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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Books Are Being Scrubbed By “Sensitivity Experts”


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Roald Dahl’s books such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James, and the Giant Peach among many others of his writings are being scrubbed by sensitivity experts.

The sensitivity experts will make sure Dahl’s books no longer contain any “offensive” words.

Some words that are being scrubbed are “fat” and in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Oompa Loompas will no longer be referred to as “tiny” or “titchy” but will now be known as small people.

The New York Post added more details to the story:

Roald Dahl’s famed children’s books are being scrubbed by so-called sensitivity experts to remove language they deem offensive, including “fat” or “ugly” characters — and making the beloved Oompa Loompas of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” gender neutral.

Publisher Puffin tapped sensitivity readers to rewrite hundreds of sections of the late author’s texts to ensure his work can continue to be enjoyed — and not offend — today’s more woke audience, The Telegraph reported.

“Words matter,” begins the notice at the bottom of the copyright page of Puffin’s latest editions of Roald Dahl’s books.

“The wonderful words of Roald Dahl can transport you to different worlds and introduce you to the most marvelous characters. This book was written many years ago, and so we regularly review the language to ensure that it can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”

Vanity Fair got the scoop too:

The children’s fiction written by Roald Dahl will undergo modification in its next printing, according to a report by the Daily Telegraph. Puffin Books, the British children’s division of the Anglo-American publisher Penguin Random House owned by the German conglomerate Bertelsmann, has hired sensitivity readers to grab their red pens and make “hundreds of changes to the original text” on titles like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda and others so that they “can continue to be enjoyed by all today.”

Specifically, the word “fat” has been excised from Dahl’s corpus. Augustus Gloop, the voracious German boy with an insatiable sweet tooth from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is now referred to as “enormous.” Willy Wonka’s tuneful factory workers, the Oompa Loompas, are not referred to as “tiny”, “titchy” or “no higher than my knee,” but merely “small.” Moreover, they are not “small men” but “small people.” Mrs. Twit of The Twits is no longer described as “fearfully ugly.”

In addition to changes or omissions to the text, new lines have been inserted. In The Witches, for example, after it is revealed that Dahl’s witches wear wigs to cover their baldness, upcoming versions will read “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.”

 



 

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