, highlighting that they don't approve of it and that this was something that happened at the particular time frame the show is set.  Like anyone with half a brain wouldn't have been able to figure it out themselves and realise that the show wasn't condoning it.

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Very very silly stuff but pretty inevitable when your culture norms/standards of politeness have moved away from the past but your actual pop culture is moribund and based around products from the past, managed by the greedy offspring of writers etc. I actually think Pullman has a bit of a point, although I understand that's not how he is thinking of it. Soy Marvel films and "nicer" Roald Dahl books all round please! 

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I recently re-read Thank You, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse. A huge chunk of that story revolves around a couple characters in blackface and a touring group of minstrels. It was written in 1934 and no way in hell would it make the publishers now.

But I cannot see how anyone could go in and start chopping up the sentences.

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12 minutes ago, KnightswoodBear said:

I'm watching Mad Men for the 3rd or 4th time and in the episode that one of the characters does an Al Jolson blackface routine,

Which we all agree is unacceptable but was deemed 'entertainment' of a time, however changing the description of an item of clothing (black coat) because the word 'black' is offensive seems extreme and unnecessary over-reaction. Does this mean every book that exists will need changed? What about film titles, music lyrics etc 'Men in very dark tones' for example.........I have a collie dog is she now to be described as both 'dark and light tone'?

 

Edited by bdu98196
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This brings to mind the time we found an old Scouts campfire song book while away camping.

It had a version of the American Civil War song ‘Marching through Georgia’ (better known as the tune used for Hello Hello! by some fans here) that went ‘all the n*gg**s came out and cheered as we were marching by!’ 
 

We decided it was probably better not to sing it that night and I think it may have been used to help start the fire. 

 

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It's nice that Mrs Twit is no longer 'ugly' but they should change her name. 'Twit' means a 'foolish, stupid and ineffectual person'. And changing Augustus Gloop from being 'fat' to 'enormous' seems a bit unfair. These changes are fatuous and the thin edge of the wedge. Oops, enormousous and narrow edge of the wedge.

 

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1 hour ago, ICTChris said:

They changed the description of Mrs Twit to take out 'double chin' but keep in wonky nose and crooked teeth. 🤷‍♂️

The last acceptable forms of bigotry smh

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Personally don't see anything wrong with the principle of tidying up some of the bits that are actually not acceptable now.

There's only a couple of bits i can think of that would meet my threshold for that, i think in both James and the Giant peach and the witches people are ugly because they are bad. That's likely to genuinely upset kids who can't do anything about their appearance. Didn't upset me obvs because i'm very handsome. 

Not calling Augustus Gloop fat and saying he is "morally greedy" is a nonsense. It detracts from the simple morality tale of "don't stuff your face with sweets" which can't possibly offend anyone sane. 

I assume Revolting Rhymes is simply being burned. 

 

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3 hours ago, KnightswoodBear said:

I'm watching Mad Men for the 3rd or 4th time and in the episode that one of the characters does an Al Jolson blackface routine, there is now a warning about it at the beginning of the episode, highlighting that they don't approve of it and that this was something that happened at the particular time frame the show is set.  Like anyone with half a brain wouldn't have been able to figure it out themselves and realise that the show wasn't condoning it.

Is it set in Arbroath in the noughties? 

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Lot of folk getting wound up as if this is the publisher giving into a ferocious campaign from young lefty latte lefty luvvies organising book burning protests due to his books containing the term 'fat' in them, and if you look at reports it's been made to seem that way - like 95% of these 'the wokes are at it again' stories.

It's a decision made by his estate in an attempt to keep them commercially viable, there's nout else to it other than a fairly boring, nothing story. Certainly nothing to get worked into a shoot over. Worlds goin mad tho, whats it coming to!!' 

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20 hours ago, Dunfermline Don said:

This brings to mind the time we found an old Scouts campfire song book while away camping.

It had a version of the American Civil War song ‘Marching through Georgia’ (better known as the tune used for Hello Hello! by some fans here) that went ‘all the n*gg**s came out and cheered as we were marching by!’ 
 

We decided it was probably better not to sing it that night and I think it may have been used to help start the fire

 

No, it was always burning, since the world's been turning.

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