- Roald Dahl’s books are nasty by nature – editing a word or two won’t make them nice
- Roald Dahl’s Books Are Rewritten to Cut Potentially Offensive Language
- Roald Dahl publisher announces unaltered 16-book ‘classics collection’
- How former Seattleite Bonnie Garmus’ debut novel became a bestseller
- 10 Ways to Figure Out What’s Important to You
- How to craft a harmonious life
- The Coming-of-Age Tale As Societal Critique: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar at 60
- When Reading Went Silent
Roald Dahl’s books are nasty by nature – editing a word or two won’t make them nice
A bit different aspect of censorship has been in the news lately:
“An investigation by the Telegraph has revealed that hundreds of changes have been made to the most recent editions of Dahl’s books, published by Puffin (the children’s division of Penguin), which edit out or rewrite potentially offensive language,” writes Anna Leszkiewicz, associate editor for culture and interviews at the New Statesman, a “progressive political and cultural magazine in the United Kingdom.”
Categories: Censorship, Publishing, Writing
Roald Dahl’s Books Are Rewritten to Cut Potentially Offensive Language
“New editions of the best-selling author’s children’s classics, including ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ have been altered to eliminate words deemed inappropriate. A backlash ensued.”
New editions of the works of Roald Dahl — the best-selling British novelist whose children’s classics include “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Matilda” and “James and the Giant Peach” — have been rewritten in an effort to make them less offensive and more inclusive, according to a representative from the author’s estate.
Categories: Censorship, Publishing, Writing
Roald Dahl publisher announces unaltered 16-book ‘classics collection’
“Series will be released alongside controversially amended versions to leave readers ‘free to choose which version they prefer’”
Categories: Censorship, Publishing, Writing
How former Seattleite Bonnie Garmus’ debut novel became a bestseller
Seattle Times art critic Moira Macdonald talks with Bonnie Garmus, whose book Lessons in Chemistry marks her publishing debut—at the age of 65.
Categories: Author News, Writing
10 Ways to Figure Out What’s Important to You
One of the basic themes of Life Stories in Literature is the search for meaning and purpose in life. Here’s a psychology article that suggests some ways of conducting that search. I find such articles useful not only for my own life, but also in evaluating how fiction writers develop characters.
Categories: How Fiction Works, Life Stories in Literature, Literature & Psychology
How to craft a harmonious life
Here’s an article similar to the one above, but this one focuses specifically on finding a work-life balance to help “develop a more nuanced, psychologically informed approach on how to use your time.” Again, I find articles like this useful in determining how realistically fictional characters behave.
Categories: How Fiction Works, Life Stories in Literature, Literature & Psychology
The Coming-of-Age Tale As Societal Critique: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar at 60
“The Bell Jar refuses to fit neatly into any single genre: it is feminist protest, Cold War history, medical exposé, Bildungsroman, recovery narrative, and quest,” writes Heather Clark about the book she calls “one of the defining novels of the 20th century.”
Categories: Author News, Literary Criticism, Literary History, Literature & Psychology
When Reading Went Silent
“. . . for millennia, reading was something only done out loud. Here’s a quick primer on how reading went silent.”
Category: Reading
© 2023 by Mary Daniels Brown
