In February 2023, Ian Fleming Publications, LTS announced ahead of their April 2023 reissue of the James Bond novels that certain terms would be updated and disclaimers added as a sort of “trigger” warning for people unused to
More specifically, they changed language surrounding racial descriptions. For instance, Live and Let Die refers to Black Americans as Negroes and Negresses, among other things, if you catch my drift. Other races are also referred to in derogatory terms, such as “Japs” for the Japanese–a relic from WWII when the Japanese were one half of the conflict.
So, why is this even a question? Well, setting aside anything political, let’s actually look at why you would rewrite these terms and then why, in my own opinion, you shouldn’t.
There is only one reason a book is ever “rewritten.”
A book, or at least parts of it, is “rewritten” technically when it gets translated from another language, or updated for language that is totally obsolete and archaic. As in, there is no one alive who speaks it, understands it, etc. Famous examples of this include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Beowulf.
Literature is full of words that are obsolete or archaic and many modern translators will pick synonyms of those words for the sake of the modern reader. I don’t disagree with this entirely. For works like Don Quixote, Beowulf, or even The Canterbury Tales, your primary goal is to get them into people’s hands and read.
Now, in my own opinion, it’s better to use footnotes or side notes to give the reader the definition so they can at least see what the original word it. But, that isn’t always feasible, and it doesn’t work for every reader.
Ultimately, your goals isn’t to either correct to destroy the past. It’s to ensure the person reading it can understand.
Does Ian Fleming fit into this category? Well, they may not be used by most people living today but they are far from obsolete. Everyone still understands exactly what those terms mean, as offensive as they are. And it’s not even all the offensive terms in the books.
In fact, those terms were in widespread common use in polite society within living memory for a goodly percentage of people alive today.
And I think that we should consider the fact that while racial references were edited, none of the derogatory attitudes towards women were.
The dangers of forgetting the past as it actually was.
Ian Fleming wrote in the post-WWII years. This was during the Windrush Generation in the UK and at the very beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. If you’re an elder millennial, this was when our parents were born. Our grandparents and great-grandparents took the brunt of living through these times. And yes, they used words like “negro” and “Jap.”
Live and Let Die, the second of the James Bond novels, is one of the better examples of this. And, coincidentally, has received some of the heavier edits. It’s understandable, don’t get me wrong. But if you look at the context, there’s respect for the race as a whole. Even if to our own sensibilities it can sound a little patronizing.
Yes, both Felix Leiter and James Bond use negro and negress. Are they just paying lip service? Our are they as sincere as they can be with the terms available to them? That’s actually a question you should ask yourself as you read the book. But, you don’t know to ask that question without the original terms in place.
Editing out language used within living memory takes something away from the conversation. Most importantly, it means we have an out from confronting the harsher realities of the past. We can watch documentaries about specific parts of the less savory past, but literature from the time lends a viewpoint no documentary can really give you.
There’s no hiding behind vintage aesthetics when you have to confront the attitudes face-to-face in a novel.
Erasing linguistic history never ends well.
Language tells us many things. It can help trace ideas from their inception to the present-day and it can be weaponized for and against social groups. Erasing it, even from seemingly innocuous things like fiction novels doesn’t actually do anything for the world. Why would it? It erases the experience of those critical years from memory.
If you don’t believe me, then go research the history of Scotland and Wales. Specifically, look at the linguistic history. When you have, you may understand why the Kyrie sung at Charles III’s coronation was so significant. And why Bryn Terfel was nearly in tears as he was singing it.
Language, even foul language, is important because it tells us something about the people who spoke it and about the people who used it for their own gains. There’s a pattern to how people like Hitler use slurs and we’d do well to keep that in mind and not use every opportunity to erase it.
Younger generations need the reminder too. Because when we’re tempted to bemoan the state of the world in our own day, we can look back and say that at least we have progressed from the way things were. Yes, there are still imbalances in society. But we’re still not anywhere close to the world of our grandparents.
The world has improved, make no mistake about that. Has it improved as much as it should? Well, nothing ever really improves as much as we think it should and sometimes it improves in ways we don’t even see as they happen. Sometimes, we even improve even as we regress.
Humans are not perfect. They never will be. They are going to make mistakes, get things wrong, and yes, cause a lot of damage. Let’s face reality. Life and history are both messy and you can sanitize it all you want, but it won’t change anything that has happened.
And, at the end of the day, James Bond is fiction. I think we can handle a few outdated terms, distasteful as they are.
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