cleansing books a no no

Those who don’t like sexual activity in a novel, and have the power to delete it from a manuscript, are killing in my mind a dead horse.

This happened to the late English author Roald Dahl whose latest books have become less vicious according to Tom Rachman, a contributing columnist to the Globe and Mail. This after a ‘cleansing edit by the late author’s publisher, who hopes books like his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory never offend again.”

“Roald Dahl was no angel,” Salman Rushdie has said, “ but this is absurd censorship.”

The same article mentioned the hundreds of changes to Mr. Dahl’s books include the removal of words like ‘fat’ and ‘crazy’. And this: A literary-freedoms group warned that, even if you approve of these alterations, you should worry about those with differing morals reworking other literature.

Author’s comment: Me, in a much smaller way, have published books most of them fiction, with passages of sexual activity which had never been chopped up by an editor to make them less sexy.

Some readers pass over these sections and carry on with the story. Others enjoy it, telling me it gave further depth and understanding to the characters. By the way our son Nathaniel grew up reading Roald Dahl uncensored and loved it.

KEEP AN EYE ON THIS

If you’re writing anything these days, such as a book, save a lot of grief

by having a copyright on it. Shrug it off and you might find yourself

in one hell of a mess.

If it happens and believe me you won’t know what hit you.

A copyright reads something like this.

‘No portion of this book may be reproduced

in whole or in part, by any means whatsoever,

except for passages excerpted for the purposes

of review, without prior written permission

of the publisher.’

Author’s comment: After all the work you've put into writing,

say a book, it'll makes you feel someone is on your side.

‘First edition. Printed in the USA.’

If this doesn’t put a grin on your face, I don’t know what will.