The James Bond series of books, written by Ian Fleming, will be re-edited to remove the racist content contained in the original works. According to the British newspaper The Telegraph, the books will be re-released from April, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of ‘Casino Royale’, Bond’s literary debut, and will carry warnings to readers about the release.
Each book will begin with a disclaimer that the work was written “at a time when terms and attitudes that might be considered offensive by modern readers were common.” Then you will be informed that “several updates have been made in this edition, keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it takes place,” reported the newspaper.
One major change made to the books involves a pejorative term Fleming commonly used to refer to black people. The term in question has been completely removed and replaced with “colored person” or “black man”.
But that wasn’t the only change. In “Live and Let Die” (1954), for example, James Bond originally referred to Africans in the gold and diamond trade as “pretty respectable people, I would say, except when they drink too much.” This was changed to “respectable enough guys, I should think”.
In another scene from the book, the protagonist is in a Harlem strip club and the book says that “Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at a water trough. He felt his own hands gripping the tablecloth. His mouth was dry.” . That description was replaced with: “Bond could feel the electrical voltage in the room.”
Other content, such as references made to black characters’ accents, have been completely removed, as well as references to certain characters’ ethnicities appearing in “007 against Blackmail Atomic” (1961), “007 Against Blackmail Atomic” (1960) and “007 vs. Goldfinger” (1959).
It is worth mentioning that these changes were proposed by Ian Fleming Publications and did not go against the wishes of the author. In fact, Ian Fleming himself had authorized changes to the American edition of Live and Let Die before his death in 1964.
“We at Ian Fleming Publications reviewed the text of the original Bond books and decided our best option was to follow Ian’s lead. We made changes to ‘Live and Let Die’ which he authorized,” said l editor at The Telegraph.
“Following Ian’s approach, we have analyzed the occurrences of various racial terms throughout the books and either removed a number of individual words or replaced them with terms that are more accepted today but attuned to the period in which the books are been written.”
“We encourage people to read the books themselves when new books are released in April,” concluded Ian Fleming Publications.
This is the second initiative of its kind this year which has just started. Two weeks ago, children’s books by Roald Dahl (author of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”) underwent a similar process to remove content deemed offensive such as “fat” and “crazy”.
Source: Terra
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