Art and Culture #102: Roald Dahl Vs. The World!: No More Chocolate Factory for the Kids!
-For the Uncensored!
The world of Roald Dahl, the beloved children’s author, has now faced something only William Shakespeare has been through the past few years. The publisher of Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s work, are beginning to censor the works, to fit a modern audience, which will take out “businessman” to rework the sentence to “running a business.” To be exact, Alyson Stine from Salon.com’s February 22nd, 2023, “Against the Bait and Switch Censorship of Roald Dahl” quips “Other big changes are being made to gender-specific character descriptions, swapping 'female' with 'woman,' or doing away with the mention of gender altogether. The Oompa Loompas, a favorite from Dahl's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' will now be called 'small people' rather than 'small men.'"[1]
All of this is unorthodox as Cancel Culture has come for all beloved work of literature, as Puffin thinks censoring a beloved writer is going to bring in woke readers, who don’t read and they never cared about art or artists. But that’s already been addressed. But the Guardian’s Februrary 19th, 2023 article covers more egregious changes: “Augustus Gloop, Charlie’s gluttonous antagonist in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which originally was published in 1964, is no longer “enormously fat,” just “enormous.”[2]
While reworking a sentence is by definition lasse fair censorship, it’s also quite wrong to rework a sentence by a world famous author, like Dahl. It’s the only thing censorious little shits in publishing houses have wet dreams over. With no talent to speak of.
To take away Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and give us The Shit Sandwich edition, that nobody would want to read, in the first place.
It’s just another sad realization that imagination only has to fit one side of the parameter, and never represent the individual. But Mcsweeny’s Internet Tendency Peter Wisineski’s “Fuck You, Fat-Headed Roald Dahl Censoring Fuckers” letter, bluntly states, “Dear Fat-Headed Roald Dahl-Censoring Fuckers,
You’re censors. You’re not editors, and you’re not readers. You’re censors. You are exactly what Orwell warned us about.
So fuck you.
Without the author’s consent, you are changing and omitting words that the author wrote. That makes you a censor. An agent of censorship. Only fascists censor books.
What you’re doing is crazy. See? We said it. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy.
You will not take words from the human race. You have no fucking right.
When you censor, you condescend. Fat people call themselves fat because they are not ashamed of themselves. But you are ashamed of us. You think being overweight is something to be ashamed of, so you erase this word, and you erase all fat people. Well, fuck you.
You will not take words from the human race. You have no fucking right.”[3]
The reality is, they have no right to censor Roald Dahl or any of his works herein. It takes little effort to understand context, or at least explain what the sentence is. It’s allowing shit heels at Puffin to even touch an author’s work. It’s unmanageable and dangerous to the art world itself.
[1] https://www.salon.com/2023/02/22/roald-dahl-censorship/.
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/20/roald-dahl-books-rewrites-criticism-language-altered.
[3] https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/fuck-you-you-fat-headed-roald-dahl-censoring-fuckers.
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 20 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline Part 2: Chaos, The Data Chase, The Disintegrating Bloodline part 3: Solvè, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, The God of Curiosity, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One, City of Sand: Book 1: The Holy Terror, and The Voices Are Alive. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Twitter: https://twitter.com/LouisBr88881650. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His newest book, The City of Sand: Book 2: Jerusalem Ignited, is out now: https://www.amazon.com/City-Sand-Book-Jerusalem-Ignited/dp/1365979660/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1G8HAWZP73ZFO&keywords=Louis+Bruno+City+of+Sand+book+2&qid=1675772880&sprefix=louis+bruno+city+of+sand+book+2%2Caps%2C88&sr=8-1. Also, if you can’t subscribe so that you can get members only content, please be sure to share the articles, as well. If you do Subscribe, you have long term access to the paid articles that some readers won’t get to see or access after the articles/books go private. If that doesn’t tickle your pickle, I am also selling merch from t spring, if you want to help support me in other ways. I sell hoodies, shirts, phone cases, and trying to find something there loved ones would like. Links here: https://thereallouistbruno.creator-spring.com/listing/too-many-strings-not-enough. https://thereallouistbruno.creator-spring.com/listing/duck-fuckery. https://thereallouistbruno.creator-spring.com/listing/headless-corpo. Every like, subscribe, share, purchase helps. Thanks for reading.