UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has joined in the criticism of changes made to classic works by Roald Dahl which came to light over the weekend. Titles like James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, Matild…
She continued, “Selective editing to make works of literature conform to particular sensibilities could represent a dangerous new weapon.”, meanwhile, told BBC Radio 4 that Dahl’s books “should be allowed to fade away” rather than be changed. “If Dahl offends us, let him go out of print,” he said. “Read all these [other] wonderful authors who are writing today, who don’t get as much of a look-in because of the massive commercial gravity of people like Roald Dahl.
Poet and author Debjani Chatterjee, conversely, told BBC World Service, it’s “a very good thing that the publishers are reviewing his work” and that the edits were done “sensitively.”is no longer referred to as “fat” and is now described as “enormous.” Miss Trunchbull, the villain inJames and the Giant Peach
had alterations too particularly when the Centipede sings, “Aunt Sponge was terrifically fat/And tremendously flabby at that,” and, “Aunt Spiker was thin as a wire/And dry as a bone, only drier.” The revised versions now read, “Aunt Sponge was a nasty old brute/And deserved to be squashed by the fruit,” and, “Aunt Spiker was much of the same/And deserves half of the blame.” As society begins to create more consciousness around mental health, words like “crazy” and “mad” were also edited.
Dahl, who died in 1990, is one of the UK’s most popular children’s authors. Netflix acquired rights to his works in 2021 and backed the film version ofMust Read Stories
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