Arktoons Spotlight: Right Ho Jeeves

Remember, the firemen are rarely necessary. The public itself stopped reading of its own accord. – Fahrenheit 451

Arkhaven has moved from simply a successful business venture to an imperative necessity for the preservation of Western civilization. I wish that was just hyperbole. I really do.

But it’s not.

From the Daily Mail:

The comic novels have been edited for new editions by Penguin* Random House, as well as trigger warnings added to warn readers of ‘outdated’ themes.

In the Wodehouse books, one warning said the prose had been changed because it was judged to be ‘unacceptable’ by Penguin, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

The disclaimer printed on the opening pages of the 2023 reissue of Thank you, Jeeves says: ‘Please be aware that this book was published in the 1930s and contains language, themes and characterisations which you may find outdated.

‘In the present edition we have sought to edit, minimally, words that we regard as unacceptable to present-day readers.’

Unacceptable to present-day readers? Are there any present-day readers that would find anything in a comedy of manners from the last century unacceptable?

I mean yes, there are the people who work at Good Reads and the Mary Sue, but one of them publishes open reviews for books that don’t exist yet and is about to be put out of business by Amazon. While the other has articles like “If Worf Were My Boyfriend” and “The Mandalorian Resonates with Folks Like Me Who Feel ‘Not Blank Enough'” Assuming they are actual humans and are not the product of an AI project gone hideously wrong (not a great bet if you ask me), under no circumstances should the pillars of civilization be turned over to people who knock them down because of the choirs of their collective insantiy sing about how it will improve their mental feng shui.

But we at Arktoons are not them. Nor under any circumtance will we alter, or rewrite classic literature.

We. Will. Guard. It.

And so, I present you as tonight’s (with prose intact) Arktoons Spotlight: Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse.