The author of the famed Goosebumps series has been accused of bowing to “woke culture” after it emerged some of his hit children’s books have been “sanitised”.
Last week, Britain’s Times newspaper revealed some of RL Stine’s books had been “sanitised”, to use more inclusive language and change or omit phrases related to “mental health, weight or ethnicity”.
“Writer’s self-censoring includes changing ‘plump’ to ‘cheerful’ and ‘crazy’ to ‘silly’,” The Times reported.
It came days after the controversy over a publisher’s planned edits to some of Roald Dahl best-known books.
Other media outlets seized on the story, implying Stine was involved in the Goosebumps revisions. But that wasn’t the case, according to the author himself.
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Responding to outraged fans on social media, Stine has said repeatedly that the reports are wrong.
“This story is false. I have never changed a word in a Goosebumps book,” he said on Tuesday in response to a fan who pleaded with him to leave the books alone.
In another tweet, he insisted that any proposed edits had “never” been shown to him.
The Times did reference several changes to Goosebumps books – but pointed out they were made in 2018, as part of an ebook re-release. Publisher Scholastic has confirmed the older edits.
“For more than 30 years, the Goosebumps series has brought millions of kids to reading through humour with just the right amount of scary,” the statement said, according to Deadline.
“Scholastic takes its responsibility seriously to continue bringing this classic adolescent brand to each new generation. When re-issuing titles several years ago, Scholastic reviewed the text to keep the language current and avoid imagery that could negatively impact a young person’s view of themselves today, with a particular focus on mental health.”
Wow. Kind of a big fuck-up by the urnalist(s).
https://archive.is/8o5Ws
Here's the meat: