The comedian behind the Matilda musical has spoken out about the contemporary edits of Roald Dahl’s work.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Puffin would be publishing works with edits made to suit more sensitive readers, with the idea that this would allow books to “continue to be enjoyed by all today.”
Speaking to The Guardian, Tim Minchin described the removal and replacement of language that some people deemed offensive as ‘a slippery slope’. Minchin wrote the music for the Matilda musical based on the Dahl book.
He does not believe that classic texts should be edited to suit a modern audience. He said: “It seems there’s an incredible slippery slope problem with editing texts. I mean, my initial reaction, when I heard about it? ‘Now we’ll have to get all the rapes out of all the history books. Then the world will be a better place.’”
Minchin also added that he believes that the cause of these edits is due to capitalism recognizing that there is money in a certain type of progressivism.
He added: “It’s not actually about morality. It’s about keeping the property, owned by the Dahls and Netflix, contemporary … It’s an interesting part of modern progressivism that a huge amount of change is happening because corporations have identified where their bottom line is best served.”
In the interview with The Guardian, Minchin pointed towards two main issues regarding this type of editing. The first is the danger of books being edited to the point where all words that may be deemed offensive to anyone are removed, while the second is that you’re creating a precedent where these books will have to continue to be edited every few years forevermore.
Puffin has responded to the public discourse by stating that they will also release The Roald Dahl Classic Collection alongside the newly released and edited Puffin Roald Dahl books.
