British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has criticized tweaks to some books by children’s author Roald Dahl after new editions have removed or altered expressions deemed potentially offensive.
The conservative leader has joined the controversy generated as a result of the fact that some paragraphs of children’s novels written by the popular British author, who died in 1990, have been modified so as not to offend sensibilities.
The publisher Puffin Books confirmed that it has carried out a review of Dahl’s classics to ensure that the books are suitable “for the enjoyment of all minors”, eliminating references considered controversial regarding the weight or physical appearance of the characters ( eradicating adjectives like “fat” or “ugly”), mental health, violence, gender and race.
From Downing Street, the office and official residence of the British Prime Minister, an official spokesman for Sunak said that “it is important that works of literature and works of fiction be preserved and not edited.” “We have always defended the right to free speech and expression,” he observed.
“When it comes to our rich and varied literary heritage, the Prime Minister agrees with the BFG (alluding to “The Big Friendly Giant” -“My friend the giant” in Spain-, one of Dahl’s novels) in that we shouldn’t “gobblefunk” (name given to the lexicon invented by the British author) with the words,” he said.
Although Dahl died in 1990 at the age of 74, he has regularly ranked at the top of the nation’s favorite authors.
The writer Salman Rushdie also criticized the reissue of the books on Monday, reports Afp,
Rushdie – who lived in hiding for years due to an Islamic fatwa calling for his assassination over the 1988 book “The Satanic Verses” – said Dahl “was not an angel” but that the changes amounted to “absurd censorship”.
Dahl was “a self-confessed anti-Semite, with marked racist leanings and in 1989 joined the attacks against me,” the writer said on Twitter. “Roald Dahl was no angel, but this censorship is absurd. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed,” added Rushdie.
The criticisms come at a time when there is a growing trend for publishers to hire “sensitive readers” to identify references to gender, race, weight, episodes of violence or mental health issues that may offend readers.
Dahl’s books have sold nearly 250 million copies worldwide, and stories like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “BFG” have been adapted into movies.
The new edition of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” turns the diminutive UmpaLumpas into gender-neutral beings and describes the plump character Augustus Gloop as “huge” and not fat.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
