Rant #3,084: Words

Two recent announcements by book publishers have really irked me, and they should get your dander up too.

The publishers of Ian Fleming’s series of James Bond novels and the publisher of the works of Roald Dahl have each announced separately that these classic books, such as “Casino Royale” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” are going to be edited and rewritten to accommodate current times.

Certain language and imagery will be removed from these classic novels, and what is taken out will often be replaced with more current “culturally appropriate” language and imagery.

In past times, various public and private groups—and even some parents—have demanded that certain books be removed from school and public libraries because of their supposed vulgarities, including “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Native Son,” and “Manchild in the Promised Land,” and even when these groups have succeeded in getting these works removed, publishers of these works of art have stood behind these authors and novels, and the bans have been ineffective and short-lived.

Well, apparently not in this current case—the publishers themselves are “cleaning up” these works on their own accord.

This is is just so wrong, but that is what you get when “cancel culture” and the “woke” part of our civilization gets their way.

Take James Bond, for instance.

Look, even in the earlier films of the character, like “Dr. No,” what you got on the screen—where most people know the character best—was a cleaned-up version of how Fleming originally wrote of Bond.

Bond was merciless, looked down at everyone in his path and treated them as such, and treated women as simply things to deposit his seed into and little else.

He was brash, used guttural language and words we won’t repeat here, and really was nothing more than a “legal” mercenary, as he killed people under the aegis of the British government.

The books portrayed the Bond character more accurately than the movies ever could, and seeing the movies only gave one a sense of the character; to get the real feel of who Bond was, you had to read the actual Fleming novels.

With the current decision to clean these novels up for this current generation who squeals at any blemish—no matter big or small—made by earlier generations, publishers themselves are becoming censors—quite different from “editing”—and that is not a job that they should partake in, no natter what pressures they are getting from this “weak” … err … “woke” generation to do just that.

This is a generation that is just so thin skinned about everything, but as an editor/writer, I believe in changing these books, which have been around for generations, you are losing the glimpse that these book provide of a different time and place, a look back that we can all learn from.

And the thing that I don’t get is that this generation is so thin-sinned and gets upset at everything that is not their way, yet they, themselves, do not seem to get too upset at the music they listen to, which is full of filthy language, misogynistic themes, and is often racist in scope.

Why is that? Why go after earlier generations when your own “art” is so repulsive?

The publishers claim that the original books, as they were written, will still be available, so what is the point of having a cleaned-up version and an original version on the same bookshelf?

Who would want to read a cut version of a classic novel when you can read the real thing?

I simply don’t get this whole controversy, and with the publishers actually the ones changing the words of writers who are no longer with us to defend their craft, it makes for something of a travesty, almost akin to the Nazi book burnings of 80 or more years ago.

And that the publishers are the willing participants … they are supposed to be wordsmiths, not butchers of the words that these great writers put on paper for all of us to see.

This is really scary, because once you get James Bond whittled down to nothing, you will see many other books and series of books likewise “cleansed,” and that is not a good thing for our culture and our world.

You might be able to think you can change history, but as long as one unexpurgated book of a cleansed series exists, you will never extinguish the fire, or the imagination, of the authors that wrote down those words in the first place.