Tom Hanks defends himself against smooth-ironed literature
Photo: Getty Images for The Recording Academy, Matt Winkelmeyer. All rights reserved.
For Tom Hanks, novels that are cleaned of certain words or given new contextualizations so as not to offend certain social groups should be boycotted. The Oscar winner, who is now a writer himself, gave his opinion on a discussion about proofreading Roald Dahl novels.
Numerous books by the British author, who was controversial because of his political opinion but celebrated worldwide for his imaginative children’s books, were brought onto the market after extensive so-called sensitivity reading with numerous changes. For example, in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” there is no longer any mention of “fat” or “ugly” children. After nationwide protests, however, the publisher announced that it would also put the undisguised editions back on the market.
Tom Hanks: Adults can go with their gut instincts
Hanks sees such interference in an artist’s work as a mistake. BBC Radio 4 he said in an interview on the subject: “I think we’re all grown up. And we can trace the time and place and when these things were written. And it’s not that difficult to say: That doesn’t quite fit now, does it?”
The 66-year-old doesn’t want to hold books in his hands that have a seal on them that says “Abridged due to modern sensibilities.” “Let me decide what bothers me and what doesn’t bother me,” Hanks said. And further: “Let’s trust our own sensitivity here instead of letting someone decide what offends us or not.”
In his debut story, however, Hanks connects to another cultural discussion that has been irritating even the greatest representatives of screen art for some time: the dominance of superhero films. The book, titled The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece: A Novel, is “a highly ambitious tale of the making of a colossal, star-studded, multi-million dollar superhero action film and the humble comic book that inspired the film.” inspired”.