Making Dahl Nice
It’s been in the news–Roald Dahl’s publisher and estate are releasing new, less offensive versions of his books. “Cloud Men” are now “Cloud People.” Augustus Gloop isn’t “fat”—he’s “enormous.” Miss Trunchbull no longer has a “horsey” face. (I don’t get that one at all, but…) It’s definitely okay for women to wear wigs, in case you were wondering.
People have opinions. Salman Rushdie, for one. I appreciated Helen Lewis’s thoughtful piece in The Atlantic.
Okay, well, tastes change. Audiences change. Jokes that were once edgy are revealed as downright cruel. And Dahl’s estate does have the right to make alterations if they think it’s in the best interest of the author and his work.
And yet. I don’t feel good about it.
These changes are so superficial, for one thing. Augustus Gloop’s character is one long, repeated, anti-fat stereotype. Calling him “enormous” changes nothing. If the book’s anti-fatness is problematic enough, let’s not read it anymore–but let’s not dance around it by changing one word and thinking we’ve accomplished something.
But there’s something else here too. It’s Dahl. Dahl’s work is nasty (as Helen Lewis sagely points out). Mean. Angry. Sharped-edge and judgmental. (I’ve never quite gotten over reading some of Dahl’s short stories, written for adults, when I was around twelve or so.) We’re supposed to judge Augustus Gloop for being both fat and greedy (and yes, it’s not fair to treat those things and synonymous, and yes, that’s what Dahl s doing), Veruca Salt for being spoiled and bratty, Mike Teevee for being screen-obsessed, and Violet Beuregard for…um…chewing gum a lot, I guess.
I think that’s part of what kids love about Dahl. There’s the joyful wish-fulfillment (come on into this chocolate factory!) and then there’s the savage disapproval of everybody who doesn’t deserve to be there. Stretch them in the gum-stretching machine! Throw them down the garbage chute! Drive them out of the book and away, away, away.
Kids are judgmental. They are learning the rules, spoken and unspoken, around them. They can be unmerciful to peers who don’t measure up. We call it “tattling” and try to get them to stop, but we can’t. They can’t. It’s such an absorbing project, figuring out the rules. It goes on for a lifetime.
And there’s also truth in these books about what those with power do to those without. Will Miss Trunchbull still be an unsettlingly mean character if she doesn’t have a horsey face? Probably. But she’ll always be appalling. She’ll always leave adults feeling queasy and children feeling thrilled and scared and somehow, deep down, vindicated.
Dahl was not a nice person. He wasn’t a nice writer. But it seems that somehow, he stayed close to some feelings of childhood, the ones that we as adults don’t always like to think about. The bitter sense of powerlessness. The thrill of rule-breaking. The triumph in watching others get punished.
Is cherishing what’s intense and powerful in Dahl’s writing worth the nastiness? That seems to me to the be the deal we should be thinking about. Not whether “enormous” is somehow less offensive than “fat.”
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You’re Right, Books Are Dangerous
Blue paper covers shelves of books that students are being denied access to.
This just breaks my heart.
In a classroom–a classroom–books are being kept away from students. Students want to read, to learn, to feed their curiosity, to enlarge their sense of the world, to simply have fun, and they’re being told NO. Are being told that’s not what school is for. Are being told that curiosity and openness of mind and heart must be controlled. Are being told that THEY must be controlled, that they and their teachers cannot be trusted to make choices about their own reading. About their own minds.
The people who made these laws are right about one thing–books are dangerous. They tell facts. They explain ideas. They make change. They are change.
And if that scares you–you might do something like this to children.
But it’s about your weakness and your fears, not about the books. And not about the students. The only thing on display here is the cowardice of lawmakers who don’t deserve the title, don’t deserve their jobs, and who are cowering in fear of chapter books.
Shame, shame, shame.
Read MoreCensorship
Thank you, Bonny Eagle School Board, for taking a stand against censorship and making sure kids will still be able to check out It’s Perfectly Normal!
A few takeaways in case you do not get a chance to read the whole article:
It’s Perfectly Normal is one of the most straightforward, nonjudgmental, accessible books about puberty and sexuality out there. It’s constantly praised and recommended for this age group.
It’s Perfectly Normal was not required reading or assigned in any class. It was just there, on the library shelf.
There was already a mechanism in place where parents could request that their kids be prevented from checking this book out. (I don’t like that, but it was there.) That didn’t satisfy this particular group of parents. They wanted to be sure that no kid could read this book. And while we’re on this topic, why does parental control only ever go one way? As a parent as well as an author, what if I want this kind of book available to my child? Do I not have any rights in that regard?
And finally, It’s Perfectly Normal for kids who are going through adolescence to want to read about adolescence, and it’s admirable for them to reach out and learn more about what’s happening to them. We should support that, not try to shut it down!
(And one extra point–I now really want to read Genderqueer, also under threat of censorship. Censors, take note–we most want to read what you try to take away.)
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To Think That I Saw It In Congress
Despite a 28-year career in children’s publishing, I have NEVER HEARD OF THIS BOOK until this week. Just saying.
All I can say is, a lot of my books are out of print, and nobody has ever complained about it in the halls of Congress.
Okay, that’s not actually all I have to say.
Nobody has cancelled Dr. Seuss. Nobody has censored his books. No arm of government or political party is involved in any way.
The publisher (presumably in concert with his estate) has chosen not to issue new editions of six books. They say it is because the images contain hurtful stereotypes. (This is true. I’ve enjoyed If I Ran the Zoo, but those so-called Africans with their grass skirts and ape-like faces–really, Ted?)
This is normal. It’s business as usual. Publishers put books out of print all the time, because the books failed to connect with an audience, because they’ve become dated and readers don’t get them anymore, because (shh!) they were never that good in the first place. And–here’s the big reason, actually the only reason–because they aren’t selling that well. Because the books aren’t profitable.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises (an arm of Penguin Random House) failed to mention this, but believe me–if those books were selling like hotcakes, they’d still be in print. They’re not. Possibly because people are not lining up to buy books with hurtful stereotypes in them. Possibly because there are better books out there, some of them written by Dr. Seuss himself.
It’s the free market in action, folks. There’s no or little demand. So there’s no new supply.
Look, Ted Geisel was an immensely talented author and illustrator. He wasn’t a saint. He wasn’t perfection incarnate. And he doesn’t have some sort of constitutional right to have his books in print forever. (If so, I wish I could figure out how to get that right for myself. Alas, I don’t think it exists.)
If you are passionately devoted to On Beyond Zebra or McElligot’s Pool, you can still read them. Knock yourself out. Libraries and used bookstores still have copies. They haven’t vanished from the world of literature. It’s simply that there are not going to be new editions rolling off the press.
It’s not shocking. It’s not a problem. It’s a publisher responding to what people in 2021 want to read.
(P.S. Please feel free to also read picture books by Kevin Henkes, Barbara Cooney, Kwame Alexander, Mo Willems, Sophie Blackall and … I don’t know, maybe me? Dr. Seuss is not the only talented and brilliant author out there. There are so very many excellent children’s books being written and illustrated and published. The kids will be fine.)
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews