Not even Jeeves could save Bertie this time. The censors have come for P.G. Wodehouse, the greatest comic author of the last century. His publisher is rewriting some of his books, including books from the iconic “Jeeves and Wooster” series, to excise content deemed offensive to modern readers.
I feared this was coming, but hoped the new woke censors would overlook Wodehouse — after all, such miserable scolds might not read light comedy. But it seems enough of them work in publishing that someone noticed Wodehouse’s transgressions against pure language and thought, and persuaded Penguin Random House to subject his writing to posthumous sanitation.
Fortunately, I’ve already got the complete Wodehouse collection. They can’t rewrite what’s on my shelves — though they might eventually take a page from another classic dystopia and try to burn books. Regardless of their approach, woke censors are always convinced they are in the right as they try to sanitize the work of the past. And in this case, they might seem to have a bit of a point. After all, why shouldn’t we get rid of the awkwardness and offense of Bertie Wooster dropping the n-word?
The immediate problem with this is that the woke coterie in the publishing industry has shown no ability to stick to just a little bit of censorship. The Wodehouse rewrites have reportedly already gone beyond just purging the worst racial slurs, and there is no reason to think the censors will stop anytime soon. Just look at what
