I am very disappointed in the people praising the censoring / editing of Roald Dahl's books.
Let me tell you a little story.
About five years ago I decided to re-visit Treasure Island. I found an unabridged version. I was surprised to discover that Long John Silver had a black lover. Because the book used the term "n--ress" the mention of her was removed from many American editions of the book when I grew up.
Note: I am not saying they removed the N word. I am saying they removed her *all together.* I didn't know Long John Silver had a love interest until I was in my thirties and read an unabridged version of the novel.
It revealed so much about the story that I hadn't noticed before.
1. That Long John Silver believed in love despite what was considered a cultural norm of the time. He didn't care about what others considered proper and he was in love.
2. It shows that even Robert Louis Stevenson acknowledged the existence of interracial couples and yet no movie version I can think of addressed this until the TV series Black Sails.
3. It helped remind me of the culture of the era in which Treasure Island takes place and when it was written, the stigma against interracial relationships that existed in America right into the twentieth century and in some places is still a thing.
Sometimes books tell us more than just a story. They show us how a world was once viewed.
I felt like this was an important discovery, that Long John Silver had a black lover (or wife). And I was even a little angry that I had been robbed of this in previous readings of the book.
I think the removal of words like "Fat" and "ugly" from Roald Dahl's books does us a disservice. It "cleans up" the past and denies a chance for us to learn some of the less pleasant aspects of the past and how and why language has changed since then. What should be a teaching point and experience is lost in the name of sensitivity.
I felt cheated and it even felt a little racist that Long John Silver's love interest isn't mentioned in many editions of Treasure Island. And I feel that one day there may be similar feelings if people discover they aren't reading the original versions of Dahl's books.
Try to remember the original reason Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451. It wasn't about an evil government taking away people's blooks. It was about this group and that group getting offended at various titles until they just banned everything to try to make everyone happy.
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The Season 2 Poster Details
From top to bottom :)
This is a Buddy Holly song Everyday which was originally supposed to be the Good Omens theme :)
Neil talks about it in the Introduction to the Script Book: “In the scripts, Buddy Holly’s song ‘Every Day’ runs through the whole like a thread. It was something that Terry had suggested in 1991, and it was there in the edit. Our composer, David Arnold, created several different versions of ‘Every Day’ to run over the end credits. And then he sent us his Good Omens theme, and it was the Good Omens theme. Then Peter Anderson made the most remarkable animated opening credits to the Good Omens theme, and we realised that ‘Every Day’ didn’t really make any sense any longer, and, reluctantly, let it go. It’s here, though. You can hum it.”
And there is also the Buddy Holly Everyday record! :)
Book The Crow Road by Iain Banks. The novel describes Prentice McHoan's preoccupation with death, sex, his relationship with his father, unrequited love, sibling rivalry, a missing uncle, cars, alcohol and other intoxicants, and God, against the background of the Scottish landscape
Book Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. An early and primary event in the story is the abandonment of a passenger ship in distress by its crew, including a young British seaman named Jim. He is publicly censured for this action and the novel follows his later attempts at coming to terms with himself and his past and seeking redemption and acceptance.
Important themes in Lord Jim include the consequences of a single, poor decision, the indifference of the universe, and the inability to know oneself or others.
There is book The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson. Its characters were based on criminals in the employ of real-life surgeon Robert Knox (1791–1862) around the time of the notorious Burke and Hare murders (1828). Neil said: Oddly enough, episode 3 will take us to a little stint of body snatching in the era.
There is Catch-22 book by Joseph Heller that coined the term Catch-22: situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations.
Is there only one hand or are there two? :) EIther 6 ;), or 6:30 :).
Through the window we can see the coffeeshop Give Me Coffe or Give Me Death where Nina works! :)
Azi is wearing his nifty glasses :).
Crowley is wearing his new glasses, they are RIGARDS X UMA WANG - THE STONE ECLIPSE (VINTAGE BLACK/BLACK STONES) - $435
There is the Holy Bible Aziraphale used in Season 1 :)
There seems to be a broken phone :).
The cakes behind Aziraphale are Eccles cakes :).
Azi is reading A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens published in 1859, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris, and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.
Another book there is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - Neil said said that we will learn a lot about Jane Austin we didn’t know before.
And finally the Treasure Island book by - again :) - Robert Louis Stevenson, an adventure novel with pirates.
There are three geckos cuties. Who are they? Pets? Is Ligur haunting the bookshop? Who knows :).
A mysterious pamphlet, 'The Resurrectionists’ leaflet. (unofficial spoiler :)).
Also there is an old camera... mmm 🤔 Did Azi made some photos (of what? Him and Crowley, ducks? :)) Will we see them? :)
Their positions is an homage to the book covers! :)(x)
Will update this as fandom discovers new things! :)❤
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Battle of the Captains
Round 3 Part 2 Poll 2
Propaganda
Captain Flint was the captain of a pirate ship, The Walrus, which accumulated an enormous amount of captured treasure. On August 1, 1750, Flint and six members of his crew bury the plunder on an island located somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. Flint then murders his six assistants, leaving the corpse of one with its arms outstretched in the direction of the buried treasure. The location of the treasure had been marked by Flint on a map and while he was dying it entrusted to his first mate William "Billy" Bones. The only person Flint was said to fear was his quartermaster John Silver, who later even called his parrot "Captain Flint" in mockery.
[The poll runner -hi !- has been informed that Nemo is so against propaganda he'd refuse to use any for his sake]
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