Recently, a group of sensitive readers evaluated the books of the English writer Roald Dahl on sensitivity according to the “demands of our time.” Words like “fat” were changed to “huge”. “Is everything dangerous, does everything have to be viewed on the victim spectrum?” asks writer Jessica Durlacher at WNL In de Kantine.
“Their desire to refine language makes me very nervous,” says Durlacher. Columnist Syp Wynia replies, “With just a few people, you can actually censor.” “People don’t let this opportunity pass up. You can call it a form of book burning.”
Who are these people anyway? “One sensitive reader calls herself a ‘non-binary, asexual, polyamorous anarchist on the autism spectrum,’” Durlacher says. In fact, “there were ten people like this, each with these kinds of descriptions about themselves.”
source of awakening
The source of the entire awakening movement, from which this sensitivity stems, according to Wenya, comes from the United States: “This disease brings us from America.” Dahl’s heritage property has been bought by Netflix for $500 million, he says. “And we know from Netflix that they kind of align with what we call Awake.” It wouldn’t be at all surprising Wynia if Netflix assigned this group of sensitive readers.
Ultimately, after the uproar, the publisher decided to keep the original version as well as the updated “insensitive” script. “It feels good when it becomes big news,” Durlacher says. “Unfortunately, there are still all kinds of projects that we don’t know about yet.”
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Written by: Wessel Wierda
“Infuriatingly humble travel fanatic. Passionate social media practitioner. Amateur writer. Wannabe problem solver. General food specialist.”