Long-deceased novelist Roald Dahl is back in the news, and it's creating quite a row.
New releases of his classic children's books—Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Fabulous Mr. Fox among them—have been edited to better fit the modern sensibility of readers. (And likely, Netflix viewers. More on that below.)
Among the substitutions or rewrites tracked by a team of journalists at the Telegraph are references to gender, race, weight, and mental health.
Some examples:
- Augustus Gloop, the antagonist in the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is no longer “enormously fat,” just “enormous.”
- "Black" no longer describes the tractors in the 1970 novel Fantastic Mr. Fox. Now, they are “murderous, brutal-looking monsters.”
- The witches in Dahl’s dark novel, The Witches, underwent a significant overhaul and day-job upgrades. “Even if she is working as a cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman” is now “even if she is working as a top scientist or running a business.”
Critics have piled on, saying that the edits are unacceptable. “Roald Dahl was no angel, but this is absurd censorship," novelist Salman Rushdie tweeted.
The Roald Dahl Story Company (RDSC), which controls the rights to the books and is now owned by Netflix, said they worked with publisher Puffin Books to approve the changes to ensure “Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today.” The review, conducted in partnership with children’s literature consultancy Inclusive Minds, began before the Netflix acquisition, said RDSC.
But this is not the first time a rewrite was deemed necessary.
The original Willy Wonka manuscript was rife with unapologetic themes of white supremacy, Samboism, and chattel slavery. For example, Wonka described the factory workers as “a tribe of tiny miniature pygmies known as Oompa Loompas," whom he kidnapped from Africa and who were happy to be enslaved in exchange for cacao beans.
Somehow, we all missed that the Oompa Loompa characters from the beloved 1971 film starring Gene Wilder were short-statured actors in blackface. I’m guessing the folks at Netflix haven’t.
While it's important to debate context, history, and meaning in classic literature—we’ve been here before with Mark Twain, after all—perhaps the bigger controversy isn't the need for another update but the longstanding lack of investment in a diverse array of quality authors.
That, it seems to me, is the luxury modern readers and streamers simply can't afford.
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
This edition of raceAhead was edited by Ruth Umoh.
