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by bluescrn 1215 days ago
It's not about the specific books, it's about the principle of people other than the author rewriting books, whether fiction or non-fiction, to fit with present-day politics and sensitivities.

Should we edit Shakespeare to remove all that hard-to-read 'olde English'? Maybe edit Romeo and Juliet to give it a happier ending, and get rid of that nasty violence with daggers and poison? (that's much worse than Roald Dahl describing characters as 'fat' or 'female' isn't it?)

2 comments

> Should we edit Shakespeare to remove all that hard-to-read 'olde english'?

It's been done. Multiple times. Yet somehow we didn't have the same sort of performative outrage.

Not only has Shakespeare been rewritten many times, many of the rewrites are used academically. Many are even better received.

Hell, even the bible has been rewritten multiple times with lots of infighting about what the right version is.