In Orwell's '1984', The Ministry of Truth was responsible for re-writing books to fit in with the current political system.
Many of Orwell's predictions have come true - most noteably our surveilance society - but now Newspeak is coming to this country, slowly but surely pervading our lives.
I first noticed it when they removed the golliwog from the labels of Robertson's jams because it was "offensive to black people". What tosh! Like many children of my generation, I grew up with a golliwog doll. I loved him. He never once called me white trash or honkey.
The golliwog was, in fact, invented in 1893 and appeared first in a book by Florence Upton in 1895. In this book he was a hero and there were no negative connotations attached to him at all. It was Enid Blyton who displayed him as a mischief maker and caused him to be seen in a new light. So, bye bye Golliwog!
It seems that Miss Blyton has a lot to answer for in the exciting new world of Newspeak, because next we lost the goblins out of the Noddy stories. Apparently this was because they were always pictured with 'jewish characteristics' and this was also considered religiously offensive.
And so it goes on...
The latest victims are apparently to be the classics of literature. Just the other day it was announced that Huckleberry Finn was to be editted to remove all the racist language from it. Hang on, tho' - wasn't this language considered normal in the context of the time it was written? Wouldn't removing it from a classic somewhat dilute the content?
Worryingly, this trend is set to continue with other great works and I am forced to question whether it can ever be right to re-write a classic just in the interests of political correctness.
It seems Orwell was right - unless of course we decide to re-write '1984' as well...
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