Many of you know the name Roald Dahl. Nearly all know his books.
Matilda
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Big Friendly Giant
Fantastic Mr. Fox
James and the Giant Peach
The Twits
Revolting Rhymes
The Enormous Crocodile
The Witches
Esio Trot
Roald Dahl's Books will soon be printing ‘revised' editions, replacing original text with updates from woke "Sensitivity Writers” or “Inclusion Ambassadors”. The woke treatment to Dahl's books began in 2020 in partnership with Inclusive Minds.1
The first change you will notice appears within the first few pages, at the bottom of the copyrigh, which reads:
Words matter
The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvelous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.
Words have power.2 Words can influence and control behavior. Words can be used to socially condition young impressionable minds. As George Orwell had written in his 1949 dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, which is based off Orwell’s observations of the communist revolution in Russia, language has been broken down and stripped of context.
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten…” —1984
Roald Dahl’s books have been scrubbed of all language deemed to be “offensive” by the sensitivity regime. (my words, not theirs)
The words “fat” and “ugly” have been removed, and Oompa Loompa’s are now gender-neutral! Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now just “enormous” rather than “enormously fat”. Even illustrations have been scrubbed. Mike Teavee, a character with toy pistols hanging from a gun belt have been eliminated.
In The Enormous Crocodile, “we eat little boys and girls” became “we eat little children” as to not offend any little neurodivergent, nonconforming, gender confused, non binary, bundles of joy who wish to be eaten.
In The Twits, Mrs. Twit is no longer “ugly and beastly”, now only “beastly”.
In The Witches, the line “Even if she is working as a cashier in a supermarket or typing letters for a businessman” becomes “Even if she is working as a top scientist or running a business.” Another line change is “‘Don’t be foolish,’ my grandmother said. ‘You can’t go round pulling the hair of every lady you meet, even if she is wearing gloves. Just try it and see what happens.’” changed to “‘Don’t be foolish,’ my grandmother said. ‘Besides, there are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.’”
The cloud-men in James & The Giant Peach are now the cloud-people.
In Fantastic Mr. Fox a description of tractors, saying that “the machines were both black”, has been cut. Bunce, the little pot-bellied dwarf”, is now just plain ol’ Bunce.
There are hundreds of changes. Some large, some small, but each significant.
This metric of equity & inclusion is being infused throughout every facet of society. Roald Dahl is just the latest victim.
They are selling Fools Gold, and we’re supposed to buy it! If we start accepting pyrite as gold, we're told we will all be rich, but history has shown us, it would instead drive down the price of gold to ‘worthless’.
The Telegraph has done an extensive write up on the many changes to Dahl’s classic books. I encourage you to check out for yourself what words were deemed so “violent” & “offensive” that they needed to be removed from print.
February 24, 2023 | The Telegraph
Beanie, a mother, an educator, and child advocate, writes about the importance of reading, family values, and determination in her blog:
Beanie’s latest post speaks to the importance of Roald Dahl’s stories, finding humor during tumultuous times, while promoting a message of perseverance.
Rewriting Roald Dahl Is Not Funny4
His humor tempers the harshness of reality, and children need that.
Television, movies, and social media expose children to far too much violence, nastiness, darkness, and vulgarity. Their innocence is under attack at every turn. Roald Dahl’s books should be the least of the concern for the “sensitivity readers.” When drag queens, dildos, and explicit cartoon drawings of sexual acts are acceptable in children’s books, but words such as “ugly” and “fat” are removed because they “might be upsetting,” we should pause and consider who is deciding what is best for our children and if they truly have a good grasp on that concept.
‘You know, it was Marx and Lenin who commenced this political correctness rubbish way back in 1917, and by God it’s creeping into this country.’ —Roald Dahl
Dahl had the foresight 40 years ago that publishers may one day try to alter his books. In a recorded conversation from 1982 Dahl stated:5
“I’ve warned my publishers that if they later on so much as change a single comma in one of my books, they will never see another word from me. Never! Ever!”
“When I am gone, if that happens, then I’ll wish mighty Thor knocks very hard on their heads with his Mjolnir. Or I will send along the ‘enormous crocodile’ to gobble them up.”
“There must be no changes to an artist’s original work when he is dead for any reason whatsoever. I just hope to God that will never happen to any of my writings as I am lying comfortably in my Viking grave.”
In response to the criticism, the publishers announced that they will publish both the original and rewoked reworked editions.6
A 16 book “classic” collection will be released along side the woke renditions, but it is still remains to be seen if the original text ever makes it into school libraries and classrooms. My bet is on the latter.
As I mention earlier, while some changes may seem small & inconsequential, they are each significant.
Historical discoveries are constantly being made, such as letters found in an attic to archaeologists discovering entire buried villages. These discoveries fill holes in the timeline of history.
What we are seeing happen now is the manipulation / rewrite of history based on a social, political & theoretical perspective to “re-examine the past through different lenses”. While it may be hard to see at first, it all ties back to Marxist ideology.
Below is an example from a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) showing University of Delaware’s proposed history “re-alignment” in K-12 education.
I will end by sharing this short video from Prager University talking about the importance of words - Control the Words, Control the Culture.
Here is the direct link to Control the Words, Control the Culture7 on PragerU
