So I guess, technically, you don't really own that ebook
Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2023 7:38 pm
I bolded the part of the article I found the most offensive to me.
Avatar, have no regrets about holding onto your physical book collection.
https://archive.md/OSLQN#selection-765.0-1093.237
Roald Dahl ebooks ‘force censored versions on readers’ despite backlash
Puffin announces plans to publish a classic collection as it emerges online libraries are being automatically updated with sensitivity changes
The changes made to Roald Dahl’s books had provoked fierce criticism
Owners of Roald Dahl ebooks are having their libraries automatically updated with the new censored versions containing hundreds of changes to language related to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race.
Readers who bought electronic versions of the writer’s books, such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, before the controversial updates have discovered their copies have now been changed.
Puffin Books, the company which publishes Dahl novels, updated the electronic novels, in which Augustus Gloop is no longer described as fat or Mrs Twit as fearfully ugly, on devices such as the Amazon Kindle.
Dahl’s biographer Matthew Dennison last night accused the publisher of “strong-arming readers into accepting a new orthodoxy in which Dahl himself has played no part.�
Yesterday Puffin, the children’s division of Penguin Random House, announced it would publish additional classic editions of the stories with the original texts.
It comes following a wave of criticism, including an apparent intervention by the Queen, who called on writers to resist encroachments on their freedom of expression.
Dennison, who wrote the Dahl biography Teller of the Unexpected, said: “For me there’s an irony to the current automatic updating of Dahl’s ebooks.
“Time and again, in his writing for adults as well as children, Dahl championed the bullied against the bullies.
“Yet here we have a kind of cultural assertiveness that strong-arms readers into accepting without alternative - though, happily, not without demur - a new orthodoxy in which Dahl himself has played no part.
“This particular revisionism sits oddly with Dahl’s irrepressibly anarchic outlook, his distinctive combination of mischief and wonder, and, of course, ignores the fact that words, central to a writer’s armoury, are a matter of choice in order to manipulate meaning and conjure effect.�
Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company began a review of Dahl’s work in 2020. The Daily Telegraph revealed it led to edits including “old hag� becoming “old crow� in The Witches and “You must be mad, woman� became “you must be out of your mind�.
Miss Trunchbull from Matilda no longer has a ‘great horsey face’ in the updated version
Clarissa Aykroyd, 43, who works in children’s publishing, reported on social media that ebooks she bought before 2020 had been changed.
She told The Times: “It feels Orwellian that we are having the updated versions forced upon us and has made me weary of ebooks.
“I assumed that because the changes to the work were so big that I would be given the option of whether to download it.�
Puffin UK said it had “listened to the debate� as it announced it will publish a classic collection of 17 of his texts.
The publisher added it understood there were “very real questions around how stories can be kept relevant for new generations�.
It said the books will be available alongside the sanitised versions “offering readers the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl’s magical, marvellous stories.�
Yesterday Robert Hampson, professor emeritus at Royal Holloway, University of London, who is chair of The Joseph Conrad Society, said erasure of the Polish-British novelist from Matilda made “no sense�.
The censored edition of Matilda has removed a reference to Conrad as an author read by the protagonist and replaced him with Jane Austen.
Hampson said current critiques of Conrad originated from a 1975 lecture about his famous novella Heart of Darkness by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, who argued that the author was racist.
The book, published in 1902, follows fictional sailor Charles Marlow and his journey as a river steamboat captain for an ivory trading company.
Hampson told The Times: “In 1975, Chinua Achebe gave a lecture in which he argued that Conrad was a racist.
“I know that some black readers find the text offensive and difficult to read - but this is not universally the case.
“Achebe refuses to accept that Marlow is a fictional character and insists that Marlow’s racist representation of Africans is Conrad’s - rather than what we might expect from a British sea-captain in the 1890s.�
Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children’s Books, said: “We’ve listened to the debate over the past week which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl’s books and the very real questions around how stories from another era can be kept relevant for each new generation.
“As a children’s publisher, our role is to share the magic of stories with children with the greatest thought and care. Roald Dahl’s fantastic books are often the first stories young children will read independently, and taking care for the imaginations and fast-developing minds of young readers is both a privilege and a responsibility.
“We also recognise the importance of keeping Dahl’s classic texts in print. By making both Puffin and Penguin versions available, we are offering readers the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl’s magical, marvellous stories.�
Avatar, have no regrets about holding onto your physical book collection.
https://archive.md/OSLQN#selection-765.0-1093.237
Roald Dahl ebooks ‘force censored versions on readers’ despite backlash
Puffin announces plans to publish a classic collection as it emerges online libraries are being automatically updated with sensitivity changes
The changes made to Roald Dahl’s books had provoked fierce criticism
Owners of Roald Dahl ebooks are having their libraries automatically updated with the new censored versions containing hundreds of changes to language related to weight, mental health, violence, gender and race.
Readers who bought electronic versions of the writer’s books, such as Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, before the controversial updates have discovered their copies have now been changed.
Puffin Books, the company which publishes Dahl novels, updated the electronic novels, in which Augustus Gloop is no longer described as fat or Mrs Twit as fearfully ugly, on devices such as the Amazon Kindle.
Dahl’s biographer Matthew Dennison last night accused the publisher of “strong-arming readers into accepting a new orthodoxy in which Dahl himself has played no part.�
Yesterday Puffin, the children’s division of Penguin Random House, announced it would publish additional classic editions of the stories with the original texts.
It comes following a wave of criticism, including an apparent intervention by the Queen, who called on writers to resist encroachments on their freedom of expression.
Dennison, who wrote the Dahl biography Teller of the Unexpected, said: “For me there’s an irony to the current automatic updating of Dahl’s ebooks.
“Time and again, in his writing for adults as well as children, Dahl championed the bullied against the bullies.
“Yet here we have a kind of cultural assertiveness that strong-arms readers into accepting without alternative - though, happily, not without demur - a new orthodoxy in which Dahl himself has played no part.
“This particular revisionism sits oddly with Dahl’s irrepressibly anarchic outlook, his distinctive combination of mischief and wonder, and, of course, ignores the fact that words, central to a writer’s armoury, are a matter of choice in order to manipulate meaning and conjure effect.�
Puffin and the Roald Dahl Story Company began a review of Dahl’s work in 2020. The Daily Telegraph revealed it led to edits including “old hag� becoming “old crow� in The Witches and “You must be mad, woman� became “you must be out of your mind�.
Miss Trunchbull from Matilda no longer has a ‘great horsey face’ in the updated version
Clarissa Aykroyd, 43, who works in children’s publishing, reported on social media that ebooks she bought before 2020 had been changed.
She told The Times: “It feels Orwellian that we are having the updated versions forced upon us and has made me weary of ebooks.
“I assumed that because the changes to the work were so big that I would be given the option of whether to download it.�
Puffin UK said it had “listened to the debate� as it announced it will publish a classic collection of 17 of his texts.
The publisher added it understood there were “very real questions around how stories can be kept relevant for new generations�.
It said the books will be available alongside the sanitised versions “offering readers the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl’s magical, marvellous stories.�
Yesterday Robert Hampson, professor emeritus at Royal Holloway, University of London, who is chair of The Joseph Conrad Society, said erasure of the Polish-British novelist from Matilda made “no sense�.
The censored edition of Matilda has removed a reference to Conrad as an author read by the protagonist and replaced him with Jane Austen.
Hampson said current critiques of Conrad originated from a 1975 lecture about his famous novella Heart of Darkness by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, who argued that the author was racist.
The book, published in 1902, follows fictional sailor Charles Marlow and his journey as a river steamboat captain for an ivory trading company.
Hampson told The Times: “In 1975, Chinua Achebe gave a lecture in which he argued that Conrad was a racist.
“I know that some black readers find the text offensive and difficult to read - but this is not universally the case.
“Achebe refuses to accept that Marlow is a fictional character and insists that Marlow’s racist representation of Africans is Conrad’s - rather than what we might expect from a British sea-captain in the 1890s.�
Francesca Dow, managing director of Penguin Random House Children’s Books, said: “We’ve listened to the debate over the past week which has reaffirmed the extraordinary power of Roald Dahl’s books and the very real questions around how stories from another era can be kept relevant for each new generation.
“As a children’s publisher, our role is to share the magic of stories with children with the greatest thought and care. Roald Dahl’s fantastic books are often the first stories young children will read independently, and taking care for the imaginations and fast-developing minds of young readers is both a privilege and a responsibility.
“We also recognise the importance of keeping Dahl’s classic texts in print. By making both Puffin and Penguin versions available, we are offering readers the choice to decide how they experience Roald Dahl’s magical, marvellous stories.�
