Roald Dahl and the Vanilla Factory

On Friday, the British newspaper the Telegraph ran a story revealing that new editions of works by the popular children’s novelist Roald Dahl include hundreds of changes to the deceased author’s writing. Dahl’s publisher, Puffin, performed what is known as a “sensitivity read,” in which people working in the names of authenticity and inclusion render someone else’s writing as anodyne and dull as possible. Except sensitivity readers usually suggest changes to drafts by a living author before publication rather than making them to works — including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and The Witches — that have been read by generations of children but have yet to inspire witch hunts or the enslavement of pygmies.