You might be familiar with Roald Dahl, author of James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches. And you may also have heard his name in the news lately. The publishing house, Penguin, is re-releasing his books and they have chosen to censor some of the words and character depictions that would be considered offensive today, such as fat phobic language referring to the character of Augustus Gloop. There's been a lot of outrage over these changes, and in my opinion Penguin is trying to sanitize Dahl's work, instead of having difficult conversations about what he meant and his personal prejudices. In response to the criticism Penguin has just announced that they will release "classic" versions of the novels in addition to the censored versions. Instead of changing the words, why not add a footnote instead, acknowledging problematic nature of the language. I give Penguin and the new censored versions negative Scribbles for this silly and misguided idea.
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