Current Events > Recent controversy aside, do you like Roald Dahl?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Where do you sit?

His writing is very good, but he was apparently a terrible person. I voted yes on the basis that we're judging his writing.

What controversy, worth googling?

R1masher posted...

What controversy, worth googling?

Just the bowdlerisation of his books, essentially. Not really worth googling.

I enjoy chocolate and peaches, so yes.

very important author for me as a kid

He was the author of my childhood, of course I do. The Twits was my favourite - the ending gave little me nightmares!

The people wanting to censor his books are performing cultural vandalism and should be ashamed.

R1masher posted...

What controversy, worth googling?

The publisher completely sanitized the books in the most ridiculous ways. Like completely removed references to people blushing because that's describing skin color and race doesn't matter. Or adorable dress to lovely dress. Just really off the wall shit.

pegusus123456 posted...

The publisher completely sanitized the books in the most ridiculous ways. Like completely removed references to people blushing because that's describing skin color and race doesn't matter. Or adorable dress to lovely dress. Just really off the wall shit.

Also characters don't wear black anymore because black clothing is racist.

R1masher posted...

What controversy, worth googling?

You can basically sum up his big controversy with the ending of a rant of his: "...even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason."

"Them," of course, referring to Jewish people.

I do like some of his work, although I haven't read everything. I used to read a few of his books to my students over the years. Mostly Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, and Matilda. I had copies of The BFG and Fantastic Mr. Fox in the classroom library for the students to read if they wanted.

I mostly know hiim because of adaptations of his work. If I read any of his books, then I was probably very young, I don't remember any of them. I was into stuff like Narnia, Animorphs and Goosebumps as a kid, then got really into high fantasy stuff when I got into middle/high school.

That said, Matilda and Willa Wonka are great movies.

He was my childhood, so an obligatory Yes.

ellis123 posted...

You can basically sum up his big controversy with the ending of a rant of his: "...even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason."

"Them," of course, referring to Jewish people.

Thats not a *recent* controversy, but one that would taint the views of many to his works, to be sure.

I either really liked his books or couldn't get through them. I only remember finishing the two Charlie books and James and the Giant Peach.

I know that he was a horrible person but I think hes probably the best childrens author of all time.

James and the Giant Peach was one of my favorite movies as a kid.

Always loved how fucked up his writing was. Growing up feel like I went through that curve meme where it was like,

As a kid "wow this accurately reflects how horrible people are in real life"

As a teen/young adult "wow this is amusing caricature that reflects real life but is too extreme to be believable"

And now as an adult "holy shit this accurately reflects how horrible people are in real life"

I enjoyed his books quite a lot as a kid, i was mostly oblivious to whatever shitty prejudices he had. I do remember thinking the oompa loompas were a little questionable though

i also read The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar when I was too young and thought it was real, and it convinced me i could develop psychic powers if i tried hard enough

I think if you find the content of his books troubling then you don't let your children read them.

What you don't do is edit them and print them again so that you can make money.

Hate that shit. There's so many childrens authors, you can find literally any with the values you want to teach your children.

pinky0926 posted...

What you don't do is edit them and print them again so that you can make money.

I'm against altering any book regardless of the content. Translating some archaic form of writing into modern language is fine as long as you try to make it as accurate as possible. Changing a few things here and there because your feelings got hurt is not a good reason to alter it though. Just don't read it and move on like you said. Editing new versions of the book doesn't change the millions of copies that are already in circulation anyway.

Nah I never got into him

pinky0926 posted...

I think if you find the content of his books troubling then you don't let your children read them.

What you don't do is edit them and print them again so that you can make money.

Hate that shit. There's so many childrens authors, you can find literally any with the values you want to teach your children.

Personally, I dislike Dahl intensely, but ffs just slap a this contains archaic characterisation sticker on his books or something.

Yes, I grew up reading his works as a kid in elementary school. Watched "James and the giant peach" on a school field trip during that time and thought it was cool.

I liked some of the movies based on his books (Mainly Giant Peach and Matilda), but the books themselves...

I remember I read I ton of his books back in the day

I named my first dog Danny because I liked Danny The Champion of the World so much when I was a kid. I read a ton of his books growing up.

Great books, awful person

oh shit i didnt realize he was the one who wrote fantastic mr fox. omg that is one of my fave cartoon movies

I like a couple of the stories he created, also he just happened to have been a massive piece of shit.

I can think more than one thing.

Kakapo posted...

Personally, I dislike Dahl intensely, but ffs just slap a this contains archaic characterisation sticker on his books or something.

This is what I've been saying.

Isn't it far easier (and much more honest) to just put a disclaimer at the beginning saying "This work may contain questionable content that does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher blah blah etc etc" as opposed to going over every paragraph with a fine-toothed comb on the remote notion that somebody somewhere *might* get offended that a worm is described as being "pink"?

>__>

Did he illustrate his own books? I always loved the stories but hated the artwork lol