Mar 14, 2023
The rewriting of Roald Dahl books first made headlines and drew a backlash. That was followed by the censorship of James Bond novels. But what was seen as a few isolated incidents with very high-profile works is actually just the new normal. At least when it comes to reprints of older books. I initially analyzed this as a response to major IPs like Dahl and Bond with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, but that's no longer the case. Here are two more incidents. One involving the children's Goosebumps books. The 79-year-old horror author spoke up after The Times of London claimed that he had "censored over a dozen of his books" to avoid mentions of race or calling characters fat or crazy. Mentions of slaves were also removed, as well as black face worn by a character dressed as "a dark and stormy night" for Halloween. Characters were no longer "roly-poly," and "plump" ones were described as now "cheerful." Characters Stine