I agree to a certain degree, the scope and fairly transparent agenda of the changes definitely make it more of a problem. I'm still put off by the project. I guess there's probably a small set of edits you could make that would be beneficial and not lose the original tone. I'm not convinced of the value of that project but maybe I could get behind it.

I think a more gifted set of writers could have made the same changes less dunkably, is I guess most of what I have to say here. I sort of do get the idea of excising the fat references, for instance --- I wouldn't, but I get it: these are books for kids, and that's a thing kids absolutely do get victimized over. But if you're going to do it, don't fuck up the music of the prose, or relocate the inflections to Oberlin, Ohio.