SVT edits a classic

As noted by several international media Swedish television has elected to edit 'Pippi Longstocking'

Swedish television has decided to cut out potentially offensive scenes from a new edition of the 1969 Pippi Longstocking series. The decision has sparked a debate in Sweden of whether it's right to censor and change old material to become better attuned to what is considered socially acceptable today.

How much of the classic children's literature, or general literature for that matter, should we touch? Surely Astrid Lindgren, one of the most well meaning people in the history of mankind, did mean nothing ominous as she lets Pippi proclaim her father a "negro king" or lets Pippi squint to pretend to be a Chinese...

Many classics have parts that would be unacceptable today; Pippi Longstocking, Tintin, Pelle Svanslös and, another classic children's writer, Elsa Beskow comes to mind, who wrote about ten little negro boys.

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Times change and of course it can not be considered appropriate today to use the language of fifty or one hundred years ago. That goes for a lot of literature, however, not just children's books. Could the aspect even be considered part of today's children's education? Learning of how different times had different meanings of words and how today things are not appropriate that were commonly used, without necessarily a derogatory meaning, at an earlier time?

Be that as it may, SuperSwede feels Pippi Longstocking is being Censored, Swedes are Next



