Did Willy Wonka Get Canceled? Publisher Announces Woke Changes Coming to Famous Dahl Books
These days, it seems as if nothing is safe from the woke cultural revolution. Now, the left is coming for the works of a famed children’s author.
According to the Telegraph, publisher Puffin Books has made a number of changes to certain portions of the works of Roald Dahl, in order to remove any “offensive” language. The edited books include his most famous works: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “James and the Giant Peach,” “Matilda” and “The Twits.”
The most common things changed relate to the characters’ physical appearance, removing words such as “fat,” as well as replacing some phrases with other gender-neutral ones.
For instance, in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the character of Augustus Gloop was described in the book as “enormously fat,” but that has now been altered to simply read “enormous.” Meanwhile, the “Oompa Lumpas,” who were previously described as “little men,” are now referred to as “little people.”
Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a 1971 musical fantasy film starring Gene Wilder.
Based on the children’s novel Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, the movie was moderately successful- but became a cult hit over time
Did you ever see it?#1970s #FilmTwitter pic.twitter.com/fsW9QypMRJ
— Retro Coast (@RetroCoast) November 11, 2022
In “James and the Giant Peach,” Aunt Sponge was also described as “enormously fat and very short,” but that too has been changed to say “quite large and very short.”
In “Matilda,” references to Joseph Conrad and Rudyard Kipling have been removed and replaced with Jane Austen and John Steinbeck.
In “The Twits,” the phrase “ladies and gentlemen” has been replaced with “folks,” and instances of the use of the phrase “old hag” have also been altered.
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, a representative for Puffin said that it was “not unusual” for publishers to review the language of books when republishing them and updating them, adding that, “As part of our process to review the language used we worked in partnership with Inclusive Minds, a collective for people who are passionate about inclusion and accessibility in children’s literature.”
In essence, Puffin Books submitted to the woke cultural agenda and altered Dahl’s work in order to suit the spirit of the age.
According to the New York Post, Matthew Dennison, a biographer of the late author, said Dahl “would have recognized that alterations to his novels prompted by the political climate were driven by adults rather than children.”
Indeed, these alterations are more than just the removal or changing of a couple of words or phrases, they end up vandalizing the work as a whole, as these phrases in their context contribute to the overall meaning of the story.
Take “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” for instance. The moral of the story is that one should be careful to guard against vices such as sloth, gluttony, greed or wrath. Augustus Gloop is the embodiment of gluttony, and the description of him as “enormously fat” is a way of communicating just how much Augustus has succumbed to that vice to the point where he personifies it.
That is all lost in the woke alternation. By simply describing him as “large,” the authors have removed any indication that Augustus is a glutton, and thus the warning against that vice is removed.
This really is just another instance of woke vandalism, where political correctness takes precedence over true cultural sustenance.
Good literature, whether for adults or for children, is supposed to give us profound insights into the human condition. Literature is a way for us to learn about ourselves and the truths of the world we live in.
Puffin Books, unfortunately, has another thing in mind, they want to remove all of that from children’s literature in order to create a culture purely devoted to political correctness.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
