Editing books is disrespecting the art of the writer. Discuss.
Everyone knows “James Bond” or “007” around the world. The James Bond series is one of the most famous movies not only in the UK but also globally. The first novel of the James Bond series, “Casino Royale”, was written by Ian Fleming 70 years ago. All novels of the series will be republished in April in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the first novel’s publication. According to the publisher, some offensive words, such as sexist or racist words, were edited by sensitivity readers and the republished book versions will be put out with a warning about the edition. However, the publisher didn’t change all offensive words in the series. This may have something to do with controversy around the censorship of Roald Dahl’s books. Roald Dahl is known internationally for many children’s books, for example: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “James and the Giant Peach”, and “Matilda”. These novels were translated into the Japanese language and were performed as movies and plays. The publisher of Dahl’s books modified and deleted offensive words pertaining to body type, gender, and skin color when republishing his books. However, many people got angry that his books were censored too much. Therefore, the publisher announced that it would publish these books in their original forms.
In Japan, the name of the crayon color: “skin color (肌色)”, had changed to “light orange (薄橙色)” in 2009. For Japanese people, it was easier to understand this color by using the label “skin color”. However, it is one of the stereotypes in Japan. Additionally, greetings in the announcements for Tokyo Disneyland and airline companies, “Boys and girls” or “Ladies and gentlemen” were abolished in 2021. It is important for Japanese people, especially children, to get rid of these stereotypes and learn about diversity. Japan is pretty behind in education regarding diversity, gender neutral language, and non-binary people compared to other developed countries. Therefore, the Japanese government is moving forward with an inclusive education system that includes more diversity. Additionally, it is significant that children need to learn about diversity from various angles not only in schools but also in their homes. Therefore, adults need to understand, respect, and admit the difference and set the environment for us to talk about diversity casually in daily lives.
As for editing books, I hope that publishers provide us books in their original forms because the readers can learn about the authors’ thoughts and the time period in which the books were written. That is, original books become valuable history lessons for us. My favorite book is “Mary Poppins”. I repeatedly read it when I was a child. I noticed that a part of an expression was edited when I reread the book after a long time. In one chapter of the book, Eskimos, black people, Chinese people, and American Indians appeared to describe the people living in northern, southern, eastern, and western countries. However, they were replaced by polar bears, Hyacinth Macaws, Pandas, and dolphins in the revised book. The modification may be because of racist language. We can understand from the context that the author never had disrespected these people. Therefore, I wonder if the publisher needed to edit these expressions.
I think that novels are the best books. My reasons are…
1. You can travel everywhere in novels, even if it is outside of the universe.
2. You can experience many different ways of life in novels except for your own life.
3. You can know all the characters’ thoughts and feelings in a novel. Therefore, you will encounter some different lifestyles and values.