Culture Goosebumps Author R.L. Stine Rewriting Series for Sensitivity Ahead of Reprinting

Comicbook.com (Archive) - March 5, 2023
by, Nicole Drum

Goosebumps is the latest franchise to undergo changes for sensitivity ahead of reprinting. According to The Sunday Times (via Deadline), author R.L. Stine has edited more than a dozen of his Goosebumps books to change references to mental health, weight, or ethnicity. According to the report, the novels have undergone more than 100 edits. Those edits include references to a character being "cheerful" rather than "plump", changing "crazy" to "silly", and completely removing references to villains making victims "slaves.

The report also lists some examples from specific titles. Notably, the reissue of 1998's Bride of the Living Dummy changes the ventriloquist dummy from knocking a girl unconscious using a "love tap" to a magic spell instead while the 1996 book Attack of the Jack-O'-Lanterns changes the description of one character, Lee, from being like "the rappers on MTV videos" to "tall and good-looking, with brown skin, dark brown eyes and a great, warm smile. He sort of struts when he walks and acts real cool."

Goosebumps is just the latest series to get sensitivity revisions. Earlier this month, it was announced that several of the books in the James Bond library will be edited to remove racist content for upcoming reprints and will also include a disclaimer noting that "This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace. A number of updates have been made in this edition, while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set."

In the U.K. Roald Dahl's works also are being republished with changes to characters' physical appearances, omissions to the text, or the inclusion of entirely new lines not written by Dahl so that the books can, as the publisher noted, "continue to be enjoyed by all today." The primary difference between the Dahl and Bond edits is that Stine is the original author of the Goosebumps books and is doing the edits himself.

Goosebumps is a series of children's horror fiction that first debuted in 1992 with the novel, Welcome to Dead House. Since then, the series has sold more than 400 million books worldwide and is the second best-selling book series in history after J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter. The series has spawned various spin-off series, a television series, and even feature films.

What do you think about Stine editing the Goosebumps series? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

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The willingness of R.L. Stine editing his own works may be exaggerated, as this story is developing:

credit to @Jonah Hill poster for this image on page 4

@Toolbox also found an article of the author's rebuttal, page 4:

Goosebumps author sets record straight on historic edits​

The author of the famed Goosebumps series has been accused of bowing to “woke culture” after it emerged some of his hit children’s books have been “sanitised”.

Last week, Britain’s Times newspaper revealed some of RL Stine’s books had been “sanitised”, to use more inclusive language and change or omit phrases related to “mental health, weight or ethnicity”.
“Writer’s self-censoring includes changing ‘plump’ to ‘cheerful’ and ‘crazy’ to ‘silly’,” The Times reported.

It came days after the controversy over a publisher’s planned edits to some of Roald Dahl best-known books.

Other media outlets seized on the story, implying Stine was involved in the Goosebumps revisions. But that wasn’t the case, according to the author himself
Responding to outraged fans on social media, Stine has said repeatedly that the reports are wrong.

“This story is false. I have never changed a word in a Goosebumps book,” he said on Tuesday in response to a fan who pleaded with him to leave the books alone.
In another tweet, he insisted that any proposed edits had “never” been shown to him.

The Times did reference several changes to Goosebumps books – but pointed out they were made in 2018, as part of an ebook re-release. Publisher Scholastic has confirmed the older edits.
“For more than 30 years, the Goosebumps series has brought millions of kids to reading through humour with just the right amount of scary,” the statement said, according to Deadline.

“Scholastic takes its responsibility seriously to continue bringing this classic adolescent brand to each new generation. When re-issuing titles several years ago, Scholastic 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.”

Goosebumps accused of getting the ‘woke’ treatment​

Stine has since been embroiled in accusations of being a “sellout” and “woke”. Some even claimed he was “forced” by a “woke mob” to make the changes.
He was also accused of censorship – for changes he never made.

“Hey y’all, @RL_Stine himself is saying REPEATEDLY that he has never changed a single word of a Goosebumps book, calm down with your “Woke” terrified witch hunt good grief,” one person said on Twitter.
Just last month, people were outraged by the decision to alter some of Roald Dahl’s books to make them more inclusive.

Several of Dahl’s books, including Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Matilda, were altered.

A Roald Dahl Story Company spokesperson told The Telegraph that it was “not unusual” to review language written years ago, likening it to updating a book’s cover and page layout.
“Our guiding principle throughout has been to maintain the storylines, characters, and the irreverence and sharp-edged spirit of the original text,” they said.

“Any changes made have been small and carefully considered.”

In the past, Dahl has been accused of antisemitism, racism and misogyny.

The late author amended Charlie and the Chocolate Factory himself back in 1973, almost a decade after it was originally published. It followed pressure due to his original description of the Oompa Loompas.
The Dahl proposal brought backlash, notably from the likes of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the Queen Consort. Puffin, the publisher, then decided to give people a choice, buy the books as they were written by Dahl, or with the changes.
Shortly after, it was confirmed Ian Fleming’s James Bond books would also be revised by their publisher. The rereleases will be available in April in honour of Casino Royale‘s 70th anniversary.
The rewrites will reportedly focus on Fleming’s descriptions of characters, particularly ethnic minorities.
Prior to his death in 1964, Fleming approved changes to his novels and gave US publishers permission to tone down racial references in Live and Let Die.

 

[Gottahavemysips]

Have all the people talking about whether Goosebumps is bad or not even read the article? Do they even know that Stine isn't actually on board with this garbage?
I don't care if you think it's good or not, this is a massive escalation of this bullshit - the publishers will twist and destroy your writing regardless if you are alive or dead, and they will outright lie about your approval. These modern sensibility rewrites are only going to get worse, and eventually you'll have race swapped, troon protagonists in their place.
With the whole Dahl controversy, it wasn't an actual victory that they agreed to publish an unedited version, it's still a loss. Publishers should be downright afraid of the backlash for such edits. All this proves is that they will lie about it.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

I grew up with the unaltered Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and the works of Brian Froud. Goosebumps is weaksauce.

It's the illustrations not the stories

 

[GamerGateSurvivor]

When it comes to rewriting books, be the crocodile Roald Dahl wanted you to be.

 

[sadrefrigerator]

Listen, man, I loved them as a kid too, but come the fuck on. Face facts. Reals over feels, here.

Goosebumps books were poorly written because they were churned out by the dozen, were literally never scary, and usually had stupid retarded twist endings like, "Oh shit, nigger, the kids were robots the whole time, betcha didn't see that coming!"

The best thing about Goosebumps books was literally Tim Jacobus' cover art. That's what inspired your imagination. That's what you really remember about those books. I couldn't fucking tell you what the fuck happened in Deep Trouble II - I literally can't remember - but I know it had a fucking sick evil goldfish on the front cover.

View attachment 4716904

Or, my personal favourite, The Curse of Camp Cold Lake. Fucking awesome cover. Look at that shit. Look at those staring red eyes. That's fucking terrifying.

View attachment 4716936

What happens in the book? What's the main character's name? Don't know, lol. Literally don't fucking remember. But I will ALWAYS remember that cover.

I seem to remember the covers having nothing to do with the story. I think they gave the artist the title and a prompt and he did the best lol

 

[Atatata]

Eh, while they weren't scary and short as hell, as a kid they had a fun cheapo spooky vibe and the show had a funky opening.
Was there better stuff? Yeah, but goosebumps didn't have children fucking each other. Gotta feel bad for the author for getting smacked with this shit.

 

[Grand Wizard Wakka]

So they'll use less offensive words like "monster" and change them to modern terms for the same thing, like "transgender"?

 

[Mothra1988]

I grew up with the unaltered Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and the works of Brian Froud. Goosebumps is weaksauce.

Those weren't "unaltered." They're borrowed from folklore and were probably toned down significantly for children in some cases. RL Stine came up with original content (in the sense he didn't rewrite story lines even if he got ideas from previous media). Not that writing down and preserving folklore isn't important culturally.