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reddit455 t1_j93qfyl wrote

i don't think you appreciate what Orwell probably had in mind.

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North Korea has the closest thing to IRL "Ministry of Truth"

this is the kind of truth their ministry provides

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_North_Korea

Paintings on the walls of the Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities depict alleged atrocities carried out by American soldiers during the Korean War.

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South Korea is often depicted as a place of dangerous racial contamination.[27]

North Korean propaganda often invokes Koreans as the purest of races, with a mystical bond with the natural beauty of the landscape

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Romance is often depicted in stories as being triggered solely by the person's model citizenship, as when a beautiful woman is unattractive until a man learns she volunteered to work at a potato farm .[34]

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_green_cloak_ OP t1_j93tghv wrote

Fair enough, I guess that's why I was posting this as a question. I accept that a publisher changing some select words is not the same as a totalitarian regime, and so not what Orwell may have had in mind, but then that still leaves the question of the long-term implications of publishers changing things to suit the times. Can you think of a better literary analogy for Penguins 'reviews'?

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boxer_dogs_dance t1_j93uzr7 wrote

See the articles linked and discussion on the thread here on r/books. The article in the Telegraph claimed they changed Matilda's favorite author. I think it is worth verifying. If they go too far it is bowdlerization. I'm generally opposed, especially if they don't disclose in the book that changes have been made and what they are.

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_green_cloak_ OP t1_j943sqg wrote

Agreed. If they're up-front instead of vague about whether a particular edition has been changed, I wouldn't mind as much. That aside, the mere concept of bowdlerisation seems like a pertinent issue right now, similar to when the term was first coined.

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