ask@AAR: Should old romances (and books in general) be redone? : All About Romance %

I’ve adopted with fascination the uproar round revised variations of Roald Dahl’s books. NPR has an incredible abstract of what occurred. They write:

New editions of legendary works by British author Roald Dahl are being edited to remove words that may be deemed offensive to some readers, according to the late writer’s society….

british newspaper The Telegraph first reported that the publisher of Dahl’s books, Puffin, had made hundreds of changes to the original texts of the author’s well-known children’s books.

The character of Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the chocolate factory is no longer called “bold”. Instead, it is described as “huge”, The Telegraph reports.

Instead of being called “little men,” the Oompa-Loompas are now “little people,” the article says.

Additionally, changes to these books include the addition of language not originally written by Dahl. In his 1983 book The witches, he writes that witches are bald under their wigs. According The Telegrapha line added in the new editions says, “There are many other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.”

Puffin and The Roald Dahl Story Company, which manages the copyrights of Dahl’s books and works with publishers, did not respond to NPR’s requests for comment.

I confess that, on the entire, I’m NOT a fan of rewriting earlier works to mirror trendy requirements. That stated, all of this fracas bought me fascinated with whether or not or not there are any strains within the romance that I’d rewrite. One factor that – possibly – is smart is so as to add footnotes that designate a international or – OK – offensive phrase.

For instance, I’m at the moment studying Kelley Armstrong Bitten. Very early on, a personality suggests the heroine, Elena, to make use of 411 and she or he protests that she doesn’t wish to incur the cost. I used to be very sleepy once I learn this and it took me some time to recollect what they had been speaking about and I guess many who learn this e-book will do not know! A footnote – e-books would make this simpler – would possibly assist a younger reader make sense of this now archaic idea. I simply learn an upcoming girls’s fiction novel through which the writer references Sherry Thomas, The siesta houseAnd Cersei, simply to call a couple of. I can think about somebody from one other period or one other tradition having no concept what these references imply. Footnotes is perhaps simply the factor.

What do you assume? Ought to outdated books be rewritten to mirror our values? Our tradition?