While reading Hank Berrien’s article at DailyWire on author Roald Dahl’s books getting altered by the ‘Woke’ mob – I had some thoughts…
I’ll start this one with a Jewish joke.
A Jew named Moshe invites his friend named Chaim to a Taylor Swift concert. Chaim refuses to go, saying he hates the way Taylor Swift sings.
“Have you ever heard her sing?” – asks Moshe.
“No,” – says Chaim. “But I heard my neighbor sing her songs in the shower and I have an idea.”
A writer’s voice is as unique as a singer’s. Writing is more than just a story telling. It’s telling a story in a way that captures a reader’s heart. The words you use as a writer are sometimes as important, if not more so, than the content of your story. Often, a small clip of music will unmistakably reveal a singer or a composer. In the same way, a sentence or a paragraph will unmistakably reveal an author. The story may be unfamiliar to you, but the author’s singular choice of words or phraseology can’t be mistaken.
Most distinguished authors are known for their talent to find just the right words to make their books so beloved. That’s why translating a book into another language is an art of its own. Change the words – and you alter the whole essence of the book. Sometimes, your favorite book becomes lifeless and boring once translated into a different language. Very often, the opposite is also true – a translation reads better than the original. Because the words make or break a literary work, a translator, sometimes, is an author in his or her own right.
As the Russian saying goes, “you can’t take the words out of the song.” However, all this is lost on the woke mob, who is now trying to do just that – literally. The “freedom fighters” disassembling Ron DeSantis for “book banning” are simultaneously sifting through the children’s libraries and cutting out “problematic” words.
Roald Dahl was no angel but this is absurd censorship. Puffin Books and the Dahl estate should be ashamed. https://t.co/sdjMfBr7WW
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) February 18, 2023
The Roald Dahl Story Co. – a merry band of imbeciles that currently holds the rights to the books of a famous British author Roald Dahl – is now re-writing the beloved author’s books to make them “more inclusive.”
Washington Post: The Roald Dahl Story Co. admitted they had worked with Inclusive Minds, which monitors children’s literature for inclusion, diversity, and accessibility.
The Roald Dahl Story Co. argued that the changes were “small and carefully considered,” while insisting they wanted “to ensure that Roald Dahl’s wonderful stories and characters continue to be enjoyed by all children today.”
The changes involve removing words and entire sentences; references to colors; body types; genders; and changing the names of the books the characters are reading (we don’t want our children to ever discover that Rudyard Kipling was a real writer.)
Inclusive Minds is “a think tank” that “exclusively” comprised of “the best and the brightest” holding degrees in “Lesbian Poetry,” “Pronoun Theory,” and “Basket Weaving for Queer People” from the world’s finest universities. This is one of the companies that were specifically created to hire thousands of witless know-nothings who wasted their parents’ money on a completely useless piece of paper so that they can impress their equally woke “gender curious” Friday night date. They are fully equipped to turn Roald Dahl’s works of literature into dull, faceless, Google-generated gibberish that will not hurt the feelings of a young owner of numerous “participation trophies” proudly displayed by his or her parents next to “Be kind to all!” window sticker.
Right now, the woke mob is actively looking for a reputable company to re-write every book in the library to remove the references to a person as “a villain,” or portraying any creature in any kind of a negative light. As we all know, in reality, there can be no villains. Judging someone’s behavior – even if that behavior involves cooking puppies in a stew and eating them – makes people feel sad and marginalized. Every puppy-eating monster was likely a victim of bullying and was a product of something “systemic” (a word used to claim that every bad behavior is the fault of society rather than an individual).
Update: after a massive backlash, Puffin Books mercifully agreed to continue publishing “the old” versions of Roald Dahl’s books along side “the new and improved” (read: butchered) editions.
