The fourteen volumes of the adventures of James Bond will be released in the United Kingdom in the spring purged of their racist references.
After the books of Roald Dahl, it is the turn of the work of Ian Fleming to be modified. According to the British newspaper The Telegraphwhich last week revealed the rewrite of the classics of the author of Charlie and the chocolate factorythe novels of the series James Bond will be edited to remove racist passages.
The fourteen volumes of the adventures of James Bond will be reissued in April on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Casino Royale, the first episode of the series. Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, the company that owns the literary rights to the work, called on “sensivity readers”, whose role is to identify phrases or situations in the manuscripts that are offensive to ethnic or sexual minorities.
According The Telegraphthe following text will accompany the novels: “This book was written at a time when words and attitudes which could be considered offensive were trivialized. Updates have been made in this edition while trying to stay as close as possible possible from the original text and the time of its creation.”
Not the first time
Among the changes are descriptions of black people (the word “nigger” has been replaced with “black person”). James Bond’s remarks about Asian people (notably Oddjob, Goldfinger’s Korean henchman) remain unchanged, however.
This isn’t the first time Ian Fleming’s novels have been altered. As reminded The Telegraph, Fleming had authorized before his death in 1964 to modify the sex scenes of his books for the American public. He had also reduced references to the ethnicity of his characters in the American edition of Live and Let Die.
“We reread the texts of the original books and decided that the best solution was to follow what Ian had done. The changes we made to Live and Let Die were those he himself authorized,” Ian Fleming Publications said in a statement.
“Based on what he had done, we took all the occurrences of racist words in his books and removed a lot of the words and replaced them with others that are more acceptable today. – while trying to stay consistent with the time when these books were written,” the company adds. “We urge people to read these books when the new editions come out.”
“Always be appreciated nowadays”
Last week, British publisher Puffin announced that several books by Roald Dahl like Mathilda, holy witches or Charlie and the chocolate factory had been rewritten to remove words deemed offensive. The aim of the publisher, with the collaboration of Roald Dahl’s heirs, is to ensure that its classics “can still be enjoyed today by everyone”.
Several descriptions of the physical appearance of the characters have been reworded as a result. The use of neutral terms has also been systematized. According to the Roald Dahl Story Company, the company that oversees Dahl’s work, “it is not unusual to revisit certain language elements” when a new edition comes out. The changes – estimated at several hundred – were “minimal and have been carefully considered”, the company says.