Why Roald Dahl Books SHOULDN'T be Changed
Unless you've been living under a rock, you have probably heard the furore surrounding Puffin deciding to edit Roald Dahl books in order to make them 'suitable for modern audiences'. These included Augustus Gloop no longer being referred to as 'fat' and the Twits no longer being referred to as ugly. That's right, they're removing insults made towards fictional characters. Fictional characters who are the antagonists of the books! I can't believe I'm favourably quoting the Queen Consort but she said, 'please remain true to your calling, unimpeded by those who may wish to curb the freedom of your expression or impose limits on your imagination'. When referring to writers, I think she's spot on.
My first thought when reading about the edits my first though was that we knew words like fat and ugly were rude and offensive when I was a kid, that was part of what made reading Roald Dahl books fun. Any child who has a personality and any kind of mischievous nature (which is most children) doesn't want to read books that are 'safe'. They want to read books that are cheeky and have characters who do and say the wrong things. In fact, I can't think of a single great novel (for children or adults) that couldn't be considered controversial or offensive to some extent. When I was a kid, one of the things that put me off reading books was how safe and boring so many of them were.
My job involves reading to children every single day and they never enjoy it more than when Horrid Henry plays a cruel prank, they learn something gruesome in Horrible Histories or they hear an insulting description of someone in a Roald Dahl book. Funnily enough, despite enjoying Roald Dahl, they know to not call someone fat or ugly in real life because children aren't idiots and don't need to be patronised.
Furthermore, it is just wrong to edit a writers work without their consent, especially posthumously. A less interfering option could be to put a 'contains insensitive language' sticker on the front and just let parents, teachers and children decide for themselves. Probably almost every great children's novel could be edited for sensitivity. We could have Horrid Henry where Henry is polite to his teachers and never plays pranks on his brother. We could have an Angry Aztecs where we avoid mentioning human sacrifice. We could even write new books about a child who never upsets anyone or does anything challenging. I'm sure children would love reading that book, right? Let's not start with a book about Twits who aren't ugly.
