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  • 4 years ago
Classic books are being re-written with modern audiences in mind, and some people aren’t happy.
Transcript
00:00From Roald Dahl to James Bond, books are being edited to avoid offending modern audiences,
00:04but we need to talk about the debate it's caused over censorship. Last week it was announced that
00:08the latest editions of some of Dahl's books would be revised to feature more inclusive language.
00:12Such changes are found in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Augustus Gloop now
00:16being enormous rather than fat and the Oompa Loompas being small people rather than small
00:20men. Or in Matilda where she now travels to California rather than India and Fantastic
00:24Mr. Fox where the chickens are no longer called stupid. Author Salman Rushdie shared his
00:28disapproval via Twitter saying quote Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin
00:33books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed. Dahl's books aren't the only ones to be recently
00:37rewritten. The James Bond books written by Ian Fleming have also been revised to remove a number
00:41of racial references ahead of their 70th anniversary re-release in April. The republished Bond books
00:46will include the following disclaimer quote this book was written at a time when terms and
00:50attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace. A number of
00:54updates have been made in this edition while keeping as close as possible to the original
00:58text and the period in which it is set.
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