Roald Dahl will have a more inclusive version of his books for future generations, since from now on, the publisher that launches his novels and tales in English, Publisher Puffin Books, decided to slightly alter the texts to eliminate words that, at this point, already are considered as offensive.
A More Inclusive Reading of Roald Dahl
Through a statement published in The Telegraph, Publisher Puffin Books, a publishing label for children’s and youth literature that belongs to Penguin Books, indicated that the reason to publish Roald Dahl’s books comes after the objective to make them more enjoyable among a varied public.
One of the examples of the changes that were announced in the statement occurs in the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in which the character of Augustus Gloop was described as “fat.” In a new edition, he will be described as “enormous.”
The Oompa-Loompas, a culture that also appears in the same book, will no longer be described as “small men” since they do not really have a defined gender as they belong to a species other than ours, and that is why in the next editions they will be known as “small people.”
In addition, they will not be described as “tiny,” “titch,” or people “not higher than my knee,” since talking about someone’s size in that way can be offensive to many people.
Another example of this change occurs in Matilda, where the main villain of the story, Miss Tronchatoro, will no longer be described as “the most formidable woman,” but as “the most formidable female”; in addition, the main character of the plot will no longer read, mainly, Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book, but Jane Austen instead. Other terms that will also be changed in the texts are “crazy” and “mad” to avoid speaking ill about mental health.
Who Authorized the Changes to Roald Dahl’s Books?
This inclusivity project was worked on by Publisher Puffin Books itself together with the Roald Dahl Story Company, which currently belongs to Netflix, the streaming that has been preparing several film and TV adaptations based on the writer’s classic stories.
To achieve this, in 2020, several sensitive readers were hired to review each text and give their opinion on the use of language, according to Deadline. It is unknown at this time if this project will be carried out in any future translations of Roald Dahl’s books in other countries.
