From editing to censorship, mandates haunt children's books

Anyone who has gone through primary school in the last thirty years knows who

is : with

as a reference in children's and young people's literature (a populous universe that usually crowds under the acronym LIJ), she is not only the author of

, but also won the Casa de las Américas Award in 1986 in the children's-youth category for

;

She was inducted into the 2003

(International Organization for Youth Books) for

and was awarded the Konex twice for her work, among many other accolades.

Despite all this, from time to time,

about their stories: “I rebel when they ask me to write in “neutral Spanish”.

I flatly refuse to betray my language," she says.

Silvia Schujer poses with a doll from her childhood.

Photo: Diego Fernandez Otero.

Although common sense prevailed and the British publishers of the writer Roald Dahl announced today that

 without changes to make them suitable for "new sensibilities",

on a daily basis, with less visibility, but the same vocation for make economic or advertising values ​​prevail and not the quality of a work.

"Publishers, luckily, are not all the same," Silvia Schujer retakes for

-.

As long as the suggestions are made

, all is well”.

Those suggestions to which she refers are part of a determining moment in the elaboration of every book:

.

A dialogue between who writes and who reads with professional tools

of that story, show off the chosen resources and accompany that text towards its best version.

.

To the writer Sandra Comino, author of essentials such as

or

, an editor told her that

to adapt it "to the market."

Norma Huidobro, creator of Anita Demare and her adventures but also awarded for

, was questioned by a child character for being

.

And Andrea Ferrari, author of

or

, heard from some publisher that it was better

.

“I think an editor has an important role.

We authors spend a lot of time alone with our texts and an intelligent and incisive look often helps to improve the book.

Andrea Ferrari.Writer.

Is editing censoring?

So, what is the limit between the necessary edition and the outright censorship?

To begin with, these

respond to

, who have been building sensitive and critical readers for a long time, not only in Argentina and not only among Spanish-speakers.

Sandra Comino, left, during the 46th International Book Fair in Buenos Aires.

Photo German Garcia Adrasti.

“The edition

.

The editor accompanies, does not deviate”, says

, who in addition to writing, is a workshop leader and literary critic.

Therefore,

the author of

Publishing by theme and not by writing is a mistake.

Obviously the theme is interesting but literature is not just a theme.

It is writing, structure, narrative voice, point of view, story...

.

Whether LIJ or not.

No one would dream of touching the work of García Márquez.

At least I want to believe that, ”she opines.

When Comino talks with

about topics, he refers to

that operate in the market.

advances in this sense: “The capitalist system tries to obtain the greatest possible profit in any productive activity.

In the desire to sell more books, fashions are sometimes

(some imported, others more local) that, if they work economically, begin to dominate the market to the detriment of other works with artistic values ​​that are priced less".

The problem appears when, based on certain supposed fashions (the non-use of certain words to “not hurt sensibilities”, for example, or the greater or lesser capacity that a text has to be marketed in other countries) they ask you for changes.

Silvia SchujerWriter.

For Schujer, "in this the responsibility is multiple, but basically it is about the operation of

that is not only reduced to the editorial field. The problem appears when, based on certain supposed fashions (the non-use of certain words for " not hurt sensibilities", for example, or the greater or lesser capacity that a text has to be marketed in other countries) they

", he exemplifies. And once they ask, they ask those who take their first steps, but also authors who are already a classic, like herself.

Andrea Ferrari, journalist and writer.

Another author of classics is Andrea Ferrari.

And not exactly speaking of simple topics:

and many other issues considered difficult cover a work with notable titles such as

or

The

Anyone would say that Ferrari no longer needs someone to edit it, but she tells

the opposite: “

.

We authors spend a lot of time alone with our texts and an intelligent and incisive look often helps to improve the book.

But it is quite evident when all the suggestions for change are in the direction of making the text more easily digestible,

.

In that case, an author can be planted in rejection or decide to take the book elsewhere.

The edition has to do with the text, it does the text, it is internal.

Censorship always has to do with 'the outside'.

Norma Huiodobro.Writer and editor

Norma Huidobro, who

with

, is

because she beautifully explores marginal territories: peripheral neighborhoods of the City (Barracas, San Telmo, La Boca for example, as well as the suburbs south) and less narrated social groups (teenage mothers, female families, children in charge of brothers or grandmothers, older adults...).

That uniqueness was recognized not only by its audience.

His youthful novel

(the prestigious annual selection made by the Internationale Jugendbibliothek in Munich) and for

he received the

, awarded by the Union of Libraries of France, in 2015.

Norma Huidobro, who won the Clarín Novela Award in 2007 with El Lugar Perdido.

But also,

.

“Editing is always necessary – he tells

– and someone has to do it.

There are authors who don't need to be edited, because they do it themselves, they present you with a text to which you don't have to do anything or very little, and you tell them about that little and they take it out right away.

;

comes into play

, the question about whether the school will accept this or that situation raised in the novel, or this or that word that is not very well seen.

Let's say that the edition has to do with the text, it does the text, it is internal.

'”.

's work

, that outside is also extemporaneous.

How could the work of a man

(in 1916) and who died in Oxford in 1990 account for ideas and values ​​that continue to transform even now as you read this note?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, The Great Good-natured Giant, Agu Trot, The Witches

and

, among many other of his books,

.

What then to do with the violence that today would be denounceable?

What to say about naturalized black slaves?

What to do with a girl mistreated by her frivolous mother and her delinquent father?

Roald Dahl, British novelist.

To read the classics

, who is, in addition to being a writer, a

, has some ideas.

She is the Editorial Manager of the Loqueleo label, from Santillana Argentina, and she has been challenged by bloody violence or intolerable machismo that had been narrated in this way for centuries.

What do you do with that as a publisher?

She herself responds to

: “As book editors at Loqueleo, we have often found ourselves faced with these dilemmas, for example

, which have given us allowed very interesting conversations with their authors and authors, and

and take care of the credible”.

Maquieira proposes not to forget that literary works

: “It is absurd to ask a text from a given era to obey the thoughts, ideals or dreams of another.

Even if certain words resonate differently at one time or another,

,” she says.

It is absurd to ask a text from a certain period to obey the thoughts, ideals or dreams of another.

Writer and editor. Editorial Manager of the Loqueleo label, from Santillana Argentina.

And regarding the controversy that arose regarding the work of Roald Dahl specifically, he assures Clarín

"Of course there are books that get old and are not read by current childhoods, that present situations or characters far removed from the readers, realities out of time , or an archaic language.

But

and challenge us each time in different ways.

It seems to me that this

: why would the author have written that?

what happened in those years?

what was that society like?

what does that word mean today and why does it bother us?

What battles did you have to go through?

I think that this is the rich thing, contrary to the ultra-correction positions that try to adapt or change a text according to what the market dictates”.

Claudia Amigo, the editor of the two children's magazines with the largest audience,

and

, shares the same idea .

She is in charge of preparing a material that

, with very different realities.

Regarding classics like Dahl's, he says that we must continue reading them: "Together with others (relatives, teachers, mediators) who can explain to today's readers why those values ​​were valid in other times (and even continue to be so today). other places).

If we don't read them as they were written,

”, he wonders and illuminates a determining point:

María Fernanda Maquieira is, in addition to being a writer, a great editor of children's and youth literature.

In

and

stories are frequently published.

How are the stories and approaches chosen?

Answer Amigo: “The authors already know the tone of the magazines and the repertoire of topics that we prefer to give.

Let's think that they are magazines with a certain profile, that combine the playful and the didactic, aimed at a very broad audience, and are distributed throughout the country.

;

but

and above all, the display of imagination.

We imagine that this story will be read as a family, before going to sleep and that limits, in a certain sense, the approach to some topics that would require another reading context”.

Taboos and

flying

Silvia Schujer remembers

of her books.

The journalist

“(and on the air –she clarifies–) because it seemed to him that the fictional pact of black humor that I established with my readers was dangerous for children”.

When something can be talked about, publishers look for related fiction.

And it's OK.

The problem is that, in general, instead of looking for works, they look for authors who write about that topic.

Sandra Comino. Writer.

It was not the first time: “When my book

came out (in 1988), which is the story of a father with his daughters when the marriage breaks up,

and some how many more things

The divorce was still not legal."

Sandra Comino says that

to talk about them.

And she knows what she's talking about: “

was published when people began to talk openly about the Malvinas War, just in 2012.

.

When something can be talked about, publishers look for related fiction.

And it's OK.

The issue is that, in general, instead of looking for works, they look for authors who write about that subject and if that thematic request does not coincide with the interest of the author, sometimes a moving story does not come out.

A single author cannot be a catalog of topics”.

Claudia Amigo is editor of the two children's magazines with the largest audience, Genios and Jardín de Genios.

In this sense, outside of the fashions and tendencies to silence, annul, eliminate what testifies that the past was worse in many ways (sexist, slave-owning, violent, colonialist and various other things), the two publishers are

to remember and value

.

“My memory as a child –

shares – is that of having been

;

book-game-world were a continuum.

She devotedly read poetry by

as well as the school reading books

.

My mother had made a drawing with

and taped it inside the Sudamericana edition of

for when she dared to read it”.

I know there are now politically correct versions of Twain's books that have had the word nigger deleted from them.

I, as an editor, would not delete it.

Claudia Amigo.Editor of the magazines Genios and Jardín de Genios.

And Friend rescues

, by Mark Twain: “I loved Twain when I read him as a girl, in the famous yellow-cover editions of the Robin Hood collection.

I was the one who got on the raft and went down the Mississippi for pure adventure.

.

That was the key: ask and have someone on the other side who could explain, in my case, it was my parents, loving readers too.

I know there are now politically correct versions of Twain's books that have had the word nigger deleted from them.

.

I would include an editor's note explaining the use of that term in context."

look also

"I would reserve the word cancellation for extreme cases of harassment"

look also

The tyranny of offense

look also

From official aid to the lack of internet: pandemic and children's literature at the Book Fair