Cnut Songs #18: Arguing With Billy

Cnut Songs is the occasional series where I find myself in the position of King Cnut, trying in vain to stop the tide of idiocy that keeps rolling over the sands of the modern world. Will I hold back that tide? Will I chuff. Still, here I go again...

This week I found myself in the uncomfortable, unusual and unenviable position of disagreeing with Billy Bragg. This does not happen often. Over the years, I’ve seen Billy speak on a wide range of issues, both live (at gigs, on TV or radio) and in print, and have generally found myself in wholehearted agreement with everything he says.

Last week though, Billy weighed in on the debate about editing Roald Dahl’s books to remove words or thoughts which are now considered “offensive”. Including not referring to Augustus Gloop as fat and changing the Big Friendly Giant's coat so it's no longer black. Billy is in favour of some of these proposed edits, and put forward a semi-convincing argument… but it’s one I can’t get along with.

I don’t believe we can change attitudes by blacklisting words. I chose to use the word “blacklist” specifically, because it’s a word some no longer feel should be used. Yes, there are many negative connotations to the word “black”, but we won’t stamp out racial prejudice by banning its use. I just typed “connotations of black” into google and here’s what came up:

“Evil, death, grief, mourning, the occult. Mystery, bleakness, heaviness, depression, rebellion, fear.”

Woah. Are you going to edit those connotations out of every text ever written?

Or… is it perhaps better to educate people that words can have many multiple meanings in all kinds of different contexts, and just because some (or many) of them might be negative, that shouldn't reflect or interfere with more positive connotations of the same word. That's what I try to do as an English teacher anyway. (That said, this is the same idiocy that tells teachers they can't mark students' work using red pens any more, because red represents blood, danger and anger. AND NOTHING ELSE AT ALL.)

Of course, it’s very easy for me to write about misconceptions of the word black as a middle-aged white male. So instead, let’s talk about a word I have a more first-hand experience of…

Fat.

When I was a kid, I struggled with my weight. (Still do, to be honest, but nobody really gives a toss when you’re 50.) Maybe I wasn’t as fat as Augustus Gloop, but I wasn’t as greedy either. (Roald Dahl chose an unpleasant word to describe him because he’s an unpleasant character.) However, I did get called names that referred to my less than elfin physique, especially when Roland Browning, Grange Hill’s token fat kid, arrived on the scene.

Do I really believe that wouldn’t have happened if the kids I went to school with had somehow been protected from ever seeing or hearing the word fat in a negative context? Sorry, Billy… I just don’t buy it. You don’t stop prejudice or ignorance or brutality through censorship. And certainly not by censoring words! Because if you’re going to start removing all the potentially insulting words or attitudes from fiction… where do you stop? Think about all the murder and torture and abuse and horror that writers have been using in stories since the beginning of time. Maybe if we edit all that stuff out, then people will stop doing bad things to each other in the real world and we will truly achieve our utopia. On second thoughts, I think I might be onto something here. Let's start with The Bible, shall we?

 

(The) Pixies had a new album out last year which nobody told me about. I need Frank Black to send me a letter, preferably by carrier pigeon, when he next puts out new material, because clearly his social media team isn’t doing their job. (Also, Frank - time to consider a new surname?)

Anyway, Doggerel is very good. Here’s a song that initially reminded me of Elastica… until I remembered that they stole the riff from The Stranglers. Who knows where those guys got it.