Agatha Christie’s Poirot, Miss Marple Classic Mysteries Rewritten For Modern "Sensitivities"
Agatha Christie is the latest bestselling novelist to get the rewriting treatment for 2023 readers, according to a British newspaper.
The bestselling novelist in the world, Christie created enduring popular sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, and the Daily Telegraph reports that new editions of both these series have had original passages amended or removed by publisher Harper Collins.
The Telegraph states that digital versions of new editions of the books written between 1920 and 1976 (the year of Christie’s death) include text stripped of “descriptions, insults or references to ethnicity, particularly for characters Christie’s protagonists encounter outside the UK.”
For example, in the book Death on the Nile – published in 1937 and recently remade for the big screen by Kenneth Branagh – references to “Nubian people” have been removed, as have several references to non-British characters’ physiques. The word “local” replaces “native”
A line in Christie’s debut novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles which has Poirot commenting on a character being “a Jew” has gone. And Christie’s narration and sections of dialogue uttered by unsympathetic characters have also been cut, according to the newspaper.
These changes come after similar recent treatment of books by Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming, who created James Bond.
Offsite Linkby Anonymous | reply 33 | April 1, 2023 6:14 PM
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Good FUCKING God.
It's not "woke", it's a full blown Cultural Revolution.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | March 26, 2023 1:38 PM
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Sure, why not? As long it doesn’t affect the plot. Christie’s books are so dated. This refreshing may keep them relevant today
by Anonymous | reply 2 | March 26, 2023 1:41 PM
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[Quote] Good FUCKING God. It's not "woke", it's a full blown Cultural Revolution.
When was the last time you read any of these books? Why? Because they’re old and dusty. If the publishers want anyone to keep reading this stuff, they need to make them accessible to the modern reader and get publicity for doing so
by Anonymous | reply 3 | March 26, 2023 1:42 PM
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Obviously with permission of her estate, whoever or whatever entity is in charge. So, I can't be arsed. And if I ever want Dame Agatha's unwoke originals they will be available on the second-hand market.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | March 26, 2023 1:48 PM
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Desperation makes the desperate do desperate things. Like rewriting for "modern sensibilities" (not sensitivies) classic literature. No matter how often it's illustrated that pandering to current empty-headed fads is a losing proposition, they keep right on doing it to everyone's detriment. I await The Merchant of Venice to be "updated" to a Muslim. Or is that way too much for "modern sensitivities".
by Anonymous | reply 5 | March 26, 2023 1:55 PM
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I think is ok as long as they put in the covers it's a censured edition.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | March 26, 2023 6:32 PM
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Hmmmm.... If they want to make it modern, they would also have to change the classist and sexist view of the world and the offended comments on women who dare to wear shorts. Where does it stop ? It is a product of its time. But it is so well plotted. This is why we still read Christie.
By the way, will they remove the vicious anti-Italian comments ?
Didn't think so.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | March 26, 2023 7:43 PM
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Poirot will come out as a transwoman of color, R8.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | March 31, 2023 7:42 PM
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Nothing new. They've been doing it to Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, etc. for decades.
Hell, they've already done it to Christie. "And Then There Were None" had two different titles that wouldn't have flown today.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | March 31, 2023 8:06 PM
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R10 would be supporting the Mao Revolution.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | March 31, 2023 8:10 PM
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R12, it’s more than that. People are rewriting and censoring history. It’s never going to stop. We are living in dangerous Orwellian times.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | March 31, 2023 8:11 PM
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R12 there was no issue with the change of title as it didn't change the story at all
by Anonymous | reply 15 | March 31, 2023 8:33 PM
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Will she be called "Ms. Marple" now?
by Anonymous | reply 16 | April 1, 2023 1:34 AM
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R2, She didn't write them....for YOU!
Adaptations are one thing; people are always mucking about with Shakespeare in productions, e.g. The Bible has its sundry translations.
But any permanent alterations of fiction should be in addition to the publication of the author's original. Put the New and Improved in a "Neo-Bowdlerized Section."
by Anonymous | reply 17 | April 1, 2023 1:40 AM
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Oh, r3. When you are much older you will know the folly of your words.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | April 1, 2023 1:41 AM
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[quote] This shit needs to stop.
God forbids that people who own a copyright try to make it more profitable. We must tell businesses what they can do with their intellectual property!
-Repugs
by Anonymous | reply 20 | April 1, 2023 1:55 AM
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R20, Expressing an opinion is not "telling businesses......."
Maybe you'll "get it" when "Brokeback Mountain" is re-made with the "improved" clandestine romance between Jack and Alma.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | April 1, 2023 2:37 AM
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[quote] Maybe you'll "get it" when "Brokeback Mountain" is re-made with the "improved" clandestine romance between Jack and Alma.
Nice try with your frausplaining, but if I don’t want to see a movie, or read a book, I just don’t see or read it. I don’t whine about how this means we are descending into “dangerous Orwellian times“.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | April 1, 2023 6:38 AM
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I think it’s largely *profit-driven*, as I suspect these sanitised editions are aimed mainly at Millennials and Zoomers who grew up/have been growing up to ‘Trigger Warnings’ as part of their legitimate reading experiences in schools/colleges
They don’t see it as censorship either. Rather, it’s removing Hate Speech, and that’s completely kosher with them
by Anonymous | reply 24 | April 1, 2023 6:52 AM
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There’s just something sinister to me about changing an author’s words after they are dead. Plus, it infantilises the reader. I started reading them in the 1990s as a kid and I could see the old fashioned attitudes for what they were. Readers are more discerning than given credit for. Plus it’s interesting to get this glimpse into attitudes from the past and pretending they never happened seems to me like it will end up ensuring humans don’t learn from the mistakes of history.
Where I think these changes should stay is in the realm of the adaptations. Play around with those, but leave the books alone.
After all, this will never end - people think they have all the right attitudes now, but I assure you, things will be different in 10, 20, 30 years and what they have been changed to now will similarly be considered offensive.
Interestingly, what readers found with the recent Fleming changes was that the references to black people were changed but not those to Koreans or homosexuals. They’re never going to be able to satisfy everyone.
Why not essays written to introduce the novels, from people who can talk about the issues in the story? My collection of Shakespeare does this. Germaine Greer has an interesting essay on The Taming of the Shrew, for example.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | April 1, 2023 7:07 AM
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Well, la-di-da to you, Master r22 and your reference to me yet with a quotation about "Orwellian times" I never said.
You miss the context, which is of Right-Wing Republicans emptying school libraries, firing teachers, expurgating this and Bowdlerizing that, banning and criminalizing drag, forbidding schoolgirls from discussing menstruation---the attacks on the spoken, the written, and the artistic rendering of WORDS.
It doesn't matter if a deceased author's "estate" agrees to re-writing for dollars.
Back in the day, Goya's "The Naked Maja" caused quite the controversy. People demanded she be painted over. The artist instead painted a second, clothed version.
Today, she would be either painted over or simply not allowed exhibition.
And you would say, "Whatever. I don't care." Bravo.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | April 1, 2023 11:59 AM
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R26: agreed
But surely this rewriting of Christie is coming from the *Left* - specifically the Woke Left - no?
by Anonymous | reply 27 | April 1, 2023 12:04 PM
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Dear God, these anti-woke idiots.
Producers: Hey! We're going to film and release new adaptions of Miss Marple and Poirot and they will be exactly the same as the previous adaptations! Who's exited?
Viewers: *awkward silence*
by Anonymous | reply 28 | April 1, 2023 12:06 PM
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[quote] Well, la-di-da to you, Master [R22] and your reference to me yet with a quotation about "Orwellian times" I never said.
Someone upthread did. That’s a direct cut and paste.
You’re not the only person in this conversation, you know.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | April 1, 2023 12:36 PM
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I'm afraid to say Christie's grandson doesn't seem too bothered about permitting many changes to his Grandmother's work. I don't know how much control the company managing her estate has over adaptations but some of the Marple and a couple of Poirot episodes were execrable. Some of the new Marple stories had such glaring mistakes it's incredible he/they missed them, such as misnaming Marple's village.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | April 1, 2023 2:06 PM
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Looking at that picture at OP I just want Armie Hammer to sit on my face 😈
by Anonymous | reply 32 | April 1, 2023 2:53 PM
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The greatest sin of these 'modern sensitivities' adaptations on screen is that they sap the humour and life out of the works.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | April 1, 2023 6:14 PM
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