There's a new trend brewing... modifying traditional literature to be more politically correct.
Several of the most iconic characters in children’s literature, including Augustus Gloop, the Oompa Loompas, and Mrs. Twit, are being described with more inclusive language after publishers made edits to some of author Roald Dahl’s books.
Puffin, the prestigious children’s publisher, and the Roald Dahl Story Company, which Netflix acquired in 2021, worked with sensitivity readers to review Dahl’s texts and give them an update so his stories “can continue to be enjoyed by all today.” The edits generally focus on removing potentially offensive language related to gender, race, weight, mental health, and violence, according to the Independent.
Some of those changes:
* Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now “enormous” and not “fat.”
* In a gender-neutral revision, the Oompa Loompas in that same book are now described as “small people” rather than “small men.”
* In The Witches, where 59 changes were reportedly made by publishers, a line was added to a paragraph that explains why the witches are bald underneath their wigs: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.”
These changes sparked a firestorm. Critics unloaded on the edits, accusing them of being clumsy, erasing the author’s intended meaning, and representing political correctness run amok. Acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie tweeted, “Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship.”
What do you think? Should literature be updated or left in its original form?
