Remember when the far leftists came for Dr. Seuss books? In 2021, not only did progressives in schools try to warn people about the content in Seuss’ books, but Joe Biden felt the need to chime in. Also, as our Brandon Morse wrote, Seuss’ own publisher decided to stop publishing several titles over accusations of “racist and insensitive imagery.”
Now, the woke mob has its sights set on the works by another beloved children’s author: Roald Dahl. As the Telegraph reports via the Daily Mail, new editions of some of Dahl’s best-known books will be heavily “rewritten,” in order to avoid offending anyone:
Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s books are being rewritten by sensitivity gurus to remove language they deem offensive, including creating a world where no one is ‘fat’ and the Oompa Loompas are gender neutral.
Publisher Puffin has hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of the author’s text to make sure the books ‘can continue to be enjoyed by all today’, resulting in extensive changes across Dahl’s work.
Considerable edits have been made to descriptions of the characters’ physical appearance – the new editions no longer use the word ‘fat’ which has been cut from every book, The Telegraph reported.
Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory can now only be described as ‘enormous’.
Here are some more examples of the allegedly “offensive” language:
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The sensitivity readers also removed any mention of “female” or “male”:
Gender is also eliminated with books no longer referring to ‘female’ characters.
Miss Trunchbull in Matilda, once a ‘most formidable female’, is now a ‘most formidable woman’, while her ‘great horsey face’ is now called ‘her face’.
Oompa-Loompas who were once ‘small men’ are now ‘small people’ and Fantastic Mr Fox’s three sons have become daughters.
They’ve also taken out the word “crazy,” and synonym “mad,” so as not to insult people who suffer from mental health issues. You might reckon that’s as ridiculous as it can get, but you’d be wrong.
There’s also this item on the censors’ list:
The Big Friendly Giant in The BFG no longer wears a black cloak and characters cannot turn ‘white with fear’, as the words ‘black’ and ‘white’ no longer exist in the new editions.
Now, Dahl was not a perfect person — the Telegraph mentions that the books’ original publishers issued an apology in 2020 “for the author’s anti-semitic statements.” But the wholesale changes here to make his writing palatable for progressive activists is a bit much. As Dahl’s biographer said, the author would understand that it was “prompted by the political climate.”
Dahl, a fighter pilot during the Second World War, is one of the best-selling children’s authors in history with more than 250 million books sold.
According to The Telegraph, Matthew Dennison, Dahl’s biographer said the author carefully chose his vocabulary, he said: ‘I’m almost certain that he would have recognised that alterations to his novels prompted by the political climate were driven by adults rather than children.’
