Roald Dahl's Reissued Books
why rewriting history is bad for children.
I’ve received quite a few emails from podcast listeners asking what I think about the reissuing of edited Roald Dahl books.
Let me backtrack. In February of this year, Penguin Random House decided it would reissue a plethora of Dahl’s books, rewritten to remove language people might find offensive, making it more inclusive. Books reworked include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG. The edited books now reflect our current standards regarding how we talk about race, gender and bodies.
I devoured Dahl’s books as a young reader. They made me laugh. They also scared me. But I loved how the child protagonists always outsmarted the adults.
It’s no secret that Dahl was an Anti-Semite, his estate even issued a public apology in 2020.
So now Dahl gets to be rewritten as a more humanized figure through his revised works? This makes no sense to me. Books are a product of their time. Books are a reflection of the people who write them. You don’t just get to edit the undercurrent of what people now find deeply offensive. This feels like a bookish version of a deep fake.
Instead of rewriting Dahl’s books so they reflect an unrealistic, more acceptable version of the author that never existed, can’t we read the book, have our kids read his books and examine the faults in their pages? Discuss them? Contextualize the book within history? Talk about what makes something offensive and why? Ask kids how the language used makes them feel? Children are capable of critical thinking. And if a parent is so offended or so concerned that reading is dangerous (anyone on any side of the political spectrum who is afraid to let children read is a HUGE red flag for me) then can’t a parent guide their child towards a more acceptable, inclusive book? There are literally hundreds of thousands to choose from.
Roald Dahl may have gotten a lot of things wrong within the pages of his books, but for all his faults, he did understand and articulate that children are much more capable than the publishing world believes.
Share your thoughts below! I promise, I am open to and welcome engaging discussions on this topic. I’m genuinely curious about what other readers think.