Roald Dahl Censored by Sensitivity Readers
Newspeak strikes again. Where does it end?
According to this article in The Daily Telegraph, the publisher of Roald Dahl’s classic novels, Puffin, has made hundreds of changes to new editions after having passages highlighted as potentially offensive by so-called “sensitivity readers”. As far as I can tell, there was no great groundswell of offence at the passages in question, and no outcry for this kind of nannying censorship, so why are Puffin behaving like a bunch of professionally offended nitwits looking for things to be upset about?
Changes include Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory no longer being referred to as “fat”, and the Oompa Loompas are now gender neutral. In James and the Giant Peach, rhyming verses about James’s horrible aunts have been revised. The original version reads: “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 new version says: “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.”
Various villainous revolting adults (a Dahl staple) are no longer being referred to as “ugly”. Furthermore, superfluous patronising extra lines are added in places. For instance…
