Roald Dahl's books unsuitable for today's readers?

[DaveW]

I was an avid reader as a child and was reading "adult" books at a young age - no, not that sort of adult book But I also read Dahl, Enid Blyton, Little Black Sambo, Kipling, Grimms Fairy Tales and many others, enjoyed them, and they didn't make me racist or prejudiced. Children are far more accepting, less judgemental, interested in explanations and certainly not paranoid like some adults. I remember as a child finding a copy of Struwwelpeter at one of my grandmother's and thought it was horrible, so I didn't read it. It's probably banned today.

Children are judgemental as I tried to explain, they want to know why somebody is called a blackie, fat, ugly. Have you tried to explain to a child that the words aren’t hurtful, and that golliwogs aren’t just tradition but are something from a bygone age.

[DominicBest]

The first part of his autobiography, Boy, was sold in two versions one for children and the other for adults. Dahl himself was up to speed with what was suitable for children and what was not.
The story reminds me of an experience a friend had about 20 years ago. He took A Town Like Alice out from his local library and when he returned it the librarian asked if he’d enjoyed it. He replied, yes, it’s nice to read an honest book written as it was where the author is willing to call a spade a spade. Oh dear, the librarian responded, it sounds as though we had better take it off the shelf. He wished he’d kept his mouth shut.

[exile]

So:
let's ban Othello - strong undertones (and I am being kind there) of racial prejudices.
or
Scrooge - setting unrealistic expectations for the poor that they might ever eat Goose for Christmas
or
How about re-writing Mein Kampf to take out all of the nasty bits - short pamphlet I know.

There is a point where the madness has to stop

I think you are being taken in by the right wing press - it was books for children.

Wokism, I really hope you aren’t serious.
Sorry aimed at previous poster

And when they have done with the Childrens books?

[Hotrodder]

The techies are working on total mind control. Watch this space.

[Loup-garou]

Some minds are likely to take less work than others.

[Blaze]

When will the words "fat" "ugly" "black" "white" be removed from the dictionary ?
The word "obese" seems acceptable - should that replace "fat" ?? I am neither, but if I were, I'd rather be called "fat" than "obese".

[Polly]

Yes, I’d rather call a spade a spade and prefer fat to obese - which I think might be bigger than simply fat.

I do think this culling of language used by Roald Dahl is the thin end of the wedge - wokeism seems to be growing exponentially everywhere. It used to mean alert to racial prejudice and discrimination but seems to have very many tentacles now.

[MAD87]

Total stuff and nonsense!

[tagh]

1984 in action!

[niemeyjt]

I wonder if children are allowed to go to pantomimes as we did where the leading man is a woman and a man plays the Dame. Or have the wokist crusaders decided that panto is offensive to some people ?

Of course it is OK - it is now just called "trans".