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Originally Posted by Elfwreck
We do get to "change quoted material." That's the reason quotes often include brackets that include a few words that help set the context; it's the reason we quote with ellipses to remove extraneous parts. It's unethical not to announce that there are changes, but there's no particular value in saying "it survives as a popular work as last published by the author, or it gets thrown into the dustbin of history."
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Using brackets is not changing the quote. It's a clear indication that someone who is not the author has added something. That is not a problem, as I and others have said. Use brackets wherever you wish--fine.
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It's also ridiculous to say "it's okay to translate to another language, which involves hundreds of editorial choices, but not to translate across time to today's language." Do you think translators work to re-create the exact language that *would have been used* at the time of original publication? If not, how is that any different from updating to more modern language in English?
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It is completely disingenous to be lumping together translations, formatting tweaks, bracketed emendations, annotations, spelling updates, hyphenation, and changes to word choices/meaning. These are not the same thing at all, and I'm sure you are well aware of that, though it seems to suit your purposes to pretend they are all the same. Neither is it the same thing to zombify classics--unless you are presenting the zombification as, e.g.,
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It's not.
I've said it before and I'll say it again--do what you want with a classic, but put your name on it and title it as a retelling, a condensed version, a PC version, a zombie version; whatever. Don't pretend it's the real thing.
And again I'll say that this is why e-books are a bit frightening. Anyone can change any text, for any reason, upload it somewhere, and it's suddenly out in the wild, being confused for the real book.