The cultural marxists are rewriting literature again

Shichibukai

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2059438/Pippi-Longstocking-books-branded-racist-German-theologian.html

"Dr Eske Wollrad, from Germany's Federal Association of Evangelical Women, has called on parents to skip certain passages or else explain to their children that they contain outdated colonial stereotypes.

She hit out at the Pippi Longstocking trilogy, written by author Astrid Lindgren and first published in 1945, at an anti-discrimination state conference in Leipzig at the weekend.

Dr Wollrad told German newspaper The Local: 'It is not that the figure of Pippi Longstocking is racist, but that all three in the trilogy of books have colonial racist stereotypes.' 

In the books, Pippi is an eight-year-old with superhuman strength who does not want to grow up and hates pompous adults."

Oh FFS. This is downright disrespectful to the author. The same thing happened to Tin Tin. 

I guess people are going to instantly jump on me and say "you just want a license to be bigoted," but these fools do not have a right to censor or rewrite someone else's masterpiece just because they find a few parts of it "offensive". No-one should have that right.It should be the same no matter if we're talking about Das Kapital, Anarchists' Cookbook, Mein Kampf, A Clockwork Orange, and so on. Political correctness and free speech are incompatible.

IanExMachina

^

Have you seen Tin Tin in The Congo though...

Shichibukai

I'm pretty sure I read it when I was younger... nothing seemed amiss to me. It was just a lovely children's book, and I have fond memories of borrowing each and every Tin Tin from the library...

It is definitely appropriate for children. This sort of retroactive censorship is absurd, and we have the PC thought police to thank for that. Meanwhile, books featuring sex and lewd language are censored less and less as standards of sexual innocence decline.

Nyarly

...Why am I not surprised that this bugs you?

But of course, you are not a racist. No, absolutely not.

Myrmidon

NO

NOOOOOO

CURSE YOU CULTURUAL MARXISTS


CUUUUUUURRRRRRSSSEEEE YOOOOOUUUUU

Gelzo

I don't think swears and sex are things that should be censored either.

Saigyouji

Das Kapital, Anarchists' Cookbook, Mein Kampf, A Clockwork Orange

One of these things is not like the others. Also, using "cultural marxists" in the title, then listing Das Kapital?

Shichibukai

^^ Neither do I, really. Just saying.

^ All controversial books which have been censored at one time or another. The cultural marxists would be in an outrage if their ideological bibles were outlawed.

I think it applies no matter what ideology we're talking about. All of those books should be equally legal, and equally uncensored.

captainbrass

This is a difficult issue. I really don't like messing around with what an author wrote, even if by modern standards it's racist or sexist (and by modern standards most children's books written before the 70s probably are).

I think the books should be printed unexpurgated and with younger childen it should be down to the judgement of the parent or teacher whether they leave out bits, read them and explain that most people don't agree with this any more or whether they just don't buy the book. If the kid themselves is old enough to buy/borrow a book, then they shouldn't be prevented from reading the original version just because of racism/sexism.

People need to learn to decide for themselves whether they accept or reject the views in a book. 

Iaculus

Wait, you're calling a religious group 'cultural Marxists'?

Have you seen what Marx had to say about religion?

Shichibukai

^^ I agree with this. 

^ You can be both Christian and Politically Correct, or both Marxist and religious. Not every hardline marxist would agree, but the PC spirit of this sort of censorship is what's important rather than apparent religious affiliations.

Glowsquid

nvm.

Iaculus

I might point out, also, that this is a Mail article, also known as 'Manufactured Controversy of the Week'. We got an alternate source on this?

Shichibukai

Ok, you want to hear it from The Grauniad itself, also known as 'the bleating heart rag'.

captainbrass

Your Mum and Dad not reading you bits of a book they don't agree with is not really comparable with Goebbels burning books. It's parental judgment, not state interference and the book continues to exist in its uncensored form.

It's only censorship in the way that it was censorship for my Mum to try to skip parts of the Tasseltip books (which involved a talking rabbit or squirrel - I can't remember which) because after a few reads she found them really boring. 

Unfortunately, by then I'd apparently got the stories memorised and I wouldn't let her skip anything.

Shichibukai

Parental censorship is fine... up to a point. Some parents can go well overboard and abuse their children by starving them of knowledge and mental stimulation, by depriving them of the freedom to learn what arouses their curiousity. Or worse, stunting it altogether.

Bear in mind that that the person quoted is not just suggesting some (organised) parental censorship. They suggest that publishers rewrite parts of the book.

Wicked223

Random theologian from Germany says book is racist

THE ORWELLIANS ARE COMING THE ORWELLIANS ARE COMING

RedEyedAbyss

"Anarchists' Cookbook"

Isn't the problem more that someone would severely hurt themselves if they actually tried one of the "recipes" to the letter?

And sheesh, we just went over the misuse of "communism" yesterday.

Nyktos

Children are impressionable. If a book actually promotes racial intolerance (which I do not necessarily agree the books in question do), it is not unreasonable to suggest not giving it to children or skipping parts so as to avoid children thinking those attitudes are alright. (Once the child reaches a certain age, it is most certainly better to allow them to be exposed to that stuff and simply explain that attitudes have changed, but a very young child is going to have difficulty with that concept.)

If there were suggestions to censor books for adults, that would be very different. Censorship is bad and stuff, but this:

I guess people are going to instantly jump on me and say
"you just want a license to be bigoted," but these fools do not have a
right to censor or rewrite someone else's masterpiece just because they
find a few parts of it "offensive". No-one should have that right.It
should be the same no matter if we're talking about Das Kapital,
Anarchists' Cookbook, Mein Kampf, A Clockwork Orange, and so on.
Political correctness and free speech are incompatible.

seems like a complete non-sequitur, because nobody is going to read those books to kids (I hope).

Iaculus

Bear in mind that that the person quoted is not just suggesting some
(organised) parental censorship. They suggest that publishers rewrite
parts of the book.

Guardian and the original German paper only mention footnotes, plus the suggestion that parents leave bits out when reading the book to kids. Presumably, in the case of Mein Kampf and Das Kapital, that would consist of leaving out everything between the front and back covers.

Political controversies aside, those are a pair of horribly-written books.

EDIT: Just checked the Mail article. No mention of modifications to the text itself there, either. Just footnotes.

InsanityAddict

What has Adorno got to do with any of this?

glennmagusharvey

> using "marxism" to mean "totalitarianism"

Myrmidon

What kind of kid wants to read Das Kapital in the first place?

Forzare

Or Mein Kampf?

And what parent is going to read a little kid those books anyway?

Malkavian

Das Kapital exists to sit there and look impressive as mathematical proof of communism.

^Neo-nazis?

Myrmidon

If on the other hand we assume that the nature of the business excludes a reduction of the scale of production, and thus of the circulating capital to be advanced each week, then continuity of production can be secured only by additional circulating capital, in the above-named case of £300. During the twelve-week turnover period, £1,200 are successively invested, and £300 is one-quarter of this sum as three weeks is of twelve. At the end of the working time of nine weeks the capital-value of £900 has been converted from the form of productive into that of commodity-capital. Its working period is concluded, but it cannot be re-opened with the same capital. During the three weeks in which it stays in the sphere of circulation, functioning as commodity-capital, it is in the same state, so far as the process of production is concerned, as if it did not exist at all. We rule out in the present case all credit relations and take for granted that the capitalist operates only with his own money. But during the time the capital advanced for the first working period, having completed its process of production, stays three weeks in the process of circulation, there functions an additional capital investment of £300, so that the continuity of production is not broken.

Thrilling

Malkavian

This is how you get the kids into communism.

glennmagusharvey

If
on the other hand we assume that the nature of the business excludes a
reduction of the scale of production, and thus of the circulating
capital to be advanced each week, then continuity of production can be
secured only by additional circulating capital, in the above-named case
of £300. During the twelve-week turnover period, £1,200 are successively
invested, and £300 is one-quarter of this sum as three weeks is of
twelve. At the end of the working time of nine weeks the capital-value
of £900 has been converted from the form of productive into that of
commodity-capital. Its working period is concluded, but it cannot be
re-opened with the same capital. During the three weeks in which it
stays in the sphere of circulation, functioning as commodity-capital, it
is in the same state, so far as the process of production is concerned,
as if it did not exist at all. We rule out in the present case all
credit relations and take for granted that the capitalist operates only
with his own money. But during the time the capital advanced for the
first working period, having completed its process of production, stays
three weeks in the process of circulation, there functions an additional
capital investment of £300, so that the continuity of production is not
broken.

Thrilling

Iaculus

Just noticed this, about Tintin in the Congo:

I'm pretty sure I read it when I was younger... nothing seemed amiss to me. It was just a lovely children's book, and I have fond memories of borrowing each and every Tin Tin from the library...

It is definitely appropriate for children. This sort of retroactive censorship is absurd, and we have the PC thought police to thank for that. Meanwhile, books featuring sex and lewd language are censored less and less as standards of sexual innocence decline.

'Lovely children's book'. Right.

Oh, and for the non-Brits amongst our number, this is the English Defence League that our esteemed co-forumite takes such pride in being labelled as an associate of.

Can someone please let me know when we can stop pretending that Shichibukai isn't a racist?

Nyarly

Can someone please let me know when we can stop pretending that Shichibukai isn't a racist?

Did anybody (except Chagen) even ever do that?

Iaculus

^ So why's he still on here, if I may ask? I mean, Chagen got his final ban for being a self-confessed ableist...