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This week there was
controversy stemming from a publisher's decision to edit versions of children's stories written by the late
Roald Dahl. The edits, whether inspired by Netflix (who according to
Forbes purchased the rights to Dahl's work) or the publisher
Puffin Books, sparked a public outcry and PR nightmare.
The publisher curated an alternative version to the original work from Dahl's
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, (a story later adapted to make the film,
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), ostensibly to remove insensitive terms.
There are several reasons why this ill-conceived, if well-intentioned attempt at inclusiveness -- a term becoming increasingly elastic -- failed miserably. I'm not discussing the evils of censorship today. Altering original art work to appeal to others is ill advised for another reason.....it's not theirs to change (and doing so can backfire).
One can obviously own the legal right to another's intellectual property, or the physical manifestation of it, say an oil painting. Yet, just because one has the enabling force of law to alter someone else's original art, doesn't make it right, or sensible, to add a few personal brushstrokes to a classic. Let me illustrate with an example.
There's an iconic rock n' roll song called,
"Fortunate Son", which was a protest song written about the
Vietnam War and recorded by Creedence Clearwater Revival ("CCR") in the late 1960s. It's a great song.
Now, imagine that I purchased the rights to that song and decided to publicly release a NEW version with lyrics, more to my personal liking. My justification might be that I want the song to appeal to Conservative listeners; so we need to update the original lyrics.
We'll leave untouched, the original arrangement, tempo, time signatures etc. but using the wizardry of modern sound engineering, we'll just tweak the vocals by dubbing in my new lyrics.
I rewrote those song lyrics below by crossing out some original words and adding new ones in bold font. I kept the syllable count of each line exactly the same. If you read the altered lyrics below, it won't take long to understand why changing someone else's popular artform to impart one's own worldview, is a bad idea and likely to mobilize intense opposition.
My apologies in advance to John Fogerty who wrote the song and to
CCR fans everywhere. I offer this wordsmithing below only to make a point. I "own" my edits and nothing more. Now cue the song, click MORE and let's rock!
Some folks are born made
to wave the flag wage class wars
Hoo, they're red, white and blue they love to rile you
And when the band plays "Hail to the chief"
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord and mock our Founders
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no senator's son, son pretend victim, no
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no unfortunate one, no
Some folks are born silver
spoon in hand to slander and point
Lord, don't can't they help themselves, Lord?
But when the taxman come to the door
Lord, the my house lookin' like a rummage sale, yeah it’s
theirs too, yeah
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no millionaire's Progressive son, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no unfortunate one, no
Yeah-yeah, some folks inherit proudly wear star-spangled eyes
Hoo, they send you down to war, Lord others trash the USA
And when you ask 'em, "How much should we give?"
Hoo, they only answer, "More, more, more, more"
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no military showboat Crusader son, son, Lord
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no unfortunate one, one
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no unfortunate one, no, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me
I ain't no unfortunate son, no, no, no
It ain't me, it ain't me...
