Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on August 01, 2009 at 09:08:06 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Bowdlerisation (was Profound disagreement (was Thoughts on ) posted by Mike Field on August 01, 2009 at 03:16:16:
High-faluting stuff about the evils of censorship is just plain silly, in this case. The books have often been published with illustrations other than those that Ransome intended, which is a much bigger "departure from the text" than changing three words in three books.
Children are NOT going to read these books in the future if those words are left in. The sacred original text is still going to be around for the adult purist.
Note that, like Dr Bowdler, I am not suggesting adding to the text - don't add life jackets and bouyancy bags - but do take those three words out, otherwise the writer we all love is going to be a "dead classic", like Kipling and Mark Twain, rather than a living voice for young readers.