'Let me decide what I'm offended by': Tom Hanks on book censorship row

‘Let me decide what I’m offended by’: Tom Hanks wades into book censorship row as he says he’ll boycott works edited for ‘modern sensitivities’ – after backlash at publishers rewriting Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie novels

• The Forrest Gump star, 66, insisted ‘we’re all grown-ups here’  

Tom Hanks has vowed to boycott any book that is re-written to avoid offending ‘modern sensitivities’, insisting that he himself will decide what to be offended by. 

The Forrest Gump star, 66, waded into the book censorship row during a pre-recorded interview on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday. 

Arts Correspondent Rebecca Jones had asked the Toy Story actor for his thoughts on the retroactive editing of dead authors such as Roald Dahl and Agatha Christie. 

Publishers have sparked fury among literary fans in recent months by hiring sensitivity readers to make iconic works ‘less offensive’ – including removing words like ‘fat’, ‘mad’ and ‘old hag’. 

Giving his two cents, Hanks said: ‘Well, I’m of the opinion that we’re all grown-ups here. And we understand the time and the place and when these things were written. 

Tom Hanks has vowed to boycott any book that is re-written to avoid offending ‘modern sensitivities’, insisting that he himself will decide what to be offended by

Arts Correspondent Rebecca Jones had asked the Forrest Gump star for his thoughts on the retroactive editing of dead authors such as Roald Dahl (pictured) and Agatha Christie

READ MORE:  Rishi backs Roald Dahl fans in war with publisher over editing his beloved books: PM ‘agrees with BFG that you shouldn’t gobblefunk around with words’

‘And it’s not very hard at all to say: that doesn’t quite fly right now, does it?

‘Let’s have faith in our own sensibilities here, instead of having somebody decide what we may or may not be offended by.’

He added: ‘Let me decide what I am offended by and not offended by. I would be against reading any book from any era that says ”abridged due to modern sensitivities”.’

Hanks appeared on the show to plug his upcoming novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. 

His first book, a collection of short stories named Uncommon Type, was published in 2017 and sold more than 234,000 copies in the UK, inspiring him to start writing his new 448-page novel a year later. 

It comes after Sir Michael Morpurgo, 79, last month warned publishers against rewriting classic books to suit modern sensibilities.

The award-winning children’s novelist, whose works include War Horse, Private Peaceful and Friend or Foe, argued that if publishers ‘start nitpicking’ language that is now deemed controversial they will ‘never stop’.

Sir Michael argued that it is ‘really important’ that children read books and have an understanding of the time in which they were written. 

The author noted that over time society has developed ‘different attitudes’ towards certain words or expressions that are now ‘important to avoid’, but also believes that children should be aware of how ‘life was different, people were different’ before.

He told Radio Times: ‘We’ve learnt a lot that’s been very good, we’ve learnt a lot that’s rubbish. If you start the nitpicking, you never stop.

‘I think that it’s really important for children to read books and have some sense of when the books were written. You just cannot go on rewriting Dickens and rewriting Shakespeare to suit people.’

It was revealed in February that Puffin hired sensitivity readers to rewrite chunks of Dahl’s texts to ensure the books ‘can continue to be enjoyed by all today’. 

Hanks appeared on the BBC radio show to plug his upcoming book, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece 

It emerged in March that several passages in Agatha’s Poirot and Miss Marple had been reworked or stripped altogether from new editions of the books (Pictured: English detective novelist Agatha Christie in 1949) 

Considerable edits had been made to descriptions of characters’ physical appearances – the new editions no longer used the word ‘fat’, for example, which had been cut from every book, and the Oompa Loompas from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory were made to be gender neutral.

Elsewhere, in The Witches, ‘old hag’ was changed to ‘old crow’, while ‘you must be mad, woman’ became ‘you must be out of your mind’. And in Matilda, Miss Trunchbull no longer had a ‘great horsey face.’ 

Whoopi Goldberg slammed the decisions to remove ‘offensive’ content from Dahl’s books, as well as from Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels.

Speaking on the US talk show The View in February, the EGOT winner, 67, seemed particularly incensed by reports that the classic spy novels were being re-edited to remove racist content.

The publisher of the James Bond novels, Ian Fleming Publications, made the announcement shortly after Penguin Random House said that it would release edited versions of Roald Dahl’s novels. 

‘Y’all gotta stop this, OK?’ Goldberg said. ‘Just put a disclaimer on it that says, “Listen, this book was written at this time,” or [publish] the original.’

Most of her co-hosts on the morning talk show agreed with her – with the notable exception of Sunny Hostin, 54, who argued in favour of the woke changes.

But both publishers have since announced that they would continue to publish the original, un-edited versions following public outcry. 

It then emerged in March that several passages in Agatha’s Poirot and Miss Marple had been reworked or stripped altogether from new editions of the books.

Publisher HarperCollins eliminated text containing ‘insults or references to ethnicity’, as well as descriptions of certain characters’ physiques, The Telegraph reported.

Ms Christie’s works were the latest to undergo politically correct rewriting. Books by Ian Fleming and Enid Blyton were also edited over sensitivity concerns.

New editions of Ms Christie’s novels, reviewed by the newspaper, showed that editors had made ‘scores of changes’ to her books.

The novels, penned between 1920 and 1976, were stripped of sections of ‘unsympathetic’ dialogue, apparent insults and character descriptions.

For example, the word ‘Oriental’ had been removed from her 1937 mystery Death on the Nile, which follows sleuth Hercule Poirot as he investigates a murder on a luxury cruise.

The publisher changed dialogue of character of Mrs Allerton, who was complaining about pestering children. 

Sir Michael Morpurgo last month warned publishers against rewriting classic books to suit modern sensibilities

The original text said: ‘They come back and stare, and stare, and their eyes are simply disgusting, and so are their noses, and I don’t believe I really like children.’

The rewritten version reportedly reads: ‘They come back and stare, and stare. And I don’t believe I really like children.’

Similar changes were made in the 1964 novel A Caribbean Mystery, which tells the tale of detective Miss Marple’s holiday at a resort hotel in the West Indies.

Phrases including ‘such lovely white teeth’ and ‘beautiful teeth,’ which were used to described a smiling hotel worker, have been removed.

The book also no longer features text that described a female character as having ‘a torso of black marble such as a sculptor would have enjoyed.’

In later Miss Marple works, text has been changed from ‘his Indian temper’ to just ‘his temper’ when describing an Indian judge character who undergoes a fit of rage.

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