The Off Topic Topic

[Admiral Yi]

I learned last night that Roald Dahl was the screenwriter for a Bond movie.

[The Larch]

I learned last night that Roald Dahl was the screenwriter for a Bond movie.

Yeah, he wrote the script for You only Live Twice, and also for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which was also based on an Ian Fleming novel. He was also meant to write the script for the 1971 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie, but because he kept blowing deadlines the studio got another writer to complete it, although Dahl is the only credited scriptwriter.

The reference to Bond might be a coincidence, but... 

James Bond novels to be reissued with racial references removed
The changes to the spy novels include the removal of the N-word and omitting references to the ethnicity of minor characters

Ian Fleming's James Bond novels are to be reissued with a number of racial references removed and a disclaimer that the books might use terms of attitudes "considered offensive by modern readers".

April marks 70 years since Casino Royale, Fleming's first book featuring British spy Bond, was published. To mark the occasion, a full set of the thrillers will be reissued.

Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, which owns the rights to the author's work, employed sensitivity readers to look at the texts and make recommendations for changes. The changes include the removal of the N-word in almost all cases, and omitting references to the ethnicity of a number of minor characters.

The reissued books will also carry a disclaimer, according to the Telegraph, which will explain the changes and will read: "This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace.

"A number of updates have been made in this edition, while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set."

Many of the changes in the Bond books are around the depiction of Black people. In Live and Let Die, Bond's comment that would-be African criminals in the gold and diamond trades are "pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought, except when they've drunk too much" has been changed to just "pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought", says the Telegraph.

Another change comes in a scene where Bond visits a nightclub in Harlem, and a reference to the "audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough" has been changed to "Bond could sense the electric tension in the room".

A statement from Ian Fleming Publications to the Telegraph said that they had "reviewed the text of the original Bond books and decided our best course of action was to follow Ian's lead".

"We have made changes to Live and Let Die that he himself authorised," the statement continued. "Following Ian's approach, we looked at the instances of several racial terms across the books and removed a number of individual words or else swapped them for terms that are more accepted today but in keeping with the period in which the books were written."

They encouraged "people to read the books for themselves" when they are reissued.

The changes come after a furore over changes made to books by Roald Dahl, which saw the texts changed after a review by sensitivity readers.

Changes to Dahl's books in the 2022 editions include using "enormous" rather than "enormously fat" to describe the antagonist Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and "beastly" rather than "ugly and beastly" to describe Mrs Twit in The Twits.

In response to criticism, Dahl's publisher Puffin, the children's imprint of Penguin Random House, said it would release the author's works in their original versions as well as the new texts.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I thought he wrote Moonraker too for some reason, but apparently not.

I think he hated most of the adaptations of his books for Hollywood. I know he loathed The Witches because they changed the ending - which I think was almost impossible to put in a Hollywood kids film even if it is great and works in the book

[Tamas]

omitting references to the ethnicity of minor characters

OMG they are turning the books into an all-white cast!

[The Larch]

Yeah I thought he wrote Moonraker too for some reason, but apparently not.

The interesting trivia about Moonraker is that apparently Spielberg was considered as director for the film but was turned down. 

I think he hated most of the adaptations of his books for Hollywood. I know he loathed The Witches because they changed the ending - which I think was almost impossible to put in a Hollywood kids film even if it is great and works in the book

He also hated the 1971 version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as well. 

And I can perfectly undestand changing the ending of The Witches, it is pretty grim if I remember correctly.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I think Hollywood were right - for Hollywood.

But the ending works as the end of a book from Dahl. It was pretty traumatising as a kid. But, as I say, I think that's the thing that I remember about Dahl's books as a kid and why I think they're good. They were gross, they were pretty dark and scary in places and they weren't simple lessons. They take kids seriously and have real emotional weight and ambiguity - in my head they're the first books that felt like real books to me.

[Josquius]

Incidentally. Fuck David Walliams.

[The Larch]

Incidentally. Fuck David Walliams.

Isn't that one of the Little Britain guys? What has he done?

[Sheilbh]

Isn't that one of the Little Britain guys? What has he done?

He's been writing loads of kids books - I think they're trying to be Dahl-ish (lots of gross out stuff) but are not good.

[The Larch]

Isn't that one of the Little Britain guys? What has he done?

He's been writing loads of kids books - I think they're trying to be Dahl-ish (lots of gross out stuff) but are not good.

I was expecting a juicier controversy than him not being a talented writer of kid books. 

[Duque de Bragança]

The interesting trivia about Moonraker is that apparently Spielberg was considered as director for the film but was turned down. 

I guess it also explains the use of the Close Encounters of Third Kind theme a Moonraker.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Incidentally. Fuck David Walliams.

Isn't that one of the Little Britain guys? What has he done?

There is some concern here that celebrity writers are crowding more talented authors out of the market. I'm not convinced that they are as people who buy celebrity pap are probably not great purchasers of books with literary merit (whatever that is    ).

[garbon]

Isn't that one of the Little Britain guys? What has he done?

He's been writing loads of kids books - I think they're trying to be Dahl-ish (lots of gross out stuff) but are not good.

I was expecting a juicier controversy than him not being a talented writer of kid books. 

It is very clear his style of humor has not aged well.

Only recent scandal he had, that I know of, was the hot mic incident that led to him being dismissed from Britain's got talent.

[The Brain]

It doesn't reflect well on the copyright holders to publish works that they themselves consider offensive, just to make a buck. Cleaned up or not.

[The Brain]

Has there been any cleaned up version of LOTR published yet btw?