We have all grown up reading Enid Blyton’s books – but not a lot of us caught on the nuances and cheekiness she put in her novels as we grew up. Maybe that’s why we have people advocating that we change classical literature.
But some things do seem strange when it does happen like that. I mean, when it comes to editing a classic, you’ve to take several things into account.
One of the fathers on Reddit, for instance, recounts this story, as he started introducing his children to a more contemporary version of Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven series.
As the events of the story take place, one of the younger members, Jack, enters an open door and finds his little sister Susie who was wearing her own ‘SS’ badge and yelling, “I’m a member!” The father’s confusion was pretty much smack-on like a twist in a movie. It turns out, the plot was much more innocent and quite naturally included the use of the acronym which has very different meanings outside of the Secret Seven members.
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inbritishproblems
Secret Society or Secret Seven? Context is Everything
To those who are acquainted with the Secret Seven, it is simply a children’s kid’s outfit, which includes a clubhouse and a secret password. But these badges show ‘SS’, which created a certain humor to family reading time that was hardly intended.
“It’s quite hilarious,” the father confesses, “but these are the types of things you don’t even want to mention to your children when putting them to sleep.”
The strange paradox, as always in the latest editions, is the fact that he deliberately bought contemporary versions in order not to be confronted with the archaic grammar some books are full of like this ostentatious abbreviation where one does not expect it.
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inbritishproblems
Editing the Classics: Parents Need to Pre-read First
This is only one of the countless cases when publishers have to edit old records such as that of Enid Blyton. This ‘editing’ usually includes the replacement of certain names (for example, Fanny) with other, less laugh-inducing names. It does not always have to be more obvious changes. Sometimes, parents may be horrified by changes that they never even noticed – like the logo of the modern interpreting the letters that it contains.
Reddit users whose parents had the good old versions of books enjoyed posting the stories and adding “My childhood books would scar my kids, wait till they hear about ‘Kindred of the Kibbo Kift.’”
The good part is that some of the changes are not very bad in the sense that they cause even funnier situations. In fact, it is not uncommon for what would have been an innocuous bedtime story, even more so, a father reading to his child. Unfortunately, it has the potential to backfire in a comical fashion the next time a man plans on reading a good classic.
Last Updated on by Icy Tales Team
