Here is another decision that will not fail to infuriate a slice of the public, especially those who perceive the notorious “dictatorship of political correctness” as a real threat.
After Roald Dahl ‘s novels (which will eventually be released in the original version), it turns out that those of Ian Fleming , centered on the famous secret agent James Bond , have also been modified by the publisher to meet modern sensibilities.
The news is reported by The Sunday Telegraph . The publisher in question, Ian Fleming Publications , which holds the rights to the 007 novels, has commissioned a re-reading of the books to some selected readers, to go and modify the text in case of racial epithets or other badly aged words, and no more compatible with current sensitivity.
The James Bond novels will be reprinted in April, to mark the character’s 70th anniversary, and will come with a disclaimer:
This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes, which today might be considered offensive by modern readers, were common. Some updates have been made to this edition, while remaining as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set.
Apparently, many of the changes will affect the terms used to define people of color, which will be replaced with “Black person” or “Black man”. Ian Fleming himself was in favor of these kinds of changes and had approved those to Live and Let Die before his death in 1964.
A spokesperson for Ian Fleming Publications said:
We at Ian Fleming Publications have reviewed the text of the original Bond novels and decided the best course of action was to follow Ian’s lead. We made changes to Live and Let Die that he authorized himself. Following Ian’s approach, we looked at the examples of different racial terms in the books and removed a number of individual words, or replaced them with terms that are more accepted today, but consistent with the period in which the novels were written .