Roald Dahl
We've reached Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the MA Children's Lit class. We were pretty unanimous in our love for the book - then and now. Everyone in the group had read it at some point in their childhood. Our memories of both movie adaptations were very strong and it was interesting to go back and see what *wasn't* actually in the book. There's the whole temptation / betrayal sub-plot to do with the everlasting gobstoppers. That's when you get that wonderful moment of changeabout for Gene Wilder in the original movie - the way he suddenly turns on Charlie.
In the book it's a much easier ride all round, but no one seemed to mind that. I think I'd forgotten just how well written it actually was. (A certain biography of Dahl in the 1990s spoiled my enjoyment of him for a while, I have to admit.) I love the zippiness of his writing. There's a spontaneity and an improvisational quality - similar in a way to Enid Bylton - that has you believing that he's thoroughly enjoying himself as he tells you this stuff.
All of us remembered that footage on Blue Peter, years ago, that showed him stomping off happily down his garden to sit in his shed on his old armchair. That image of him writing with sharp yellow pencils and resting on a tea tray has always been my personal image of what it's all about. He's remained in my mind as the perfect image of the writer at work.
The savagery and cruelty of the book bothered no one in the class. In Dahl's world justice is meted out in quite a straightforward way. Fate is fickle and character is destiny (and sometimes so are surnames.) There are huge dollops of sentimentality and violence. It gets squishy and maudlin and sometimes quite sickly and unpalatable. But somehow Dahl always gets away with it. I don't think I've ever not enjoyed one of his books. Even 'The Great Glass Elevator' had its moments - though the rest of the class didn't agree with that.
But what's with the special editions of all these books? Week after week, I'm sitting there with my ancient copies. Pages falling out all over the place. Outdated illustrations and scribbles in the margin. And there are these brand new copies in the class - with extra forwards and afterwords and god knows what. Making me want to go out and get new copies of these things I've already got numpfty times over already. I realised I don't have a nice copy of Willy Wonka with the Quentin Blake drawings in - which seemed a huge omission on my overcrowded shelves.
This morning, though, I've been wondering about following Susan Hill's example and setting a New Year resolution to buy NO MORE NEW BOOKS next year. Simply reading from home, as she puts it, and making some headway through the heaps of to-read piles scattered and teetering about the house. What do you think? Is it possible? I'd miss those Amazon parcels brought to our door by out increasingly grumpy postman. I'd miss those trawls around the secondhand bookshops. But maybe it's worth a try...?
6 Comments:
Not sure if I'd have the discipline to buy No More Books, but it is an admirable goal. :) I recently bought a collected Roald Dahl set from the Book People for a very reasonable amount, which have the Quentin Blake illustrations, and those lovely bits at the end about Dahl and his writing and the yellow pencils and the words he uses.
As my shelves are now past full, I've been thinking more and more about buying a Kindle or some such device to move new books into the electronic realm, just for space-saving considerations. I haven't done it yet because I'm still in love with the book as a physical object, but the switch is pretty inevitable.
BTW, I loved Great Glass Elevator, mainly because the Vermicious Knids were so deliciously frightening, even when spelling out silly things like SCRAM.
I think I'm going to give this No New Books a nash. I sometimes find small piles of forgotten purchases either under a bed or behind something or other. I will make a an effort though although I will say here and now that this does not include Diary of a Doctor Who Addict or B and E No5! (And as Mrs Slocombe would say "I am unanimous in that). mx
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I think I'm going to give this No New Books a bash. I sometimes find small piles of forgotten purchases either under a bed or behind something or other. I will make a an effort though although I will say here and now that this does not include Diary of a Doctor Who Addict or B and E No5! (And as Mrs Slocombe would say "I am unanimous in that). mx
Bah - new editions of classic books with unecessary forewords and page filler essays. Give me the Penguins and Puffins of childhood, when I first stumbled across the books, and not these glitzy copies with adult covers and serious essays inside...
Incidentally, my boys are racing through Dahl just now, (mixed with the far inferior Dr Who Darksmith Legacy books) first off when they got them free with their cereal in some sort of Fantastic Mr Fox tie-in and now dragged from boxes and bookshelves in the house, where I dumped my copies decades ago.
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