MY friend and fellow publishing director at Ateneo, Karen Berthelsen Cardenas, shared with me a New York Times article on April 3 about the debate now brewing in the United States on the 'revision' of classic novels. Written by Alexandra Alter and Elizabeth A. Harris, the short but wide-ranging article maps the contours of the debate.

Who is doing the revision? The estates, the heirs of writers like Agatha Christie, Roald Dahl, Ian Fleming and even Ursula Le Guin. Allegedly, they are doing it 'to conform to current sensibilities, stirring a heated debate among readers and the literary world over whether, and how, classics should be updated.' Sure, but we all know the bottom line here is for the books to sell more, and deliver more royalties to the heirs who did not write these books.