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Worth noting that both Agatha Christie and Roald Dahl accepted some editorial changes to their own works when they were alive, and in the latter case I think he

Worth noting that both Agatha Christie and Roald Dahl accepted some editorial changes to their own works when they were alive, and in the latter case I think he was involved personally. The Oompa-Lompas were changed from being dark-skinned ("He's made people out of chocolate!") to being orange-skinned, and the original title of Agatha Christie's "And then there were none" was considered too offensive in the US even in 1939.

barrysteve 4y ago
Also worth noting that Roald Dahl worked with a small team of people he collaborated with, as his work was being written.
bluescrn 4y ago
A one-off edit to remove a slur is a lot more justifiable than the drastic PC overhaul that appeared to be happening to Roald Dahl's work - which seems to have included purging every reference to the word 'fat', along with many others such as 'ugly', 'rotting teeth', and even 'female' (while gender-neutralising references to mothers/fathers) It's like they've done a mass search+replace for a long list of 'bad' (descriptive!) and/or gendered words, and what's left is no longer the writing of Roald Dahl.
eesmith 4y ago
They weren't just dark-skinned. They were African Pygmies. https://archive.org/details/charliechocolate0000unse_u3w0/page/72/mode/2up?q=oompa https://archive.org/details/charliechocolate0000unse_u3w0/pa... > “Right!” cried Mr. Wonka. “Pygmies they are! Imported direct from Africa! They belong to a tribe of tiny miniature pygmies known as the Oompa-Loompas. I discovered them myself. I brought them over from Africa myself—the whole tribe of them, three thousand in all. I found them in the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had ever been before. (BTW, an archive.org search doesn't find the phrase 'people out of chocolate'.) The movie - and after threats by the NAACP and others to boycott the movie - portrayed them as orange. Dahl's revision depicts them as white. https://archive.org/details/charliechocolate0000dahl_x9u4/page/80/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/charliechocolate0000dahl_x9u4/pa... > The Oompa-Loompa bowed and smiled, showing beautiful white teeth. His skin was rosy-white, his long hair was golden-brown, and the top of his head came just above the height of Mr. Wonka’s knee.
- vintermann 4y ago
  > (BTW, an archive.org search doesn't find the phrase 'people out of chocolate'.) I read it in translation as a child, so I guessed it wasn't verbatim. But it's on the same page you linked, that Charlie thought Wonka had made people out of chocolate.

barrysteve 4y ago

Also worth noting that Roald Dahl worked with a small team of people he collaborated with, as his work was being written.

bluescrn 4y ago

A one-off edit to remove a slur is a lot more justifiable than the drastic PC overhaul that appeared to be happening to Roald Dahl's work - which seems to have included purging every reference to the word 'fat', along with many others such as 'ugly', 'rotting teeth', and even 'female' (while gender-neutralising references to mothers/fathers) It's like they've done a mass search+replace for a long list of 'bad' (descriptive!) and/or gendered words, and what's left is no longer the writing of Roald Dahl.

eesmith 4y ago

They weren't just dark-skinned. They were African Pygmies. https://archive.org/details/charliechocolate0000unse_u3w0/page/72/mode/2up?q=oompa https://archive.org/details/charliechocolate0000unse_u3w0/pa... > “Right!” cried Mr. Wonka. “Pygmies they are! Imported direct from Africa! They belong to a tribe of tiny miniature pygmies known as the Oompa-Loompas. I discovered them myself. I brought them over from Africa myself—the whole tribe of them, three thousand in all. I found them in the very deepest and darkest part of the African jungle where no white man had ever been before. (BTW, an archive.org search doesn't find the phrase 'people out of chocolate'.) The movie - and after threats by the NAACP and others to boycott the movie - portrayed them as orange. Dahl's revision depicts them as white. https://archive.org/details/charliechocolate0000dahl_x9u4/page/80/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/charliechocolate0000dahl_x9u4/pa... > The Oompa-Loompa bowed and smiled, showing beautiful white teeth. His skin was rosy-white, his long hair was golden-brown, and the top of his head came just above the height of Mr. Wonka’s knee.

vintermann 4y ago
> (BTW, an archive.org search doesn't find the phrase 'people out of chocolate'.) I read it in translation as a child, so I guessed it wasn't verbatim. But it's on the same page you linked, that Charlie thought Wonka had made people out of chocolate.