As a child, I used to love reading and had lots of different books, from Enid Blyton to Roald Dahl.
It’s always the way though, that you end up discarding some much loved books or they get misplaced over the years, so I’ve recently started to re-buy some of the old ones I had as a child.
It’s great to read about the midnight feasts at Malory Towers, with the lashings of ginger beer, and strange concoctions they used to put together such as sardines and peaches and giggle round the moonlit pool while the teachers all snore away in their rooms.
Or go on a magic journey to the top of the Faraway tree, with Silky, MoonFace and the Saucepan Man.
There’d always be a different land at the top of the tree each time they went up. Some nice, some not so nice.
The one thing I have noticed on re-visiting these old books though, is that when buying them, you have to be careful that you are getting one of the original books that haven’t been tampered with over the years and re-written.
Yes – some, in their infinite wisdom and need to be all politically correct, have changed stories around, edited them and changed names.
So instead of the little girl being called Fanny, she’s now called Frannie.
Dame Slap, who was one of the less desirable characters from one of the Lands at the top of the tree, got her name for slapping children in her care.
In the modern re-prints, she’s known as Dame Snap who just raises her voice and has rather a nasty shout.
I mean, come on.
Why?!
I don’t agree with changing books in order to come over all politically correct and ‘with the times.’ Yes, some aspects of the stories are sexist (Anne from the Famous Five being told that she couldn’t chase adventures as she was a girl, so had to stay home and make tea for them all instead), or nods towards corporal punishment in the form of Dame Slap.
Why should it be changed though? It might have some outdated ideas in there, but that’s the way the world was when they were written.
I don’t want to read sanitized, cleaned up politically correct versions, thank you very much.
I used to read lots of Enid Blyton when small, and I haven’t turned into a racist, sexist corporal punishment lover as a result.
Leave the books alone for future generations, as it’s a peek into past times.
Should we airbrush history?
What do you think?
In two minds about this one. Rereading the Famous Five books today I can see how the language may be hard for young readers to relate to, so a bit of discrete revision may not be a bad thing if it helps today’s generation to enjoy these stories.
On the other hand changing the name Fanny (because it’s a slang name for the vagina) seems a bit ridiculous. For similar reasons Dick has become Rick in some editions of The Magic Faraway Tree.
Interestingly I have just finished reading a Ngaio Marsh novel in which the n-word (rhymes with ‘bigger’) is used. I didn’t find this offensive because the book was written in 1934 when this word would be in common use.
And finally, in defence of Anne Kirrin, I think this character is a lot stronger than some people like to make out. Even though she is sometimes scared of doing things like walking through dark tunnels she often does it anyway – a sign of bravery not cowardice. And she is quite intelligent and observant, often spotting things which other members of the group miss.
You’re right about Anne, she is quite a brave character. It’s usually Julian or Dick who say “no, you can’t come because you’re a girl”, even though you know she wants to go really.
As for the offensive words like in the book you read, yes it is a disgusting word and I wouldn’t find it acceptable to hear it now.
To read the word in a book of it’s time though? Wouldn’t offend me at all as it’s all to do with context and the word would have been more acceptable when the book was written.
It’s a toughie isn’t it. I guess in this day and age we have to accept that some words are now deemed inappropriate and unfortunately, kids reading the original copies of these (very harmless) books will maybe use the words, not really understanding the new meanings.
But I do think it’s just political correctness gone mad, once again. I find it a shame that books have had to be rewritten to incorporate this new language we seem to have adopted.
CJ x
Hmmm. This is not black-and-white for me (no PC pun intended). Dick and Fanny – well, I can remember the way it always induced furtive sniggers even when I was reading it back in the 1960s, so I don’t see anything wrong with changing the names. Doesn’t make any difference to the story and might mean that some young readers get further than corpsing at the innuendo. I too loved Enid Blyton as a chld but when I read them to my daughter in the 1980s I found myself editing them as I went along, because all that ‘It must’ve been that dirty gypsy who stole the eggs’ was unpleasant and offensive and I didn’t want a young impressionable child to get the impression those prejudices were at all OK. I’m actually quite a big fan of political correctness, especially if it means not passing on bigoted views or offensive terminology under the guise of ‘It was what we all thought/said back then’. I just don’t see that these minor changes make any real difference to the narrative as a whole or the sense of a story, so I think the changes are actually the best of both worlds.
I agree with you and that is hilarious that she went from being called Dame Slap to Dame Snap!!! Love that!
Couldn’t agree more, some of the changes are ridiculous!
I hat it when they mess with things full stop there is no need, there are ways around certain words that can be explained to a child when they read it or if you read it with them and help them to understand that this is how it was in a particular time.
we did sit down and have a talk about it and she understood that at the time it was acceptable.
I used to love the word gollywog as a kid and the dolls of the name and used to collect the pins from the jam labels and never in my wildest dreams did i think it would be deemed a hurtful name to anyone, but i got reprimanded by my now 13 yr old who was at the time 10 when i showed her my collection and i was told i should throw them away as they weren’t nice
I absolutely agree with you. I think it’s also quite good to trigger discussions with your kids about the fact that things have changed and why that might be!
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I can see why Fanny should be changed for Frannie. Kids wouldn’t be able to see the stories because they’d be do overcome with the hilarious nature of Fanny’s name. But Slap or Snap? I don’t have a problem with Slap and the sexism of the earlier 20th century is a useful starting point for discussion with your kids on how times have changed for the better.