Publishers are cynically using ‘sensitivity readers’ to protect their bottom lines | Zoe Dubno

As books become intellectual property assets, publishers become asset managers trying to future-proof their toxic investments

The news that many of Roald Dahl's books had been edited by the publisher Puffin to excise offensive references to gender and race" has unleashed a brouhaha among the literary establishment, anti-woke crusaders and just about everyone online.

The revisions brought simmering debates about censorship in the name of creating a more genteel, accepting society to their head. An added valence, that the books are for children, seemed to weigh in favor of those who believed references to women as hags" or to a weird African language the monkeys spoke" should be scrubbed so that future generations can be shielded from prejudiced thoughts.