7/21/2021 - update. The most I think about this blogpost the more I am dissatisfied by it. I wrote this as more of me "thinking out loud" than trying to make an argument. I'm not sure that the idea of updating books in the public domain to match modern language necessarily good or bad. I know I've struggled with books that were written 100 years ago because the language is very different from today. If they don't have updated language, then a guide and/or glossary should probably be included (it's the only way that I got through The Prince). If an author is still alive, a book should NOT be modified without their permission, but if they want to update their own books that's up to them (George Lucas has had varying success with the Star Wars movies).
I’ve started reading two books that were written in a very different time than the one that we are currently living in. One is an advice book on how to be an adult that was written in 2013. The other is about a dog parodying Proust’s writing style written in the 1990s (at least I think it was written in the 1990s because the language sometimes feels much older - like 1940s or 50s).
And I can’t help but noticing how dated their language is in places.
The 2010s was a rollercoaster ride for social movements and major events. And reading these books shows how much the United States (at least has changed). It’s not that these are bad books. It’s just that some of their humor and word choices have not aged well. The advice in the book from 2013, for example, is still fairly relevant to people moving away from home for the first time - just not all of it. And I can’t help but cringe at some of the humor. The dog book uses descriptions that may be accurate (like using the female word for a dog that is offensive to human ladies), but stick out like bad haircut in that one selfie you can’t escape.
I almost wish I could read these books with 2021 language.
That’s not to say that all books written in the past need to have their language updates. I’ve read plenty of books (even from a hundred plus years ago) that had language that was clearly from the era it was written in. If their language was updated to 2021 standards, it would probably take me out of the story.
However, that doesn’t mean that some language, especially language which is found to be very offensive, shouldn’t be updated. A few years ago, I remember hearing about a controversy about updating Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn to include less offensive language. Though it’s true that Mark Twain wrote that book to mimic the way people spoke (at that time in Missouri), I could barely read it and stopped less than half way through. Between the offensive language and off syntax, I lost interest in one of “the American Classics”.
There are some publishers who have gone a head and updated their books as times have changed. Most notably are the girl detective series Nancy Drew.
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| This is the version of the book I am most familiar with. |
I grew up reading the Nancy Drew books. In fact, they were what motivated me to improve my reading I the first place. However, the books I read in the late 90s and early 2000s had been revised significantly from their original publication in the 1930s.
The first major revisions began in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Many of the plots were updated to be less violent, sexist, and even racist (dang! Nancy, not you too!). Modernization has continued, though nothing as dramatic from the first major revisions. Thankfully, modernization hasn't gone too far. Nancy’s original stories mostly take place in a timeless spot somewhere between the American 30s and 60s. I don’t think I would have enjoyed too much modernization in the original novels.
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| I don’t know if this is the latest version of the cover or not but it embraces the 30s/40s |
However, like Scooby Doo, the Nancy Drew books get a facelift ever decade or so. And I really can’t complain because these are mostly marketed as new stories. I remember the first I’ve I picked up a Nancy Drew book and she was solving a murder in Paris. To my young mind, Nancy Drew didn’t solve murders - that was Poirot or Ms. Marples. She also didn’t have a cell phone or laptop.
The Nancy Drew games have done a fantastic job keeping up with modernization and even remastering and updating the older games. It doesn’t always work out perfectly, but I’ve been impressed with he effort the Nancy Drew game developers have done to keep the famous girl detective relevant to new audiences.
Modernization can be hit and miss. Some books pull off timeless story telling. Some books and stories are clearly products of their time. However, if we want to keep certain classics in the public eye, we’ve gotta get rid of the offensive language or be very careful how we teach the material. Certain references and jokes may age poorly, some may become the signifier of a generation.
After all we still read and preform Shakespeare (though my 12th grade class had a lot of trouble with Hamlet before our teacher found a recorded copy for us to listen to).
What are y’all’s thoughts on modernizing literature. If it’s super popular should it be updated every decade or so to make sure language is understood and inoffensive? Should books be products of their time? Who has the final say?
And this just doesn’t apply to books. It can apply to video games (already mention), comics, movies, etc. I’m just using books in this post.
Until next week.
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