Roald Dahl and kids in restaurants.

Not really related subjects, I'll admit, we're just vibing…

By this point that some editions of Roald Dahl’s children’s books are being edited, possibly at the behest of Netflix, to be less offensive is old news. Of course this is a very stupid, and very classically corporate-stupid, thing to do. Of course this also produces its own weird, new offensive subtexts, such as changing the child-hating women of The Witches from posing as “cashiers” to “top scientists,” which… I mean, I would have thought that one through for a second or two. (New vaccine side effect: it turns your kids into mice.)

I think it’s worth pointing out that this is also a hilarious thing to do, like somebody producing a new edition of Edward Gorey cartoons where nobody dies, or the Addams family with no black humor. The appeal of his books is their misanthropy. To borrow a popular phrase of our time, “the cruelty is the point” (complimentary). As Dahl himself said, the basic experience of childhood is being small and being pushed around, sometimes for your own good, sometim…