Roald Dahl’s Children’s Books Changed to Make Them More ‘Inclusive’

Acclaimed children’s author Roald Dahl is the latest victim of the Left’s purge, with publisher Puffin announcing this week that a number of his works will be rewritten to be more inclusive and less offensive. As an example, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Augustus Gloop will not be described as “fat,” but “enormous.” Oompa Loompas, originally described by Dahl as “small men,” will be referred to as “small people.” Mrs. Twit, from The Twits, is now no longer “ugly and beastly,” but only “beastly.”

Perhaps the most hilarious revision proposed by Puffin’s hired “sensitivity readers” is the following. In The Witches, Dahl’s suggestion that the villainous witches are bald beneath their wigs comes with a disclaimer: “There are plenty of other reasons why women might wear wigs and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.”

Puffin’s changes are ridiculous for several reasons, the first being that they won’t even accomplish their intended goal. It is just as “offensive” to be called “enormous” as it is to be called “fat.” And dropping the “ugly” from “ugly and beastly” in no way diminishes the insult of having been called “beastly” in the first place.

But that was the entire point of Dahl’s characterizations: They were meant to offend. Dahl wanted his characters to be a visual representation of their worst attributes. Augustus Gloop, for example, was a greedy, selfish boy who couldn’t even tell you what the word “moderation” meant, let alone what it looked like in practice. So Dahl made sure his readers walked away with an image of these traits that they wouldn’t soon forget.

Dahl’s ability to communicate clear moral standards to children in such a creative way is the reason he’s one of the most successful authors of all time. His characterizations were meant to sting, just as they were meant to teach readers a lesson.

Watering down his work serves no tangible benefit beyond making the Puffin executives feel good about themselves. Just imagine what Dahl would have to say about them.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/roald-dahl-s-censors-are-bald-beneath-their-wigs/ar-AA17S29t