Joyce Carol Oates Actually Asks Intelligent Questions About Leftist 'Rewrite' of Roald Dahl Books

I wrote previously about the current publisher of the late, bestselling children’s author Roald Dahl’s books deciding to issue new editions of beloved classics like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and “Matilda”–except with major, woke revisions suggested by sensitivity readers.

Now, in a several tweets on the Twitters, author and steadfast progressive Joyce Carol Oates actually managed to ask some intelligent questions about the wisdom of rewriting Dahl’s books.

Here’s how she began:

who are "sensitivity readers" after all? is this a vocation for which there is training? one imagines unpaid interns gleefully censoring prose by renowned / no longer living writers. "There, take that! See how it feels." https://t.co/abDOdGTXy8

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) February 18, 2023

She shared a great example of how ridiculous the notion of “improving” great works is:

A. Person once said to me, not meaning to be ironic or funny, that he intended to "rewrite and improve" Shakespeare for high school students. https://t.co/e8cTPtcrcQ

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) February 18, 2023

Then in a reply tweet to her opening tweet, she wrote wisely:

[P]rose so radically revised by “sensitivity readers” should be noted as collaborations. it is unfair to readers to be deceived into thinking that they are reading the original work.
if Dahl is so egregious as to require such wholesale whitewashing (sic) why republish him at all?

Oates came up with a wry, potential “rewrite” of another classic book:

"Lord of the Flies" re-written by sensitivity readers: a delightful adventure tale of plucky shipwrecked boys camping out in a challenging environment until a rescue ship comes to their island & returns them to their mommies. https://t.co/w1W4Jkgq27

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) February 18, 2023

She even got her cat Zanche in on the action, who called for a “boycatt” of English:

Zanche is disgusted with old racist metaphors baked into the English language: "blackmail," "whitewash," "more than one way to skin a cat," "don't let the cat out of the bag." best strategy: boycatt speech. pic.twitter.com/BFIg18aO5Y

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) February 18, 2023

Sadly–but unsurprisingly–the sanity from Oates didn’t last; by the time night fell, she had picked back up a conversation she started earlier in the week about conservatives and transgender people:

I think this is the best, most succinct explanation. the propensity for prying into others' (private) lives & issuing ridiculous edicts based upon .0001% probability as a way of pretending other, more crucial social issues (that effect millions of people) do not exist. https://t.co/Xn9aw31fi0

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) February 18, 2023

Lastly, as for any publishing house deciding to mess with literature like Dahl’s masterworks or Shakespeare’s plays, I’ll leave the proper response to Willy Wonka (played by the late, great Gene Wilder):