Sweet baby Buddha, Charles, I’m only a third of the way toward my complete Wodehouse collection! Don’t give them any more ideas! I get that this is supposed to be a reductio ad absurdum, but irony and satire are feeble weapons against such literal-minded philistines.
I do wonder if this Dahl episode, like the Seuss episode of a couple years ago, represents a new front in the culture wars. Do we have to worry about the estates of unfashionable authors falling into the hands of woke dogmatists who then give their legal blessing for “sensitivity readers” to set about bowdlerizing the original works? Maybe we should start building our samizdat networks now, fellows.
February 22, 2023 @ 6:48 pm
This new front in the culture wars may yet provide (when our present-day zanies sink in their mire) great employment for future literary scholars, searching and determining legitimate texts, restoring them in printed editions — and writing commentaries which, in best cases, will add a dash of salt for future readers to savor.
February 24, 2023 @ 9:52 am
I admire and appreciate your optimism!