via The Atlantic: ROALD DAHL CAN NEVER BE MADE NICE
Rewriting his novels is about corporate safetyism, not social justice.
By Helen Lewis
Do you have a favorite book by Roald Dahl? I do—it’s his adult novel, My Uncle Oswald, a work defined by its unremitting misanthropy, vulgar sex scenes, and troubling sympathy for eugenics.
The negative Goodreads reviews of My Uncle Oswald tend to focus on its sexism, homophobia, and “glorification of rape culture.” Set at the turn of the 20th century, the book follows Oswald and his accomplice, Yasmin Howcomely, as they tour Europe slipping Great Men a beetle powder that turns them into uncontrollable horndogs. That allows Oswald and Yasmin to harvest their sperm in the hope of selling it to rich, childless women. It is not a subtle book.
Like most of Dahl’s work, the novel is nasty: casually cruel, even sadistic in places. In real life, Oswald would be a menace—he makes the sexist social-media influencer Andrew Tate look like Gloria Steinem. As a fictional protagonist, he’s a delight.
However, nastiness is now out of fashion. Over the weekend, the Telegraphrevealed that Puffin, the British publishing house, has released new editions of Dahl’s children’s stories that have been comprehensively rewritten to suit modern sensibilities. An organization called Inclusive Minds was hired in 2020 to advise on “updating” the novels, the same year Dahl’s family quietly published an apology for the author’s anti-Semitism. (Dahl’s estate was sold to Netflix in 2021.)