#NewspaperCHBrdshtTagesAnzeigerKalterinaLatifi "The surgical errors in speech surgery: 'I make the world how I like it.' Loosely based on Pippi Longstocking's life motto, the British children's book publisher Puffin (which belongs to the Penguin publishing group) has set about publishing the works of Roald Dahls, author of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', to adapt to today's highly sensitive language zeitgeist. The Dahl case, which caused a sensation in England in recent weeks, is just one example of many; the mutilation of the work for the purpose of supposedly child- and youth-friendly smoothing has been a thing for a long time. According to today's philological standard, the following rule applies: an author's work may only be intervened in if there is a clear error that distorts the meaning. Changes to the content, on the other hand, are taboo. However, what the language moralists in the form of organizations such as 'Inclusive Minds' are now doing with regard to Dahl's work are much more than just philological interventions; these are serious changes, even unauthorized cleansing and, let's call it a spade, conscious falsifications. Inclusion is feigned: all people should find themselves in the texts; nobody should feel excluded or discriminated against by them. However, this inclusion is to be achieved by excluding unpleasant statements, in other words: by deleting or bluntly paraphrasing (allegedly) sensitive terms, (allegedly) problematic figures and (allegedly) outdated values. Anything that could be hurtful, provocative or otherwise irritate over-sensitive souls or throw them off their emotional track must be embellished. Here 'embellished' is just an embellished word for 'censored'. Because what else is this 'embellishment' than a censorship exercised after the fact? And what do Dahl's texts look like after this speech-plastic surgery? 'fat' becomes 'enormous', 'three sons' becomes 'three daughters', one character no longer reads the work of Rudyard Kipling but of Jane Austen; a witch who pretends to be a 'supermarket cashier' can now call herself a 'top scientist', i.e. a top scientist! And what does all this have to do with Roald Dahl? Fortunately, the publisher received a lot headwind, and has now decided to offer Dahl's work both in the original version and in the sanitized version. This means that both sides have been appeased. But the question remains: Where will this lead? Censoring what might appear discriminatory from today's point of view - doesn't that mean above all: locking oneself up in a value bubble in which the 'today's view' is repeatedly confirmed in a circular movement? Franz Kafka once demanded that a book 'must be the ax for the frozen sea within us'. We can now gradually say goodbye to this idea; from 'today's point of view', that's exactly what literature should no longer be. Incidentally, Pippi has also fallen victim to censorship" (24 March 2023). https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/die-denkfehler-der-sprachmoralisten-452505357250 #1969_PippiLangstrump #PhenomnCensorshipRedaction #BrandPuffinBooks #IRLAuthorNovelistRoaldDahl #1964_CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory #PhenomnLanguageEffectInclusive #CharacterisationWeaknessHypersensitivity #IRLAuthorRudyardKipling #IRLHistoricalFigureJaneAusten #IRLAuthorFranzKafka

#BrandPuffinBooks #IRLAuthorNovelistRoaldDahl #PhenomnCensorship #PhenomnRevisionRemake

#MetaphorPeriodizationEndlessPresent #LiteralFieldHistory #IRLAuthorGeorgeOrwell

#IRLAuthorNovelistRoaldDahl #CatchcryCancelCulture #BrandPuffinBooks

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Supplementary "The children's books Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Twits, and The Witches have been fixtures of many childhoods over the years, but future editions will read differently. ... The changes primarily relate to descriptions of physical appearances, with the character of Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory being changed from 'enormously fat' to 'enormous'. Advertisement In The Twits, descriptions have been changed from 'ugly and beastly' to simply 'beastly'. The language used to describe women and physical differences - such as witches being bald - has also been edited." https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/why-roald-dahls-books-are-being-altered-and-why-its-controversial/iqlyddra5 #1964_CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory #1983_TheWitches

#1980_TheTwits ^[Wikipedia]