Why Roald Dahl Is So Controversial 

"my sins were scarlet and my books were read" is a hell of a quote

Here’s the thing about the twits. Roald Dahl dedicated an entire chapter to explain that even if you had a double chin, buck teeth and a big nose, as long as you thought good beautiful thought it will shine through you and you will be beautiful with them. But if you thought horrible ugly thoughts than it will show on you. That’s why Mrs.Twit was called ugly. He didn’t mean ugly in the usual sense but ugly in thought.

Roald Dahl is the first author most kids ever discover, to censor his books is a disgrace

The oompa loompas were NOT unpaid. They lived in trees eating caterpillar mush for fear of being eaten on the jungle floor. As such, they weren't able to get to their favorite food, cacao beans. Wonka cut them a deal to live in his factory and eat all the cacao they wanted. He paid them for their work in exchange for room and board.

As a 13 year old, queer doesnt meen gay! It meant strange back then.

I recall the original impetus for Dahl's Big Friendly Giant. He asked his daughter why she didn't read any of his books and she told him bluntly why should she since they were all wrote for boys. That must have hurt, but it gave us the BFG.

Fantastic video! I grew up on reading Roald Dahl, it's disgusting to hear that publishers are trying to edit his original works. The real world is ugly, children have to learn that one way or another.

Instead of editing those books to adapt to newer standards, preserve the writing as it was and introduce children to other stories that provide better representations or clearer views of the world than that illustrated by Dahl. In doing so, you allow the context of such books to be kept in the societal and emotional condition with which they were written. Plus, much like a story increasing towards a climactic resolution, you can educate children on such elements in a way that expand their knowledge rather than believing such attitudes will go away upon editing those stories. I am not arguing that such stories are perfect and should be preserved to immortalize such faulty behaviors, but that one’s literary knowledge should not be solely limited to that of Dahl or other problematic literary figures. We must urge people to not think that Dahl’s mindset when he wrote it needs to be upheld and changed when it makes people feel uncomfortable. Leave Dahl where he is, he is not the pinnacle of literary writing, and read more books to gain a better understanding of the world and yourself.

Fun fact: In middle school I had an old british teacher who said that as a teenager he had gone to a Roald Dahl book signing, and that the man himself had pronounced his name as Ronald Dahl. Just thought that was kinda weird

"Representing every child" is literally impossible. There are children who are so sensitive that they will find particular stories naturally abhorrent, and no amount of bowdlerization is going to improve the situation. I remember being disgusted, angered, and even outright frightened by some of the "innocent" children's entertainments I consumed, but I didn't demand that they be rewritten to appease my emotional turmoil. If children do not like a book, then they don't have to read it or have it read to them. It's as simple as that.

I really hate the concept of watering down things for kids. Children aren’t stupid, and if they don’t understand a word in a book direct them to the dictionary or explain to them what context clues are. All this energy people waste trying to censor the voice and literary quirks of a dead man could be used actually helping children learn and realize they have potential because everyone’s attention span is screwed nowadays and everyone is depressed. [for context i’m a 15 year old high school senior, grew up reading these books and still read them regularly]

Roald Dahl’s books defined my childhood and it’s genuinely painful to see his work altered in these ways. His books never felt as though they were speaking down to you like most children’s books do. I hope children will continue to read the classic versions of his stories and learn the valuable lessons in those pages.

Roald Dahl used to taste test for Cadbury's. That's how he knew so much about how chocolate was made in the first place.

I don't cate how controversial he was. Do not censor the last remaining figment of his mind.

People have just gotten absolutely ridiculous lately

I feel like it’s a little more complicated than “he had some bad views but his kids books are totally fine, and he had a rough life.” A writer’s views and beliefs, good or bad, are bound to come up in their writing, even if they’re not conscious of it. Yes, at their core, Dahl’s villains represent horrible adults, but we can’t ignore that there are certain patterns in the physical appearances of these characters, too. I don’t think the solution should ever be banning or censoring, though. I think a good way of going about it is having an open discussion in classrooms about these topics. Dahl would probably agree that kids are able to grasp these kinds of topics. There’s a way to explain to kids why certain things aren’t okay without taking away from the enjoyment of the books.

i remember reading a quote about censorship once, especially censoring old works. something like "Censoring these works would be saying that these views and opinion that no longer are shared never existed. be aware they exist and that we think they are wrong but keep them."

I do believe that Roald Dohl does deserve his criticism. HOWEVER, I do not believe Dohl’s writing should be rewritten as a result from it. For all older properties, we need to see them as products of their time and the author’s background. Like you said, Dohl had amazing depictions of children that everyone can relate to, and that should not be forgotten about. If penguin wants children’s literature to be more inclusive, they should put their focus on newer works written by authors today, and I think authors today can learn a lot from Dohl’s depiction of children and the adults in their lives.

I grew up loving his books, my father read me James and the giant peach and the twits, and I still really like them. There’s also a lot in his books I find offensive and stupid, and I don’t agree with a lot of Dahl’s personal beliefs which bleed into the books quite a lot, but that doesn’t mean that there is EVER an excuse to go back and rewrite his work. That is abhorrent. One can make up their own mind on wether they still want to buy or read his books, and wether you want your kids exposed to certain things, but if you don’t simply don’t buy them. The fact that they have the audacity to rewrite them (and in such stupid ways to boot) makes me furious

Its unfortunate that Dahl held these horrid beliefs about minority groups, as a ND kid growing up with his books I appreciated how his child protagonists were human and treated as individuals. I especially related to Matilda because of her strength in the face of an unjust authority figure as at the time I was dealing with adults in my life who only cared about control. Kids are smarter than we give them credit for we just keep comparing them to how adults function or off of how convenient and pleasant in demeanour they are and if we treated kids like individuals then I imagine the world would be a bit happier of a place

How are you not a bigger channel? This is better than 95% of the "video essay" summaries edited by AI you see on this garbage heap of a website. Great work.

Man people really think children can’t handle the word “ugly”, once I heard a 9 yr old say the b word and no one cared, and yet people think kids will start crying if they here the word “ugly”, also I get make the Oompa Loompas little people and not little men, even though it’s only change of wording, but why are they now Abstinent? Them drinking wine or beer is not gonna make children cry or drink beer

They shouldn't rewrite these books, they're a part of his time and is someone's work. This is madness!

I think this is a perfect example of how people aren't always one sided good or bad. Dahl had his good sides, and his bad sides which deserve criticism. But no one can be completely perfectly.

I'm pretty sure his last words were "Ow! Fuck!"

Changing literature to suit the current times. George Orwell warned us. Now here we are.

Roald Dahl was probably my favorite author as a kid and reading The Witches for the first time was an experience I’ll always remember. I think people forget that someone can do great things but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily a great person.

i feel like the original of any story is important, it’s like a piece of history wrapped up in someone’s mind. beautiful and tragic stories of life and death, tales of mystical creatures and monsters, breaking and bonding relationships. the love, hate and every emotion brought out in his stories are straight from his own mind, he’s eloquent and intelligent, and just a man that was a boy, writing and living and feeling

Bro grew up in South Africa we loved this guy. Still look up to him. His stories just stand out

I agree with putting children in a ditch, my reasoning for this is that kids are smart, when I was a child I was independent. When I didn’t know how to play a video game I’d figure it out. Now whenever I’m with little kids and they ask for help, I tell them figure it out, and then they do. Kids have wild imaginations and think differently than us, if we just always help them we restrict their creativity and make them too dependent on others.

being angry for such words is genuinely silly and childish, and shows just how sensitive adults have become to represent children they no longer are nor ever will be

The whole point about the Oompa Loompas is that Wonka is a terrible person. Dahl recognizes Wonka's factory is a death trap, and he certainly knows the OLs are being exploited. That's what makes the book funny.

To this day I vividly remember my primary school teacher reading “Danny the Champion of the World” to our class and I was utterly enthralled by it. Ever since then I’ve been a fan of his work, if not for him I wouldn’t be anywhere near as interested in literature.

The “need” to stop someone’s art-by actively distorting it-reflects desperation. They fear the art.

This just makes me sad, I hate when this kind of thing happens. It doesn’t matter what a book says it matters how they learn to react from it. If every book is some kind of happy wonderful fairy tale you’re living in a fantasy world. I know as a child I loved Dahl and plenty other dark books.

Lived just a few roads away from me

The man is a writer and artist. Do not change his work. Of one doesn't like it, do not read it. Would we repaint an artist's painting if someone was offended by it?

Something you didn't touch upon was that His family said that he wasn't anti-semitic which I guess you could doubt their claims, as they have a reason to. But his publisher (I think it was him) was jewish and said that he would say these things to get a rise out of people, and said that it didn't actually reflect his true beliefs. Pretty much everyone that was close to him would say that he would say things just to get a reaction out of people and a lot of the stuff he said doesn't reflect what he believed. It sounds like he just had a twisted way to tease people and given the times he lived in, probably wasn't aware of the impact his jokes would have. You have to remember he grew up in a British schools and when you consider the other people of that time (Bowie, Beatles, etc) they often had that "humour to them where they would say things to get the media to react to them, rather than actually say what they believed.

This is an excellent and concise piece about Dahl's works but I wish you'd discussed more about how widespread these changes actually are. Are schools removing older copies and replacing them with these versions? Are teachers and parents generally on board with this change, or is this just a few loud folks getting too much attention? I find that a lot of headlines about political correctness are drawn from one or two people making a big stink and then journalists make it sound like there's a whole widespread outrage. It would be great to hear more about public reactions and the effects of this publishing decision. If many teachers are onboard, or if everyone is angry, either way it would be interesting to dissect.

It's so fucking tragic that people would start rewriting a dead man's work AGAINST HIS WISHES just to get brownie points from Twitter. It's tragic.

I loved his books when i was a child. Why are they re-writing classics.

I find the concept of children being illiterate to be quite inaccurate, based on my own experience as a child myself. I remember watching Bones, a crime drama with lots of gore (specifically dissecting corpses to find how they died) with my mother when I was around 7-10. Even disregarding that considering it is an anomaly, I watched National Geographic and Animal Planet since I was 6. Brain Games was one of my favourite shows and there was another (can't remember the name) which scientifically showed the best way to tie shoes and pick a lock. Despite only being 6, I was able to enjoy and understand these shows. And I was able to enjoy books too. Furthermore, the idea of having to represent every child doesn't even need to be there. I am a Chinese guy born in Australia who has mostly lived in South East Asia. Despite this, I was able to relate a lot to Matilda who is a British girl who lived in Britain. I was 12 when I read it and was in secondary school at that point and I related a lot with her due to her constant use of pranks to get back at people who did bad things to her, the annoyance she felt with how everyone underestimated her (I was a gifted child, but not a prodigy) and how she saw the people in her school such as her senior and her teachers. You don't need to make a new character for each individual demographic. Do that and you'll have a bloated cast and you won't get anything done. The average child may be less intelligent than the average adult, but they are not completely idiotic. Making a few characters with relatable traits is enough for anyone, including a child, to see themselves in that character. Even at my very impressionable age of 7 when I first read The Witches, I was still able to understand that they were not meant to represent all women (hell I didn't even know if those witches were even human) and when reading The Twits at that same age, I was able to understand that they were not detestable because of their appearance but because they were just really bad people. The only book that I can think of which may not be good for kids may be Esio Trot, but even then they'd probably be able to tell that the protagonist is an a-hole. Like Roald said, his sins may be scarlet but his books were read. He is not perfect, definitely not, but no one is. For his time, that was a moral blind spot and we cannot judge people in the past to the same standards we judge them now. Judge them based on the morals of their era. And even with that, his books are seperate from his antisemitism, minus that one book, meaning thst reading it is completely fine.

Excellent work. Glad YT reccomended this.

One of my favorite authors as a kid. It is a shame that we have to walk on eggshells

When I saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory as a 6 year old in theatres in 1972, when Violet Bouregard turned purple and blew up into a balloon, it scared me to death. But I wouldn't want them to change things, this gender neutral shit is annoying enough in new works, let alone rewriting classics. Its good to know how things used to be.

As a child I read so many of his poetry books this man’s a legend

I loved his works as a kid. They were not only the first chapter books I'd read, they were my favorites.

I often forget how many adapted films and shows are Dahl works, as they continue to be popular and relevant today. Thanks for putting this in a modern context, it’s a a stark difference compared to children’s literature today.

Im LGBT+ and a hater of racism so I suppose im a supporter of modern sensitivity stuff. But I think censorship of old works is a really bad thing, the world isnt all sunshine and lollipops and kids arent stupid and should learn about the history of what our world was like in the past.

Not a big fan of the weird jumpy editing when showing text, it makes it look like you are encouraging reading along (something I like to do) but the editing makes it hard/frustrating to do. Either show text legibility, or don’t show it at all. But overall great video!!

Oh my god... How snowflakes change everything. I grew up reading "The Witches" and every time I saw a bald woman I wouldn't think that she was a witch. People just can't make a difference between reality and fiction anymore.

I grew up on Roald Dahl, the original him. It makes me sad that some kids won't now.

Absolutely stunning mini essay, you had good flow and I love how you segue between ideas smoothly and with great visuals to back it up. Great work dude, you can definitely capture someone’s attention and maintain it. 👏

I don’t really agree with the editing of his works, I do believe that kids deserve much more credit than adults often give them. If there’s anything that hasn’t aged well, then explain it to your kids. I’m fine with like maybe a preface saying “these books are of their time” or something kind of like what they do with the Looney Tunes shorts. Dahl was bigoted in a lot of ways but he at least trusted children more so than a lot of adults which is a recurring theme of his work

Censorship erases the artist's vision. Sigh.

Incredible video. Very well written and edited beautifully 🙌 just subbed

As a kid I read some of his stories and I found each one had a dark side to it that made me uneasy. It also put things into perspective because my childhood wasn't that troubled.

The quote is by Hilaire Belloc, another kid's book writer who preceded Roald Dahl - 'When I am dead, I hope it may be said: His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.' His short story "Matilda who told lies..." always struck me as having some, tangential, connection to Roald Dahl's character of the same name.

Dahl is a controversial figure and there does need to be some discussion on him as a person but never in my life did I think he was phobic of any person or type when it came to his books. I don't think it's right that his work needs to be amended to suit the newer generations but I also think to quell those people who do complain an introduction explaining that it was a different time or brief trigger warning can be implemented. It doesn't wash away his original text but satisfies those who take issue with it. Or those who complain could simply not read those books?

I knew Roal Dahl’s friend’s son and grandson

I must commend the makers of this video. It’s rare to see an unbiased portrayal of a subject older than 20 yrs of age that is depicted warts and all without the need to demonize or apologize. Even the greatest individual has faults and opinions/viewpoints once accepted that now are outdated or unacceptable. Keep up the good work. Allow your audience to decide.

I don't have a problem with updating language in beloved children's books, I want them to remain relevant as they were for me as a child. So change 'queer' for 'strange' because that's how he used it in the originals; update the amount of money Charlie finds so children can better understand and imagine themselves there; and by all means change some of the descriptions of protagonists so they focus on their character flaws rather than finger-point at their looks. But only where it doesn't interfere with the story or undermine Dahl's own voice. He was a product of his time and his experiences and he was always on the side of children finding their way through tough circumstances to triumph. That is what will and should always remain.

He was the first author that got me reading and thinking i think it's a disgrace they edited them

I have always been a big fan of Roald Dahl, even writing a biography of him when I was younger, But I have never heard of these censorships- or the racism- It’s literally the only stuff that wasn’t the biography I made. You’d make a great teacher!

Glad I read these unedited

Love this channel!

I fully understand changes to make the language a bit more inclusive - it presents the books to a wider audience - but changes to protect children from language they're going to be exposed to throughout their lives won't help anyone

I would 100% read the originals to them if I have any children in the future, on the off chance I come across anything that actually is offensive/problematic I can deal with that myself.

As long as we have the old versions knocking about, I'm down with this

The majority of the things are just ridiculous just descriptive or biological the only thing that actually was offensive was the oompa loompa thing defo pretty racist

“Representing every child”? How? No book can represent every child. It would be better to let the representation happen naturally and not forced in

Class video. Good luck with the future of this channel.

I pray people keep old copys of his books even as pdf files

Gotta hand it to centrist liberals, man… no other political group can look at a wildly problematic book, cut out literally everything that’s not offensive leaving only the actually derogatory parts, and then get mad at you for not acting like they are MLK, quite like they can!

I think it's simply disrespectful to change the work of Dahl when he clearly didn't want it to happen when he was alive. It's also important to see how media has change and evolved throughout the decades. Things that were acceptable then isn't now and people (children in particular) need to see that while it may not be acceptable to call someone fat or ugly, that was accepted then and it'll stop us from going backwards in terms of cultural acceptance. You wouldn't change how Shakespeare is written when it would perfect sense to make it more accessible to readers but we don't because its Shakespeare. It should be the same for Dahl. Also how Mrs. Twit is now not described as ugly is ridiculous. The pictures show that she is in fact ugly both inside and out. It was her ugly thoughts that altered her appearance with time and it's a good for children to know that you don't have to conventionally beautiful to be called as such as in the very same book, it describes a woman who doesn't have the most desirable features but is still beautiful because of her personality. Mrs. Twit appearance is supposed to represent her ugly personality. Also also, the witches were also described as not women. They may try to act like women but they are a separate creature that ISN'T a woman. The gran literally says (I may have misquoted but it was similar) "They may look like ordinary women but they are demons disguised as women" And there was nothing saying that men where better than women in that book. This is a long comment but Dahl is my favorite childhood author and heavily inspired the way I write perspectives of people who are in terrible situations and have to try and work around what they can't change. I will defend him if he can't do it himself. RIP Roald Dahl, you don't deserve to have your books changed like this.

The censorship makes my stomach turn. It’s terrifying.

I will always have my children read the originals

One of the things I like about older children's books/media is that they don't think kids are stupid

Having his books rewritten is so dystopian and wrong

Great video mate Keep it up 👍

great video! i’m realizing now when looking at and hearing Roald Dahl for myself, i now imagine a movie made about him; and i just see and hear Willem Dafoe playing Dahl

Oh, *very* nicely done -- great development of your thesis, excellent use of clips and animation

Roald Dahl lived around the corner from my grandmother in Llandaff, Cardiff. They knew eachother well. I miss her so much.

Words like ‘queer’ and ‘gay’ had different meanings back then, I understand why Puffin removed it but readers should understand they’re reading old books. Roald Dahl meant queer as in strange or weird, and gay is everywhere in Shakespeare though it meant fun back then.

Some of these "changes" really feel like they happened because of woke modern audiences like why the hell does a word like "crazy" need to be censored.

Literally censorship bruh...💀

i grew up reading rhold dhal and never saw any problem with it!!!!!i was 11 when i started reading him!!this is absolutely absurd that the publishers did this and outright wrong.i absolutly love the originals and always will.fantastic job!!

I'm pretty woke, but I'm against changing a work to fit modern sensibilities. A foreword should suffice.

Brilliant man, brilliant video! I'm glad to have grown up early 2000s reading his work!

In my opinion when you delete history, you repeat history…

Awsome job amazing video and a very intereting topic

This video was fantastic! You'll have 100k subs in no time...

I read a great many Dahl books with my kids when they were young and as a youngster did the same. The overriding thing for me was that he never insulted kids intelligence and gave them agency. For that I'm grateful, because it showed children that they are capable and can overcome fear. He's one of modern history's great authors, regardless of any controversial views he might have held.

Editing these books to what we think is "good" now is such a bad idea. Like I don't see the point of removing the word black as a colour or turning an ugly character to a good looking one? They treat children like idiots now.

GOD DAMN! I watched this all the way through before i clocked your sub count, how the actual fuck do you ONLY have 495 subs while ur pumping out quality of hits magnitude? Thats criminal, i hope this stands as some sort of mark and we come back in a few months and its more like 4.9k, the effort you put in clearly shows and i was genuinenly shocked ur sub count wasnt higher!

The fact that the tractors can’t be described as black is outrageous and almost comical

I didn’t realize how awful he was as a person. This is disappointing

children will only see a problem with dahl’s books if they’re told there’s a problem. i never saw any problems when i was a child and while dahl had his controversies that need to be discussed his books shouldn’t be completely changed!

My brother always talks about how the world is doomed because the next generation is filled with idiots. I always respond with "Children are way smarter than anybody gives them credit for. Should they know we got their back? Of course, but we shouldn't act like they're dipshits eating crayons for lunch like a fucking marine."

This is how 1984 warned except it's in a different light changing books to be how you want not how it originally was is dystopic