The Witches, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda: these titles and many more have found homes on millions of bookshelves since Roald Dahl began writing in the 1940s. The author was born in 1916 in Llandaff, Wales. Following a trend in the lives of other creatives, notably class subject Pablo Picasso, Dahl suffered through childhood trauma including the death of his father and sister at age three and brutal abuse at boarding school. Interestingly, considering that he later went on to become a prolific writer, Dahl did not attend University but instead worked abroad and later served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force until he was critically injured in a plane crash.
He wrote his first novel, The Gremlins, for Walt Disney in 1943, and published a few other works before finding real success with a collection of adult macabre stories entitled Someone like You in 1953. In a curious transition, he moved from adult stories to his famous children’s novels; this switch may be reflected in the dark comedy present in many of his works, indicating that his creative process centers on developing stories out of that theme (possibly due to his dark childhood). His first successful children’s novel was James and the Giant Peach, released in 1961, followed by the most famous work of his career, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Dahl also wrote multiple screenplays, including “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” and the James Bond film “You Only Live Twice.” Considering the wide range of audiences for these works, it is obvious that Dahl had a passion for different kinds of writing and was not limited to just one genre.
Roald Dahl can be classified as a “Big-C” creative, especially
in the children’s works genre. The dark and often gruesome nature of his writing,
unseen in most children’s books, makes his work stand out. In a 1982 Boston Globe
Interview, Dahl said, “I write of nasty things and violent happenings because
kids are themselves that way.” He also noted, “my main purpose in writing for
children is not to educate, but to entertain, to make a child fall in love with
it, to say, ‘There's something to this reading of books. It's lovely. I want
more.’” This quote gives insight into Dahl’s motivation for writing: decidedly
external, he wrote to make the children reading his work “fall in love with it,”
diving into his worlds of nasty parents and child heroes.
While Dahl’s work is beloved by millions, it is important to note that the writer had extremely problematic personal views. He admitted publicly that he was antisemitic and has also been accused of misogyny and racism. Recently, six of his books have been recognized as racist and insensitive and will no longer be published by Dr. Seuss Enterprises; some of his other work has been criticized as well, especially his portrayal of the Oompa Loompas in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This opens up an interesting conversation about what it means to be a Big-C creative and how that influences the perception of a creator’s content. This situation calls to mind J.K. Rowling’s exposed transphobia, as well as problematic views held by many other creatives. How do audiences reconcile their love of a creator’s work with insensitive views? Is it possible to ethically consume content produced by an unethical creator? Especially today, these are questions that many people have been forced to answer, which will continue to arise in the coming years.
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/writer/roald-dahl
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Roald-Dahl
https://time.com/5937507/roald-dahl-anti-semitism/
https://time.com/5943429/dr-seuss-racist-images/
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1990-11-27-1990331210-story.html
https://www.carousell.sg/p/roald-dahl-collection-set-15-children%E2%80%99s-book-204764310/
The kids that I nanny have the whole series of Roald Dahl books. I knew nothing about his childhood or really anything about his life. I think that's beautiful that his main goal in writing is to help kids fall in love with reading and books rather than to educate. I really liked how you ended your post with posing the question of how to appreciate works of art or writing by people who hold hateful views/beliefs. There are several books I can think of that I read growing up that were deemed "classics" but had many problematic ideas.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on Roads Dahl books as a kid, the BFG used to give me nightmares! I had no idea he had such a traumatic childhood. I feel like a lot of the creatives we learn about go through tough times and that greatly influences their life and their life’s work. You also taught me about Dahl’s problematic personal views - I had no idea that Dahl was so anti-equal rights. I think it’s so hard to separate creators and their work. When one has problematic views but has created entertaining and meaningful content, how do you respect that work without respecting the creator? It’s a hard conundrum. I feel like the argument is often made that if you were to discount every problematic creator there would be no creation left. I tend to agree with that, but am still personally searching for a way to balance respecting people’s identities and creative masterpieces.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid I loved watching James and the Giant Peach movie. It was a weird yet such an original story that was hard to forget. Im not gonna lie when I read Gremlins I thought it was the little green monster ones haha
ReplyDeleteI grew up on the BFG; my family had the audiobook and would listen to it incessantly. To this day, I want to try a snozzcumber. I had no idea that Dahl had such a traumatic childhood, and it was especially interesting to learn about his abusive boarding school; it seems obvious that Matilda is him reclaiming some of that power. Still, I definitely agree that we must acknowledge how problematic he was. Trying to reconcile that with how great of an impact he had on my childhood can be difficult, but it is a necessary process.
ReplyDeleteThis is an insightful and wonderfully written blog post. It breaks my heart to hear that one of the most influential writers of my childhood didn't have a good one himself. It really is telling of what sort of person he was to understand that he spent his whole career making happiness in a place he rarely saw it.
ReplyDeleteI loved Roald Dahl books as a kid and I absolutely consider The Witches to be one my favorite books I have ever read! looking back, there were some weird and scary things in his books, learning about his traumatic childhood it makes sense why he wrote that way. I personally find it difficult to separate the art from the artist. I feel like a typical argument made about not being able to separate a creator and their work is that even if you denounce the creator but consume their work, you are still putting money in their pocket. That case can't really be made here, because Dahl has been dead for like 30 years, so that could be a solace.
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