By Alicia Escardó
In the old cinema of La Floresta I saw the movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” for the first time. Billy Wonka, lonely and distrustful, his fantastic world populated with peculiar characters, but above all Charlie, the boy who participates in the contest to finish, thanks to his generosity and courage, as the successor to the owner of the factory, left me with a memory unforgettable. It was my first contact with the world of Roald Dahl. I have not stopped since, because his literature is one of those that is visited many times. Mathilda, Jim and the Giant Peach, and many other beautiful, funny, but above all innovative books, have made millions of children and adults read, imagine, and enjoy.
He was innovative because his literature knew how to break stereotypes. He proposed children who were the protagonists of their lives, witches very evil who are more scary because of how real they are, than because they are witches, girls who managed to abandon horrible parents to live as they wanted. That is why the decision of his British publisher (together with the heirs who manage his legacy) to censor some passages of his books has generated so much opposition, with the intention of not promoting stereotypes such as the fat boy, the evil witch or the words «black» or “white”, among other changes or deletions.
Every writer, even those who are as innovative as Dahl, are the result of the times in which they live and write. Applying the current trend of simplifying characters and language so as not to «foment negative stereotypes» or «encourage discrimination» to a work written fifty years ago is completely meaningless. The Puffin publishing house tries with this to adapt to the present demands of the market, and of some teachers and parents, to offer children everything more digested, conveniently bland and without nuances. In a way, it aims to minimize children’s ability to assimilate what they read, reduce the ability to imagine and choose. And also the comfort of not having to give them evidence so that they can decide and learn for themselves. The desirable thing would be to educate widely, which undoubtedly requires time, work and dedication.
A few years ago, with one of my books for young people, the following thing happened to me: in that story there is a character of a teenager who cannot walk as a result of an accident. At the end of the novel, this girl turns out to be manipulative and cruel, and she is the one who involves the protagonist in her shady dealings. The publisher really liked this story and decided to publish it, but the publisher told me her opinion of what could happen. She told me that she was possibly going to have problems when she got to the schools and high schools, because the teachers were not going to want to work in class with a novel in which, in addition to being in a wheelchair, the girl turns out to be the bad guy in the story. The novel was published, I went to many high schools to talk about it with teenagers, a second edition was published and it won a Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC) youth narrative award. So luckily, in Uruguay, there don’t seem to be these kinds of consequences of not using what is “politically correct”.
I end this note with two pieces of good news: the Spanish editions of Dahl’s novels will not be changed announced Random House, which has the copyright of his works. And the second is that, in my opinion, all this debate and controversy that unleashed the decision to modify the editions, it is possible that it will make future aspirants to censorship think and make them give up their controlling impulse. And also, it has already been announced that parallel editions will be made respecting the originals, since the changed versions should have the notice that they are adaptations or that they have eliminated or changed passages.
Roald Dahl was an aviator (like Saint-Exupéry) and an RAF pilot in World War II, and nearly died when his plane was shot down. It is no coincidence that he wrote his first book in 1942. His work is undoubtedly imbued with that experience as a pilot. Seeing the world from an airplane and traveling thousands of miles across the sky resulted in stories that show the greatness and misery of people, and their ability to fly over thanks to imagination and fantasy. Let’s look up and enjoy art in all its greatness and freedom, without fear and false dogmas, since that is the best we have and what distinguishes us as human beings.
Roald Dahl (Oxford, 1916-1990) was a British novelist, short story writer, poet and screenwriter of Norwegian descent. Among his most popular works are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , James and the Giant Peach , Matilda, The Big Good-natured Giant, Agu Trot , The Witches, and Tales of the Unexpected.