The literary executor of Usula K. Le Guin is allowing changes to her YA/youth books

[thewayne]

In this case, her executor is her son, so he does have firsthand knowledge of some of her thinking.

It's an interesting essay on a very tough issue, with good points and bad points - IMO. We've seen Road Dahl's publisher back off on updating his books and they've split their printing stream, still issuing original books under a different imprint. Ian Fleming's James Bond books are being revised to remove offensive language.

I find the second and third paragraphs before the end to be quite good and worth contemplation.

https://lithub.com/why-i-decided-to-update-the-language-in-ursula-k-le-guins-childrens-books/

Comments

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm really disgusted by all the censorship. It's hard to learn about other times and places when you can't see how they really wrote because somebody else messed with it. Sure some of it doesn't fit modern tastes. Don't like, don't read. If everything someone didn't like got censored, there'd be nothing left. Oh wait, that is what people are aiming for nowadays.

Re: Thoughts

[thewayne]

They need to censor the Bible: it advocates slavery, promiscuity, murder, incest, all sorts of horrible things.  I agree with you.  Modern books are being written with modern sensibilities and addressing sensitive subjects appropriately.  Leave previous stuff alone so they can be learned from.  They're time capsules as to how rotten things were, not that they're completely fixed now.

[disneydream06]

I see the market for used books growing in the near future. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

The story is interesting because it talks about the author herself making changes as documents age.  But personally, I think after the author dies and their direct input over how their work ends, they should be frozen in time.  Let contemporary books written with current sensibilities address things in a more compassionate and sensitive way. Can you imagine someone trying to edit Mark Twain?!

[disneydream06]

I couldn't agree more.
Current should take care of current issues. :o

[silveradept]

It sounds like the ultimate decision was that the language should be changed to avoid unintended bad meanings and which would keep the intended meanings of the sentences. That seems like a reasonable edit to make, and flagging up that the text has been changed from the original is useful. Even better if they include the original sentences in an index in the back, possibly with some explanation as to why things got changed.

[thewayne]

I really like the suggestion of your last sentence!  THAT would provide useful context for discussion and reflection.

[silveradept]

That's generally the thing that translators do, and sometimes, books of the past are really getting translated rather than merely edited, so it makes sense to include some useful notes in the back if you want to go to the effort.