HarperCollins radically changes Agatha Christie novels to satisfy revisionists' preferred vernacular



Amateur sleuths and keen-eyed detectives may have noticed something amiss about the new HarperCollins editions of several Agatha Christie novels. Words are out of place. Entire passages have been cut. One character was eliminated from a reissue altogether — without the fictional detective Hercule Poirot having been left so much as a clue.

Dame Christie's novels have received a similar treatment to that of Roald Dahl's and Ian Fleming's: They have been transmogrified by so-called "sensitivity readers."

The purpose of these rewrites is apparently to accommodate the sensitivities of those delicate readers who are ill prepared for language and ideas predating the latest leftist awakening.

Christie's detective novels: Meta-victims

The Telegraph reported that new HarperCollins editions of Christie's Poirot and the complete Miss Marple mysteries have been revised and "reworked" for "modern sensitivities."

Some of the doctored Christie books have been in print since 2020, whereas others are on their way.

There are "scores of changes," including alterations to Christie's narration. Miss Jane Marple and Herule Poirot's monologues have been sliced and diced. Unpleasant characters have had their dialogue tailored or dropped. References to ethnicity have been stripped, along with certain characters' innocuous racial observations and humor.

According to the Telegraph, the character of Mrs. Allerton in the 1937 Poirot detective novel "Death on the Nile" expresses her disdain for children. How she originally expressed this disdain was evidently unacceptable for the revisionists at HarperCollins.

Christie had Allerton say that the group of kids bothering her would "come back and stare, and stare, and their eyes are simply disgusting, and so are their noses, and I don’t believe I really like children."

Courtesy of "sensitivity readers" at HarperCollins, the quote now reads: "They come back and stare, and stare. And I don’t believe I really like children."

LGBT propagandist Juno Dawson noted in the Guardian that a "sensitivity reader is an additional editor who works alongside the publishing house staffer who acquired the rights to your book. This individual will conduct a very specific read of the manuscript, and offer notes on characters from marginalised groups, or elements which may cause offence."

Whereas a black servant in one Christie book had previously been described as grinning, now he is no longer black or emotive. Sensitivity readers dehumanized and reduced him to base mechanics, such that he is left just "nodding."

Just as smiling black men are verboten, references to "beautiful teeth" were all scrubbed from the Miss Marple novel "A Caribbean Mystery."

Sensitivity editors found various metaphors too troubling for today's readers. In the same novel, a description of a prominent female character — as having "a torso of black marble such as a sculptor would have enjoyed" — was edited out, thereby denying the character the suggestion of firmness, elegance, and classical beauty.

The sensitivity editors have reportedly committed literary genocide as well, eliminating the Nubian people from "Death on the Nile."

Instead of the "Nubian boatman," for instance, there is now only "the boatman" traversing the Nile, despite the fact that the Nubia is an ancient region extending from the Nile River valley to the shores of the Red Sea, inhabited today, in part, by hundreds of thousands if not millions of Nubians or Nobī.

HarperCollins' sensitivity editors have eradicated gypsies from Christie's works, too. Similarly, a character in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" who had once been recognized as Jewish now enjoys no such heritage.

"Natives" are no more. There are now "local."

Jake Berry, a Conservative member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, denounced this latest revisionism with a quote from George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four": "Every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. … Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right."

Those who control the press control the future

Christie is not the first well-known author to have her works butchered posthumously in recent months.

TheBlaze previously reported that "James Bond" author Ian Fleming and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" author Roald Dahl suffered similar erasure in their works.

Like HarperCollins, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd hired sensitivity readers to purge the James Bond books of undesirable content ahead of their re-release in April to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the publication of "Casino Royale" – the first novel in the 007 franchise.

In addition to racial descriptors being eliminated and the cast of characters ultimately being rendered homogeneous, entire scenes have been edited out.

Bond originally witnessed a striptease at a nightclub in Harlem, New York, in "Live and Let Die."

"Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough. He felt his own hands gripping the tablecloth. His mouth was dry," Fleming had written.

The sensitivity readers reckoned the following was instead suitable for a modern audience: "Bond could sense the electric tension in the room."

One character was originally given an accent described as "straight Harlem-Deep South with a lot of New York thrown in." Now he has no accent to speak of.

The sensitivity readers who aided in the changes to the 2022 Puffin (Penguin Random House) editions of various Roald Dahl works — such as "Matilda," "James and the Giant Peach," "The Witches," "The Twits," "The BFG," and "Fantastic Mr. Fox" — denied the long-dead author even his own allusions.

TheBlaze noted that whereas Dahl had made passing mention of Rudyard Kipling, now the novel references Jane Austen instead.

In "The Witches," a passage that formerly read "'Here's your little boy,' she said. 'He needs to go on a diet.'" now only says "Here's your little boy."

This Dahl book and others underwent hundreds of changes, which some have suggested effectively collectivized the works, transforming them into Dahl-esque narratives that substitute the "contemporary sensibilities" of his publishers for Dahl's own.

Emboldened revisionists

Revisionists have not just targeted the works of dead authors, but have recently sought to rewrite the works of authors still around to raise a fuss.

TheBlaze reported earlier this month that R.L. Stine, author of the "Goosebumps" series of kids' novels, noted that the over 100 edits made to his book series, which have sold over 400 million copies, had been done without his knowledge.

Sensitivity readers and Scholastic editors covertly sanitized the language, removing references to slaves, language about being "crazy," and language suggesting characters are fat, among other edits.

Scholastic issued a statement after its covert efforts had been exposed, claiming that it had "reviewed the text to keep the language current and avoid imagery that could negatively impact a young person’s view of themselves today, with a particular focus on mental health."

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'There’s a war going on': Jeremy Clarkson of 'Top Gear' calls out the radical left's attack on normalcy and free speech



Jeremy Clarkson of "Top Gear" fame faces further risk of cancellation over a December column in which he ridiculed former actress Meghan Markle. It appears he has decided to go out swinging, although his target is of much greater significance this time around.

The 62-year-old Briton penned an opinion piece over the weekend in the Sunday Times concerning his son's recent claim "there's a war going on."

The war his son was referencing was not that waged by Russia against Ukraine but the one allegedly afoot in the United Kingdom — in fields and streets, hills and landing grounds previously thought unconquered. The apparent enemy: the radical left, keen to "unstitch and burn the fabric of Britain."

Unlike militant socialists of old — Clarkson named British trade unionist Arthur Scargill as an example —, the leftists on the frontlines today allegedly hide "in the impenetrable shadow of anonymity, inventing new rules to ensnare anyone and everyone them deem to be unworthy."

While these leftists may conceal their intentions, Clarkson suggested their impact is far-reaching and unmistakable, citing as proofs the apparent ideological capture of television and radio, big business, and the education system in the U.K.

"When was the last time you saw a fictional police force hunting a gang of Muslim extremists? It's always the far right. ... Make a joke about she/him pronouns or Greta Thunberg, and they'll blow a piece of tumbleweed across the stage," he wrote.

Clarkson knows a great deal about the expurgation of nonconforming thought and thinkers from the British media — given his recent and forthcoming cancellations.

The former "Top Gear" presenter wrote a comedic column in December stating that he hated Markle on a "cellular level," and — in a reference to a scene from "Game of Thrones" — quipped that he wouldn't mind seeing "people throwing lumps of excrement at her."

On another occasion, Clarkson wrote that he wanted to "shoot a polar bear in the middle of its face" after Markle, whom he referred to as a "silly little cable TV actress," told commoners not to drive their automobiles.

Despite Clarkson offering a "mea culpa with bells on," several members of parliament accused him of hate speech and called for his removal from the nation's television screens.

\u201cFollowing grotesque comments made about the First Minster and The Duchess of Sussex, I do not believe Jeremy Clarkson should be allowed back on our screens. I've written to the Chief Executive of @ITV.\u201d
— JOHN NICOLSON M.P. (@JOHN NICOLSON M.P.) 1671470913

Variety reported last week that Amazon will likely not be working with Clarkson on future seasons of "The Grand Tour" and "Clarkson's Farm."

The Daily Mail noted that he might also get the axe by ITV, thereby losing his gig hosting "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?"

In his opinion piece, Clarkson posed the questions, "Who's doing the erasing? Who's making the rules? That's just it. We don't have a clue. What we do know is that, having taken control of the television stations, without a shot being fired, they turned their attention, like any conquering army, to the schools."

Clarkson suggested that the leftists who successfully took over British schools "went fully Pol Pot, doing a comprehensive year-zero job on the curriculum so that kids would know their parents were all racists. Apart from those with 'unconscious bias.' Who were racists as well."

"You probably think, because you don’t know this war is going on, that when you drop little Johnny off at the school gates he’s going to learn the nine times table that day," wrote Clarkson. "No, he isn’t. He’s learning that he might actually be a girl, which is why there are probably tampon dispensers in the boys’ lavatories."

According to Clarkson, not only have schools, workplaces, and the media been conquered by the ideological peers of the Khmer Rouge but the British police, if not on board with these ideologies, is at least now deferential.

"Young people with green hair" are free to partake in iconoclasm or glue themselves to roads. However, a young woman with Asperger's syndrome who posted rap lyrics containing the N-word is fitted with "an ankle bracelet and a curfew order and made [to] pay £500 in costs as well as an £85 victim surcharge."

"We’ve now reached a point where the leader of the opposition is so boxed in and frightened that for a while he could not answer when asked if a woman could have a penis," added Clarkson, concluding, "There really is an army with the ability to remove from public life anyone who disagrees with its increasingly militant viewpoint."

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