The digital versions of Roald Dahl’s books have already been updated to include “sensitivity” changes such as removing the word “fat” and “ugly” as descriptions of characters.
Controversy surrounding the work of the famous children’s author arose last week after it was revealed that publisher Puffin would be making wholesale changes to new print editions of Dahl’s work that included politically correct modification in order to “protect” kids.
This included Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory no longer being called “fat” and Mrs Twit from The Twits no longer being described as “fearfully ugly” (despite much of the premise of the book centering on ugliness).
After a strong backlash, with infinitely more people being offended over the Orwellian deforming of Dahl’s books than those upset over mean words, Puffin Books said they had “listened to the debate” and would be publishing uncensored versions of Dahl’s works alongside the sanitized versions.
“We also recognize the importance of keeping Dahl’s classic texts in print. By making both Puffin and Penguin versions available, we are offering readers the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl’s magical, marvelous stories,” said the publisher.
However, it has now been revealed that downloadable digital versions of Dahl’s books have already received the “sensitivity” treatment, according to a report by The Times.
Matthew Dennison, Dahl’s biographer, slammed the development, criticizing the publisher for “strong-arming readers into accepting a new orthodoxy in which Dahl himself has played no part.”
“For me there’s an irony to the current automatic updating of Dahl’s ebooks,” Dennison told The Times.
“Time and again, in his writing for adults as well as children, Dahl championed the bullied against the bullies.”
“This particular revisionism sits oddly with Dahl’s irrepressibly anarchic outlook, his distinctive combination of mischief and wonder, and, of course, ignores the fact that words, central to a writer’s armory, are a matter of choice in order to manipulate meaning and conjure effect,” he added.
Over the weekend, it was also revealed that old James Bond books are now being censored to remove not just offensive words, but entire descriptions of scenes because the original texts could be viewed at “racist.”
One example includes a scene where Bond visits Harlem and witnesses a salacious strip tease at a nightclub.
The original passage read: “Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough. He felt his own hands gripping the tablecloth. His mouth was dry.”
The politically correct amended version reads: “Bond could sense the electric tension in the room.”
Just like Newspeak in Orwell’s 1984, in future perhaps there will be no “debate” at all over books being censored to appease woke morons because everything will be digitized and vulnerable to sanitization at the click of a button.
Rand Paul: Elon Musk Will Go Down As A Historic Champion For Free Speech
“Somewhere along the way something happened and people began to think that only certain forms of speech were acceptable.”
Published
3 weeks ago
on
18 May, 2023
Steve Watson
Screenshot
Senator Rand Paul praised Elon Musk Wednesday for standing up for free speech, predicting that the Twitter owner will be recorded as a key figure in history in the fight against censorship.
Referring to Musk’s compelling take down of a CNBC hack earlier this week, Paul noted “Thank God for someone who can still speak their mind and won’t take some guff off a journalist who tells him he can’t speak his mind.”
“Somewhere along the way something happened and people began to think that only certain forms of speech were acceptable,” The Senator urged.
“Then along came Elon Musk,” Paul continued, adding “The country, the Bill of Rights frankly, all of us, are going to be very thankful that a guy with a lot of money bought a social media entity and allowed us to see the government colluding to limit speech.”
“People need to get this right. Private companies can decide what they want to air, newspapers can, television shows can. But what we cannot allow to happen is the government to collude with private business and use them basically as their extension and their arm of censor,” Paul emphasised.
He added that “Elon Musk exposed this only because he had 44 billion dollars to buy a company and expose their inner workings off collusion with government.”
Watch:
Rand Paul:
"Then along came Elon Musk. The country, the Bill of Rights frankly, all of us, are going to be very thankful that a guy with a lot of money bought a social media entity and allowed us to see the government colluding to limit speech."pic.twitter.com/8DFeUtTqAL
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 18, 2023