Let Roald Dahl die. 💀
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ก.ย. 2024
- Do we need a new Twits book? What do we do with the tarnished legacies of children's authors? Is this all about profit or could it also be about liberation? Let's discuss Penguin's choice to publish The Twits Next Door by Greg James and Chris Smith.
Roald Dahl antisemitism article: www.theguardia...
Material Girls Podcast episode where I discuss Roald Dahl's past and legacy: Wonka x Antisemitism and Censorship with Leena Norms: www.ohwitchple...
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Dahl has an important theme to his books: that you will encounter people that are irredeemable assholes for absolutely no reason, and will need to know how to deal with them. I think that's important.
He's not the first children's author to be sanitized or censored.
I think his revolting rhymes and dirty beasts books are really funny.
Like many kids, I loved Matilda, and I feel like it must be so comforting for kids going through a hard time to read a book that confirms, yes, parents and teachers can be irrational, selfish and cruel, but there are good people out there so keep looking for them and also, you have more power than you realise.
It's funny because I do love a redemption arc, but also kids need to know that sometimes adults, even their own parents, are terrible and that is absolutely not their fault.
I met Quentin Blake once about 10 years ago. To put your mind at rest, he was every bit as lovely as you would hope him to be.
Thank you for this. I love his illustrations so much!
Johnny Ball, on the other hand....
Ah, and my grandmother, who was a friend and neighbour of Ronald Dahl, would take me to play in his garden. I think I must have been aged around 6 years old at the time.
Although I was deaf and spoke very little at that time, he did his best to communicate with me.
I remember he grew roses in his garden, and he kept birds, if I remember rightly. Budgerigars, I'm sure of it.
I knew someone at school who was his goddaughter
This is only tangentially related, but I have been thinking a lot about the way that publishers (in my opinion) are disrespecting and undermining children's intelligence.
Last year I purchased new copies of Enid Blyton's The Naughtiest Girl in the School books, which I read as a child. I reread them and found it incredibly jarring that so much of the languge and concepts had been modernised. In the original text, the students are allowed 2 shillings pocket money each week. In the new editions, this was updated to £10. It stuck out to me as incredibly belittling, as though it is so unbelievable that a child could understand old currency in a historical text?
Wow I hate it! Feel like I first learned about loads of concepts (like old currency!) from reading old books as a child.
That’s the first book I ever read on my own and it’s how I fell in love with reading. I think I’d be a bit scared to reread them now. I’m protective over the memory of the feeling.
Urgh. This sucks. But this is also extra relevant as the series was extended after the authors death. I had mixed feelings about it as a kid.
That's very upsetting to find out actually. As a kid, finding interesting words I didn't know in books encouraged me to interact with others to ask them the meaning, leading to interesting convos, or looking it up myself, which was a fun adventure into learning more about the world.
I still fondly recall "the owl and the pussycat" for teaching me what a Runcible spoon is when I was 9, and if anyone is curious what a Runcible spoon is, I recommend looking it up! 😁
This is so true! I worked in a school for a few years and part of my job was selecting books for classroom libraries for each elementary school level. While there are definitely still newer books that respect the intelligence and capability of kids, a lot of them are just too simplified and too afraid to "go there" like older kids' books did.
You're spot-on about Dahl's linguistic playfulness being key to his appeal. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was one of my favourite books as a kid, and I'd often skip straight to the factory chapters just so I could soak up all the cool ideas. "Square sweets that look round" was one of the funniest things that 9-year-old me could imagine. Seems to me that this new book lacks a lot of that creative verve
Square sweets that look round are my FAVOURITE part of the book 😅
My partner and I read kids books to each other before bed, and we've loved the Montgomery Bonbon series so far - It has that joy of language that's like squidging it around with your hands till the shape pleases you. A similar joy to Dahl's books, although definitely with an updated moral compass
Here's a bit that made me laugh: Even the seabirds seemed calmer here. They were content with barking quietly at each other, standing on one leg, or tucking their beaks under their wings to find out what a seagulls armpit smells like.
You should read My Uncle Oswald. It’s a fantastically wholesome tale that definitely should be read aloud in a library or a church. Georges Bataille is another example of great family reading.
Grandpa Joe was my favorite part of that book. An absolute nut but such a fun and wholesome fellow.
I read almost exclusively Roald Dahl and I didn't know about this. Who let them write this?
Authors that distrust the intelligence of their reader - at any level, children's YA or adult - are bad writers. No kid wants an overly moralistic narrator constantly INTERRUPTING the story world to patronise them in the real-world!
And yes - it should be released into the public domain, especially when publishing houses know that the author is problematic and cause a big hoo-hah about editing (censoring?) the original work! GAH! Can only be a cash grab, and disappointing that Greg James and Chris Smith haven't interrogated that for themselves... (the AUDACITY of striaght white men eh?!)
Also "Nice Pop"?! I think you'll find the pun is in CORDIAL.
Cordial! CORDIAL! “Cordial Cordial” - it would have been so perfect.
I can't tell if your "the audacity of straight white men eh!?" Is sarcastic or not. Um, is it? I don't get into most publishing drama.
@@TalkingWeirdStuff24 haha, well I guess I was being deliberately overdramatic yes. About opportunities afforded to these two privileged blokes and they just assume they deserve them. (Like, yeah I'm sure I can write a book as good as Roald Dahl, and I'm happy to ignore all the controversy surrounding the original author and yes I will take all that money too thanks.) Enter Leena to give a litany of reasons why they should have thought twice...
And, I suppose, because I actually like Greg James, he seems like a nice intelligent and gentle man on the radio so it's sort of extra annoying 😂
When I was a kid reading chapter books back in the 70s nobody talked about the author at all.
Why do you need to talk to elementary kids about authors and who they personally are. It’s unnecessary. Just let kids enjoy books.
They can get into author drama on their own later when they are older.
That said, even now at the age of 60 I do not look into the authors of the books I read very much.
@@ingridfitz5677 I dislike the 'Author as the Product' approach to books. It can be interesting, fun, and useful to learn about the author, but to me what we are going through now feels less like genuine interest in another person and more like a Social Credit System. A system where the most important metric of judging the quality of a book isn't the book itself, but the author; their skin tone, sex, religion, country of origin, flags in their social media profile, etc.
If they were trying to really emulate Roald Dahl they should have confirmed in the brackets that they do hate all children, especially you.
This is the man who wrote The Witches for goodness' sake.
The Matilda musical is more derogatory about kids than that hardback blurb!
I'm from Norway, and Roald Dahl is MASSIVE there. Norway doesn't have a claim on too many things, so we hold on to the things we can. Roald Dahl was born to two Norwegian parents. It's funny to me how the English wikipedia page lists him as "British author", but the Norwegian one has him down as a "Norwegian-British author". I remember in school how we were all fighting for the school library copies of George's Marvelous Medicine and The Magic Finger in particular.
same in the french speaking world
You guys have Vikings and an incredible music scene, why do you need Roald Dahl so badly? 😅
Norwegian-Welsh even. Cardiff hasn't forgotten about him.
I have wanted to visit Norway since I read “Boy”
He's popular in the Netherlands as well!
I'd add that it shouldn't be demeaning for adults to read books for children or young adults. The number of people who won't even read John Green because it's for adolescents is disappointing to me.
Yes! I'm a professional academic and read intense philosophical and historical works, translate texts that are hundreds of years old, and if I'm going to enjoy reading at all, it needs to be reasonably light but smart. YA and middle reader books, particularly fantasy books, often fit that bill, and I am enjoying reading middle reader novels to my kid not just for our together time, but because the content is fun.
When I was a kid, I wanted nothing more than to NOT to be stuck only checking books out of the kids section. My mom made our library give me an adult library card when I was 12, and I have never touched any juvenilia/ya since. 😊
John and Hank Green, Philip Pullman, Terry Pratchett are just some of the first names you'd miss out on. And what about comics and manga like Fullmetal Alchemist?
Why would other people not reading a book disappoint you? It has literally zero impact on your life whatsoever.
Completely agree! I'm 49, last week I picked up Skellig by David Almond from a charity shop for a quid (because i have fond memories of watching the Tim Roth adaptation and the story appealed) and absolutely devoured it! Good stories are good stories, regardless of perceived 'demographic'.
I am so sick of corporations rolling out poorly writen or even just subpar books for children just to make money off existing IP.
Early literacy is so important and high quality literature for children is so important!
The mountains of derivative, moralistic rubbish I have to wade through when sorting books for my classroom is so disheartening.
There are amazing childrens authors writing at the moment but sometimes it feels like publishers are more interest in cashing in on parental nostalgia or children's obsessions
I think Britain's more interested in advertising children's books by comedians or radio & TV personalities instead of people who are exclusively authors.
It feels like since Harry Potter there's a sickly overstepping of adults into these worlds, and sanitising them in the image of their own grown up idealisations. It really creeps me out. When I was a kid I knew when an adult was trying adjust my behaviour because they told me... But this sneaky 360 parenting with a constant smile in your face in some ways feels worse.
Yeah, kids know when they're being manipulated in this way, and don't like it. No faster way to kill interest in reading, except maybe rewarding them for reading and telling them "good job!"
While Harry Potter does have a few kind of weird things in it, like the house elves, a child can read it just fine without becoming a bad person. The book has plenty of amazing morals and it’s so fun to read. If the parent is doing a good job of raising the child and instilling moral values in them, it won’t matter if they read books that don’t perfectly follow that moral pattern. After all, it’s fiction.
it seems disturbing to me how much young people today are constantly being monitored by parents and their peers. Like, i feel like sanitized media is part of this larger trend of how young people are controlled socially.A lot of gen z seem to have a weird relationship with moral hyper-scrupulosity.
Fun fact from a hobbyist bookbinder! The little fabric bits on the ends of the books are called endbands or headbands/tailbands. They are indeed supposed to strengthen the spine, and traditionally they were hand-woven into the spine but more often stick-on endbands are used.
Such an interesting perspective about the author's voice being confiding rather than parenting. Lemony snicket is another author who was good at this i think. For some reason i vividly remember reading a bit from a series of unfortunate events where he explains how to use 's correctly by expressing his irritation that shop signs so often get this wrong (e.g. "sanwiche's"). I learnt soemthing educational as a ~9 year old by being invited to notice the fallibility of professional business-owning grown ups, rather than by being told to diligently obey them just because they are adults. The author made it feel somehow rebellious and anti-authority to learn grammar. After that i was always noticing this grammar mistake on shop signs and it felt like an inside joke with snicket
Yes, I remember that too! I loved the way the narration was written in that series, one of my childhood favourites.
The narrator was an iconic character and one of the best parts of the series. I loved his random side tangents about little things. And I know what you mean about the grammer thing. One of my favorite moments in the books was when he went on a rant about either irony or suspense (can't remember which) and kid me was like "huh, never thought about that!"
ive been thinking about lemony snicket As A Children's Author lately and you're so right for this opinion
That's really interesting actually. Lemony Snicket somehow managed to have an older, authoritative persona with a lot of 'teaching' that would normally be bad, but somehow it really worked in that case.
@@skirmishj258 With both Lemony and Roald, they were narrators who were acting like an older friend beyond all else, telling them the story. Always making the reader feel special and like they're telling them something that's almost naughty but not really. Like Lemony is constantly saying how awful and sad the story is and that the reader should probably not continue on, which obviously makes kids *want* to read it. Or Roald putting in insults and words that sound like they rude and offensive, except they're not really. It's things like that which captures kid's attention and helps spark their imaginations.
I'm just more and more happy that Terry Pratchett put things in place to make sure this didn't happen with Discworld. The idea of mediocre writers playing in his sandbox gives me the shivers.
I never read Dahl's works as a kid, but I did read the works of E. Nesbitt. She truly struck a perfect balance I think between being a mischievous companion to the reader, whilst showing (not telling) a child the reason for certain morals. But the key aspect of her writing was that she treated her child readers as intelligent people, which made me want to read her work more. I also think it's what's missing from a lot of modern children's books.
Children deserve to have books that treat them as if they are capable of distinguishing good from bad.
E. Nesbit is so amazing. I never properly appreciated as a child how in "Five Children and It" chapters set up the magic in a way that could just barely be interpreted as a children's game rather than objective magical happenings. It's so subtle and witty.
Yeees please!
POPliments! That's what I would call my soda pop that makes you burp nice things
10/10
My 9 year old sister's favorite author is Roald Dahl, and to see these works sanitized is disheartening. I am well aware that there are iffy things in his books (I've encountered negative racial stereotypes and negative depictions of fat people a few times in my sister's favorite Roald Dahl works), but, unsurprisingly, she knows these things are wrong! I know that not all kids innately know these things, but the solution is a simple conversation ("We don't talk about Mexican/fat people that way") instead of dumbing down the source material with the assumption that if a child sees a James and the Giant Peach character smoke they'll emulate it. It's the same thing with Disney remakes, where if you take out the "problematic" elements you lose a bit, if not a lot, of the charm
Saying a person has, or had, prejudiced beliefs is just as trite as saying a teenager has acne. EVERYONE feels fear and hostility at some point, because life really is that uncertain and scary. And the euphemisms used to describe this tend to be even more trite. "Questionable character" is something all of us have. Who hasn't had a bad day and been mean to someone out of frustration? And "complicated past" is triter still. Who on earth has ever had a "simple past?" But unless you're a psychopath, you're not going to be mean to people every day of your life. Come to think of it, even some psychopaths are very good at hiding their meanness.
We also need to make a clear distinction between genuine xenophobic hatred and "Look at the funny people, Mommy!" childish reactions. I grew up reading (and loved) Dr. Seuss' "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," which meant I saw the "Chinaman [later "Chinese man"] who eats with sticks." And I never went out and punched a Chinese boy due to having seen that cartoon. What, exactly, are these censors afraid will happen?
I want to make new stuff! Sequels and cinematic universes and live action versions are so annoying! So many writers are coming up with new, genius stuff but aren’t getting seen cause all anyone funds is remakes and sequels
So, it's corporate fanfic.
How you dont have millions of subs is beyond me. Your channel is just so well put together and thoughtful, and the videos are always entertaining. Not matter the topic, I always come out feeling more positive and motivated! Great vid btw!
Wow, this is such a bloody lovely comment, thank you ❤️
@@leenanormsno worries, you deserve it!
Fyi, I loved Dahl's work. But I only came to his written work as an adult through his adult short stories. Not sure if you've read them, they're dark and twisted and very thought provoking. Highly recommend.
As someone who works in marketing, this makes sense. Quality always has low subs. Most people follow utter nonsense and sensationalised pointless drama.
Please keep this work up, I hope people come to their senses and start shifting focus to quality content like this
I don’t think it’s actually that hard to explain to a child that you can love a book and it can contain outdated and problematic viewpoints and that the author wasn’t necessarily a good person. I loved the Little House books as a kid but I had lots of discussions about the way people were portrayed with my parents which I think helped me to understand the world better at a young age.
Yeah, like a big part of having a moral code is realising those in power don't, It's much better to be aware of problematic aspects of media then to try and paint over them.
@@stm7810 yes! And realizing that artists aren’t morally superior at a young age helped me not to romanticize them and helped me develop critical thinking skills!
@@elizabethmcintosh5684 yeah, like series of unfortunate events was a great story but also contained a lot of ableism, transphobia and other problems. Charlie and the Chocolate factory was racist and defended horrible capitalist practices like monopolies and slavery. knowing these things doesn't stop me loving stories it is good to critically think about the media you consume.
Hear hear! This is why retellings of Jane Austen (or anyone else) so often don't work. They can copy the characters, and update the situations, and recreate the class distinctions, but unless they can make it witty, and engaging, and suspenseful in the right places, it really has no appeal. But people will publish, and buy, these retellings and sequels and wonder why they feel so blah. It's because what attracts us to the original work is not the situations but the writing.
I do feel good writing isn’t considered enough for children. I was an avid reader as a child and one of my favorites was the Ramona Quimby series by Beverley Cleary. No fancy world building just funny stories about a family four living in our world. I LOVE fantasy and quirky writing- it’s so much fun. But that shouldn’t be placed above good writing.
Beverly Cleary was my favorite author and I absolutely recommend reading her memoir On My Own Two Feet which is about her as a young woman up until the writing as her first book. It's very wholesome but shows some of the inspiration for her books and talks about life in the 30s. My favorite fact from it was that she wrote Henry Huggins because she had working class boys come into her library asking her if there was a book about kids like them and when she realized there wasn't, she eventually decided she would be the one to write the book.
RAMONA!
I haven't heard that name in years, and yet I remember it vividly. I always hated the "mischievious little girl who causes problems and gets into trouble" genre as a kid because I was sensitive and hated certain types of conflict, but Ramona was the exception. I miss her so much.
there were other books about that girl, I read 1, loved the quarter past 8 joke. 1 of the few braille books I got access to.
The point about the authorial voice being that of a moralizing teacher rather than a confidante aligns with what I’ve observed about a lot of contemporary children’s media. There is very little anarchy there, very little room for the joy of breaking rules and being “naughty”. Sure, the presentation might be colorful and whimsical, but in their hearts a lot of contemporary books are more alike to a visual facelift of 50s books about good kids being nice and clean than, say, the likes of Pippi Longstocking.
Jacqueline Wilson has wrote a fair few “sequels” to classic books such as five children and it, what Katy did and the railway children. It really comes down to the intention, as in that case they come from a place of passion from reading them herself when she was younger, and wanting to bring those stories to a modern audience. The twits book on the other hand seems more like it came from an aim to make money, especially with the celebrity writer tie in.
I like some of her original work, too. They deal with tough stuff in a relatable way.
Love her stuff 🩷
I live in India, and Roald Dahl's books were some of my first books as a kid.
Just here to say Dahl IS in fact big in The Netherlands, his books are sold wherever children's books are sold. Also, Leena, I would never click on this video tbh. But it's yours. So I did. Your rants are the only rants that count in my boom. Much love!
Yup, I can attest to this fact. I grew up on The Dutch versions of Fantastic Mr Fox, the Twits and Danny, the Champion of the world (or translated back to English from Dutch: The Fantastic Mister Fox, The Creeps and Daantje the World Champion).
As a literacy intervention teacher who is also ethnically and religiously Jewish I HAVE to believe in the value of separating the art from the artist. Roald Dhal and Dr Seuss are such great authors to get children reading and reading well, I must keep them in my arsenal.
You might be surprised but Roald Dahl is HUGE in Italy LIKE HUGE. A staple for kids, books getting printed and reprinted, shoved down to generations throats (I’m 26 I have a 12 y/o brother and it went through the same stuff I did ahah)
Same in France.
As a fellow Italian, I can confirm!! Roald Dahl was part of mine and my siblings' childhood. I guess the translation played a crucial role in its popularity too
He was definitely very well-known and popular here when I was a kid, and I am Dutch!
I read some English/Italian versions of his work when I started learning Italian and I'll just say they really let the translator cook with those ones
Professional children’s book illustrator here - I mostly agree with everything you’ve said here, though I’d note that isn’t how IP entering into the public domain works. That will stay as is - sequels won’t change that.
Roald Dahl was loved by kids in Australia growing up, I'm in my 20s now, but I'd imagine hes still popular.
My son is 9 and went through the Dahl phase too lol
I'm waiting for him to find Paul Jennings.
He's already watched Round The Twist, so it's coming.
I read the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn as a kid and I loved them. I’m sure a lot of the context went over my head but it was so clearly set in a different place with different rules, it read like fantasy. I find Roald Dahl is the same, it’s a realistic setting but a parallel universe. Reading one story doesn’t make you internalise attitudes, those are built over time by your role models (parents, teachers, other kids).
Started watching this preparing myself to get annoyed at someone wanting to cancel all Roald Dahl's books (given the title of the video). Thankfully it was much more interesting than that. Subscribed.
Thank you for this, Lena. I love Roald Dahl's books as a kid, he made me appreciate word play and helped me develop my imagination. It's sad, but also not totally surprising that he is problematic, and I 100% agree that we need to support new children's writers who are totally invested in their books, not half-assed imitations of dead authors, with extra moralizing thrown in.
My teen and I have been tackling these thorny conversations since v. young and it's been interesting-- not something to avoid and can always be done in a developmentally appropriate way if needed.
I feel like this exists as such a counterpoint to books like the Bruno Vincent Famous Five sequels, which are such over-the-top satire that there is no way to mistake them for the original work, and they add so much enjoyment for some people who grew up reading the originals. This feels more like the forced Hollywood sequel.
As a child I don't remember thinking about the opinions and lives of the comics and books I read.
He was huge in Canada, and I suspect in other Commonwealth countries (AUS, NZ, SA?) as 'britishness' mattered very very much here, up until about the 60s and 70s.
I don’t think anyone’s mentioned it but did you see the ableist promo of this book on twitter? It got swiftly deleted but it’s the authors telling the artist to make the twits more disgusting/gross with the final addition by the artist being her saying ‘I know! a prosthetic eye!’, which the authors then go ‘yeah they’re so disgusting’ (paraphrasing bc it’s been a few months)
Disabled ppl/disability charities spoke up about how harmful that short promo was, and I would be curious if you think any further unconscious ableism seeped into the book itself?
Wow what the hell were they thinking with that promo video 😮 How did the not realize how horrible that sounds??
it's a bit like the remake of the witches, where they gave the head witch (?) a disability (oligodactyly or similar) for literally no reason
Does anyone know where a video still might be? Could you link or let us know what to look up?
It probably says something that the publishers were so focused on sanitising the insults and bad behaviour that they didn’t do any real critical thinking about real issues like ableism
@@scarlettdamante4945 I think the full video is lost but scope reproduced the last bit in a video - it was in April on their twitter but googling ‘scope the twits’ or ‘rnib the twits’ brings up an article that embeds both tweets - hope that helps!
I'm from Germany and as far as I'm aware Roald Dahl isn't a thing here. I only came across his books during my time as an AuPair in the UK.
I agree. While you might have heard the name here and with several book lovers he is probably still quite well known, I wasn't aware until recently, how important his work seem to be in Anglo-American culture. I only recently learned with the "Wonka" film that this "Charly and the chocolate factory" story (which I only knew by name) is in fact the work of this author.
I dont agree. Every german child knows Charlie and the chocolate factory.
@@bastelkiste2242 Uhm, no. Really not. There's some current hype, but there are other children's authors far more popular in Germany.
@@bastelkiste2242 yeah sure, but as the previous comment says it's not really known that it's by someone called Roald Dahl.
And his works with no means end with Charlie and the chocolate factory. There are so many more books that I personally have never seen in a book shop here. Which is different with Enid Blyton for example (Fünf Freund Bücher)
And I think with Charlie and the chocolate factory the movie is more famous here than the book itself I might argue
What books are German kids familiar with? Which ones are popular? I'd really like to know so I can read them 😅
"cries in artist and socialism" got a hyper-intense subscription slap from me. (Going to your T Swift video after this one~)
I love your conclusion. There should be more space, money and courage for new creativity instead of warming up old stuff, when the new version will be never as good as the original, and does not even fit the original scope. In cinema it's the same.
I’m from the Netherlands and I was obsessed enough with Roald Dahl to start reading his adult short stories at like 11 (I wasn’t a fan of the sexual ones) and I think we should allow children to have different favorite books and authors and stories then their parents. People really seem to struggle with recommending recent kids books and I think that’s something society should work on even though I have no idea how
That would require adults to read new kids books and recognize what appeals to the kids in their life. Which is more difficult than just remembering what you liked as a kid.
@@sarahloomis2034 yeah, though I think you don’t necessarily need to read them if you have kids in your life. “My niece liked [title]” can still be a good recommendation even if you haven’t read the book yourself
@@sarahloomis2034 I suppose, but i mean, they can also just look at the blurb on the back of the book or skim through a couple pages to get a basic idea on what kind of book it is and decide if it will be interesting to their child (just like you would when you're at the library/bookstore and deciding what book to take home). That's basically what my mom did. A lot of the books my mom would encourage me to try as a kid were books that didn't exist when she was a kid, and it's not like she quickly read the book before giving it to me. She probably just thought, "This looks like the kind of book she'd like." Because she looked at the blurb, title, or even flipped through a few pages. You don't necessarily have to read it all to determine whether or not your kid will like it. And most of the books she recommended to me were pretty great.
Did you like "Lamb to the Slaughter"?
@@HuntingViolets I think so. I don’t really remember the titles of the stories because I read them so long ago, but I tended to enjoy the murder ones
The real gag is they're radio 1 djs parents would recognise and buy, not authors contributing to a project
they have written a popular kid's book series before to be fair
You're right about Dahl being popular in the United States. I remember there were always multiple copies of the BFG, The Witches, Matilda, etc at my local library.
Roald Dahl is huge in Australia. Fantastic Mr Fox and James and the Giant Peach were both read to me in Year 2, and I wound up reading most of Dahl's children's books off my own back.
I have no idea if British TV & radio personalities are doomed to be mediocre writers, but it definitely feels like the case for Greg James & Chris Smith.
I'm currently reading their 'Kid Normal' series at the moment & despite some empowering themes about owning who you are & not letting the harshness of others beat you down, they are held back by poor attempts at humour which often lean into the intelligence insulting interruptions that easily got on my nerves.
Love Roald Dahl, find it weird to write a new book of his!
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Interesting discussion! I grew up reading and loving Dahl and I've been wracking my brain about how I feel about the controversies surrounding him. I have so many conflicting thoughts and feelings about it, and I've noticed in recent years I'm becoming less patient with myself if I don't have a 'take' on stuff like this. So always good to hear others' nuanced thoughts and experiences! :)
To add: I think one of the people who is engaging with Dahl's work in a thoughtful way is Wes Anderson - though of course that's more in the adaptation/'transformation' (??) side of things and a different medium. Maybe I'm biased because Fantastac Mr Fox is maybe my favourite film ever lol, but I thought the short film for 'Poison' that Anderson made last year (unfortunately for Netflix) is a particularly interesting re-interpretation of Dahl's work. The new ending seems to me like a clear critique of the colonial overtones of the story, which is in conversation with Dahl's views (and with the criticism Anderson has gotten in the past about orientalism).
Would love your reaction to the horror that is David Walliams children’s books
I used to love them. Now... Oof the new ones have fell off
I once read a month ago that children definitely prefer the uncensored versions of Dahl's books.
This sounds like a typical commissioning nightmare where a publisher is trying to retain as much control over an IP as possible by coming up with the idea and then shopping around for authors. Back when I worked in publishing (let's not think about it), my workplace ran an "ideas day" where a bunch of (white middle-class mostly female) publishing employees sat together and came up with the most clichéd, boring ideas for a children's book that would sell. And yes, it was atrocious and contained things like "the next Harry Potter" and split tables for "girl books" and "boy books".
I'm not surprised that no more established author would agree to write this, the royalty rates were probably terrible and their agent wouldn't get any of the licencing rights.
The same happened to one of the best Dutch children's books series (Kikker/Frog by Max Veldthuis). Some stupid publisher bought the rights and started making a tv show and new books and they're all terrible. The language is not even right, it looks like they just copy pasted the script from the tv episodes they made. The originals are so thoughtful and well done, it really pains me to read these new versions (that the grandparents sometimes buy because they can't see the difference 🥲).
Roald Dahl was a staple in my home growing up in NS, Canada but it was most likely a product of a combination of the writing and having a children’s book illustrator as a mother who cherished their illustrations. The controversial sides of him were difficult to accept due to the nostalgia attached to his books.
Wow that’s a very cool household to grow up in!!!!
@@leenanorms I was very lucky ☺️
Fascinated and excited to watch this because my 4 year old is starting to really love Roald Dahl books, but I’m finding myself censoring certain phrasing because he is not old enough to understand the nuances of language, but I’m fully prepared for him to read them in their full form when he can himself and have those conversations then!
Update now that I’ve actually had time and chance to watch:
I don’t see how they can’t just let books and characters and authors be. The Twits is a complete story on its own, it doesn’t need a “sequel” or other story - heck if they wanted to do that I wouldn’t have chosen The Twits to elaborate on! It’s like all the Cat in The Hat books that are still being churned out; it’s hard to tell what’s an original Seuss that we missed and what’s not until you open the book and clearly read that it’s not in his voice.
Whether or not an author themselves is still marketable due to their opinions doesn’t make their stories any less readable and enjoyable, and I’d gladly buy them again in their original form. I’ll still censor where needed for now (again, I don’t need my 4 year old thinking it’s okay to call people stupid or idiots or tell people to shut up - he can learn the lessons there when he’s old enough to read them himself) but I’m not wanting the publishers to do that for me
18:15 _"At the end of the day, characters and format, are not what people fall in love with... they fall in love with the way the way stories are told..."_
That's honestly a phenomenal quote... 👀
The authorial tone of the new Dahl book absolutely kills it. Dahl is great because it's not so, i don't know, sanitized? There's so much in his books that are just so hilariously awful. There's some debate I think about whether his books are appropriate. Some people say he didn't really like children, and that comes through in his writing. Not sure if agree, but he created some really iconic stories that are fascinating to kids just the same, in no small part because there's a little bit of gruesomeness in there, and without a scolding teacher voice accompanying it.
I think kids like that kind of thing in books because it's a safe opportunity to explore behaviors and imagery that are hideous, weird, wrong, gross etc. I'd argue the right measure of that kind of stuff is a good thing. When I was a kid I liked reading about the kind of stuff Roald Dahl wrote about, and would have fallen asleep at some of the kid's books that are out today that barely even have a conflict in the story. It seems like the new Twits book kind of hits that mark, but the tone seems off. The OG really was just like, let me tell you about these horrible people and we will revel in how disgusting they are together.
Unfortunately, the person who has been positioned as Roald Dahl (by HarperCollins at least) is David Walliams. I don't think he IS the new Roald Dahl but his books sit in the same space while being original and new ideas. While I loved Roald Dahl growing up and I haven't read any Walliams, from what I understand there is a mean streak in David Walliams which could be said of too and may well contribute to why Williams is so exhaustingly successful despite parents pointing out the horrible views that seep into his writing.
What veiws?
I'm from Catalonia (spain) and Dahl is well known here, kids read his books at school and love them! Btw, Catalan and Spanish translations will remain the same, editors refuse to change a word.
Although Dahl's books were edited during his lifetime? The Oompa Loompas were controversial fairly early and there were changes made in _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ more than once.
I don’t know if you heard about the marketing scandal with this book - a video where the authors were saying how ‘disgusting’ having a glass eye is. Old ideas do not work for a modern, inclusive audience for very valid and important reasons
Really interesting discussion. My thoughts (having not read the book) are that Greg James and Chris smiths books I’ve read before have been good and I can see the mischief style and silliness you see in Roald Dahl so I understand the choice. My other thought as a teacher is that we teach the twits. For children who like it, you can then recommend this and then their other books. So a good gateway into books. Totally agree about there being great children’s literature out there without needing to piggy back off of this.
Also, didn’t the Twits shrink to nothing (died?) at the end of the original book? 🤷♀️
I'm Canadian, born in 1974, and I grew up with a lot of Roald Dahl as a kid.
The gnarly illustrations were such a highlight for me as a kid! I loved old books with such a little style to them, such as the Shel Silverstein books and "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark".
we didn't discuss Roald Dahl himself much, or at all, but we were read BFG at kindergarten and then at age 7 or 8 our class had to read George's Marvelous Medicine. i remember loving them both very much. and BFG was the first theater play i saw! (late 90's/early 2000's in Finland). i remember being a big fan of Jacqueline Wilson's books and at 31 i still own and love The illustrated Mum
Felt the same way when a new Poirot novel came out written by some lady. Just let it rest, jesus...
The most frustrating thing for me is that Sophie Hannah (the some lady you forever to) is one of my favourite authors and an exceptional crime writer in and of herself, and I don’t LIKE Poirot! I would far rather she spend her time writing more of her own work and leave Poirot behind…
*refer not forever
As a Sherlockian, I am well used to pastiches (and love a lot of them, others, not so much). Note: All Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle are now out of copyright. I'm not sure Roald Dahl's characters are trademarked in the way Disney's are. His copyrights should run out on schedule regardless of people writing new stories, I would think? (I'll check later.) Also, I'm writing a Cinderella story now, and Disney couldn't do a thing about it if it were to get published, but that's a different matter. (I can't do Disney's version of Cinderella, but I can do mine.)
Love the creative angles to getting to know the house!
And just had a crossover when leena got a shout out in the latest video of retro Claude. One of my favorite channels for vintage knitting and sewing! ❤
Unrelated but my therapist told me to write a list of pleople that inspire me and I'm v happy to let you know that you made it to the list! A great honour I know 👀 But really everything you say is so on point, I HATE the cashing in on nostalgia trend and you perfectly articulated everything wrong with it.
Many people care only about the art, not the artist. It's best not to make problems for those don't care about the artist. Kids also tend to only care about the art, not the artist.
As a children’s book illustrator, hopeful author, and mother to a nine year old girl who is a veracious reader, I care about your opinions on Roald Dahl. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Roald Dahl is pretty well known in the US! A lot of his books were available or assigned to read in my public school growing up. Also, the movie adaptations of Matilda, Willy Wonka etc are super popular here.
I can confirm that Dahl is veeeeery popular also in Europe (from Italy here). As a child, I read all his books :)
As a writer one of the main reasons that Dahl is a favorite of mine is the way he describes things. Not only does he do it in great detail making the scene easy to picture, but he also is so creative in how he describes things.
We live in an age where there is a deep anxiety about moral failing, and being immoral. This is a reaction to the last few very right wing and very nihilistic decades we've lived through, but it also shows off a sort of neurotic self-consciousness, not helped by right wing trolls making the very idea of empathy a slur. It is, in many ways, a response to trauma, a haunting.
So, naturally, parents are going to agonise over Roald Dahl and other problematic authors. The challenge, I suggest, is being able to live with these ambivalences, these controversies and this unease. But that means feeling secure and safe, and therein lies the problem. When we wring our hands over Roald Dahl's 'issues', we're really worrying about a world that is, objectively speaking, terrifying.
"deep anxiety about moral failing " is right. Not like it doesn't matter if an author has bigoted views but a lot of people seem to divert their concerns about broader social issues into making sure everything they consume media wise is morally righteous.
That is so disgusting! Watering down, what am I saying: erasing the unique art of authors. I‘m shocked at the mere idea. How is this even possible? It is not possible, of course. It is like 3D-printing huge bronze Henry Moore statues in grey plastic as a paperweight. To commit that kind of art fraud in the name of intellectual property rights because rampant capitalism has made it legal is very difficult to live with. I thought the low-brow twaddle the N-streaming juggernaut publishes under the name of the marvelous Douglas Adams detective was a mere mishap, but it seems to be everything you say and then some.
I live in Australia and grew up reading Roal Dahl with my Dad
Same here- he apparently got more fan mail from Australia than anywhere else (might have been proportionally) but yes, he's always been massive here. 'Matilda' meant the world to me as a hyperlexic autistic girl, and, ironically, was instrumental in my values development- life isn't just about being 'smart' but using your talents to do good and help people, and adults in power are not always good people.
I did too. I started reading his books with my dad but became so obsessed that I read anything by him I could get my hands on including his adult fiction. I loved how playful and imaginative his books were. And how gross too! There was something so satisfying as a child to read about how disgusting the twits and witches were
I'm from the Netherlands (born in the early nineties) and when I grew up, Roald Dahl was HUGE here. He was my favorite author when I was a kid and the same goes for many, if not most of my classmates back in the day.
This video reminded me of Peter Pan in Scarlet. The novel simplifies the melancholy, narration style, and humor of Barrie, and is clearly written for children, rather than being written about children. You can tell because the author purposefully simplifies things. What I love about Peter Pan is that an adult and child can love it. It doesn't take a moral stand, and it isn't patronizing.
Roald Dahl and Laura Ingalls Wilder were two of my favorite authors as a kid. Both very vivid writers with highly problematic ideas infused into their books. As a children’s librarian now I would never suggest these books. Nostalgia is fun for adults, but children today are not growing up in the twentieth century and they need stories that help them develop now. Luckily there are many incredible writers working today - Kate DiCamillo, Peter Reynolds, Kelly Yang, Mac Barnett, Renee Watson come to mind right away and there are many more. I love kidlit!
What exactly was problematic about Laura Ingalls Wilder? This was a long time ago, but I remember reading her whole Little House on the Prairie series as a kid in elementary school and loving it. The only "problematic" thing I remember is the father whipping Laura once (which kinda shocked me when I read it), buuut... It's clearly a book about a different time, in the difficult setting of frontier life. I think rather than withholding any "morally objectionable" content from kids, they should have access to a variety of views and understand that what was okay in the past, or in certain contexts, isn't necessarily acceptable or desirable today.
Looking at some of these covers, I want to read these books, too! Thanks for the recommendations!
@@oksanakaido8437 I believe it was attitudes towards Native Americans for one thing, some of which were edited during Wilder's lifetime. There's also a minstrel show in which Pa participates in blackface. I read that as a kid. It would at least warrant a discussion with your kids now, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
awh yes, i so agree. I'm in my late 20s now, and i grew up with Dahl's books in my curriculum and were super popular in our class (along with ms junie b jones the true queen of the earth), as well as other authors, but mostly authors that people "let die". i fully embrace Dahl's work - not people who don't have the mind of Dahl. The Witches, Charlie, Twits, he just has so many that can be left in text for others to enjoy TRUE Dahl stories. This may sound so gatekeepy, and hey, i may just be. He deserves to have his works be his own.
6:40 His works will enter the public domain, even if there are new adaptions.
Reminds me a lot of what's happening with SpongeBob SquarePants.
The creator stated that he did not want any spin-offs of his show. What did they do immediately after his death? Made a bunch of awful spin-off media that no one asked for.
Doing this kind of thing to someone's creation after their passing is the equivalent of spitting on their grave in my eyes. The disrespect is unreal.
And Wendy's are releasing a (not vegan) Krabby Patty, despite Stephen Hillenburg dismissing such an idea specifically.
Not children’s books exactly, but I recently got a copy of Tiffany Aching’s Guide to Being a Witch (written by Terry Pratchett’s daughter and others) and while it’s…good…there’s a certain straining after Pratchett-ness that would have felt effortless if it were Pratchett himself. I’m not sorry it exists, but I kind of wish they had let it alone.
If this is a sequel… did they forget the ending of the original book??
The title sent my Swedish ass huffing and puffing to the video to see if I had to rage 🤣🤣🤣
And I did, but not in the way I thought 😅
I've been buying charity shop Roald Dahls for my nephew with no knowledge of Dahl's horrid views! Will definitely be a bit more critical and give things a read before passing them along. To this day my view on beauty is still shaped by the Twits: if you have lovely thoughts it will shine out of you and you cannot be ugly.
Roald Dahl is quite big in Belgium too, less now than 30 years ago, but me and my friends all ready it in Dutch.
Roald Dahl came to our primary school to do a reading in 1974. He was mobbed and surrounded by screaming kids. I found him charming and ultra polite especially when asked a series of idiotic questions.
Roald Dahl is actually very popular in Norway, as he was half Norwegian
RE Roald Dahl's antisemitism, just wanted to mention that there is a really interesting looking play on that topic at the Royal Court Theatre this autumn. It's called Giant by Mark Rosenblatt!
Came here to mention the play - I'm going to see it next month and really looking forward to it on many levels. I read a lot of his books growing up, I loved his use of words mostly and for igniting my imagination.
I'm going to see it with a friend too! I didn't grow up with Dahl books in Finland where it was all about Astrid Lindgren and Moomins. I mainly know about the film adaptations of Dahl's books and his notorious antisemitism. The play intrigues me because it's described as 'darkly comic'. I'm reassured by the fact that the playwright is Jewish though
@@grrrumpypanda Yes, I’m sure it’s very well written. I hope you enjoy it. I love Moomin’s too 😁
I don't know why you were on my front page, but three minutes in and I'm nodding along. Without once having been prompted to, I'm looking at your previous work and clicking subscribe. Again, I don't know how or why you were on my front page, but thank you to whatever youtube algorithm magic was involved.
I've not read that book, but it feels like the book is trying to be Roald Dahl and David Walliams at the same time- and the two have writing styles that are completely incompatible.
Regarding how successful Roald Dahl is outside the UK, I grew up in Ireland and I was an avid reader of his books as a kid, and I think his books were pretty popular among kids my age. I’d be curious to hear what the situation is like in other countries that are further away from the UK though
Jolly Juice sounds like an idea from Enid Blyton's dustbin.
This book is one of a whole set that the Dahl estate have approved that attempt to build on the established characters. Charlie and the Christmas Factory is one forthcoming.
Also more of a prequel than a sequel as the Twits shrink out of existence at the end of the first book.
After hearing that "sensitivity readers" were going to censor Dahl's work, I bought the whole collection.
In Holland most kids still know roald dahl. I loved the stories as a kid, even in translation
Roald Dahl is VERY popular in Norway. His last name is also Norwegian and his parents was from Norway. I loved reading his books as a kid🥰 I hate when they change things in books because they think it doesn't fit in today's society. As they have done with Astrid Lindgren and many other. Why?🙈 It's a classic written a long time ago, you don't change someones lit work that's already been written. That's so wrong in my eyes. If you think your kids can't read it, find something else for them. When you are going to judge someone's lit work you have to remember the time it was written in and not judge it as a book written in 2024.
The BFG has always been one of my absolute favourite books as a kid but I absolutely hate the kind of person he was, I even wrote an essay about him on the topic. I personally think these new books not by him are fine, not good, not bad, just fine. I do wish things such as this would reach the public domain faster.
Roald Dahl is loved over here in Australia, his books are read in school, and his biography is read later on by older students.
I was the first in my family who was born after the fall of the Soviet Union, Roald Dahl died before the Soviet Union.
Simply he always seemed like a historical figure, living in a time when a lot of people were prejudiced (mum told me how when she was little in the 1960s it was not uncommon for places to have signs saying "no dogs, no Blacks, no Irish" and how the Black and White Minstrel show was on TV) and it was somewhat normalized in society (doesn't make it right) and so for me reading his works felt more like reading works of a bygone age and perhaps that sense of history put a different spin on it, now granted there was prejudice when I was growing up as well (plenty of anger over The Troubles in Northern Ireland which I'd literally get stick for, so I learned Britishness) as well as plenty of homophobia (Clause 28 wasn't repealed in England until I was 10) and there's plenty of prejudice now.
I don't have much in the way of answers to these complex social problems or how to work with art and artist but while we can't change the past, we can change the future.