Have you ever read a book and wondered if it was properly translated into your language?
Have you ever read an abridgment you weren’t satisfied with?
Did you feel like something was missing?
What do you think about publishers revising old books?
Do you allow for changes in language as you read literature from different time periods?
These (and many more) questions make up a definite and ongoing debate in the literary circles of our age. Where do we draw the line? How far should publishers go in re-writing books long after the authors are dead? Are you okay with giving them the responsibility in knowing what might offend you? What happens when, 30 years down the road, it’s revised yet again? Will it be like the original at all at this point?
There’s a good chance you’ve heard of censorship happening in various situations these days–from books to movies to statues to you name it. The message is clear: word choices and story styling would rather be lost to avoid offending the outspoken feelings-led people of our time. And this even when it is known that the author intended to offend to communicate a point, thereby losing its message entirely.
Much more could be said and discussed regarding this heated topic. I myself have many more thoughts. However, I’ve decided to use this post as a landing point for any publishers’ responses to the subject of subjectivity. Whenever I review a revised book, I will make note and point to this post for full disclosure purposes. Please see below for verbatim responses from publishers.
Purple House Press:
If “Slightly revised” is on the copyright page of one of our books it means we’ve replaced some words which are considered divisive at this time, even though they were considered to be fine at the time the text was written. Or they could be words whose meanings have changed over the years—we replace them so you don’t have to switch them out on the fly when you’re reading aloud to your children. We also take out references to tobacco if it leaves the essence of the story unchanged. If found, typos in the original text are corrected. This happens more frequently than you might think!
We consider these revisions to be minor and do not keep a list of changes per book. For purists, the original books are still out there and are cheaper now that we’ve reprinted them.