"I began to realize how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours and a fixed salary and very little original thinking to do. The life of a writer is absolute hell compared with the life of a businessman. The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him. If he is a writer of fiction he lives in a world of fear. Each new day demands new ideas and he can never be sure whether he is going to come up with them or not. Two hours of writing fiction leaves this particular writer absolutely drained. For those two hours he has been miles away, he has been somewhere else, in a different place with totally different people, and the effort of swimming back into normal surroundings is very great. It is almost a shock. The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it. It happens to be a fact that nearly every writer of ficition in the world drinks more whisky than is good for him. He does it to give himself faith, hope and courage. A person is a fool to become a writer. his only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it." -- Roald Dahl,
BoyHe'd of been 90 today.
From
Revolting Rhymes: "Cinderella" (read by Alan Cummings
"Poison", Dahl's episode for the radio series
EscapeMary Galbraith discusses Dahl's life and work.
Dahl's first children's book
The Gremlins, which was intended to be an animated feature by Disney.
Labels: jodru
6 Comments:
Fantastic. His autobiographical books Boy and Solo are well worth re(reading)!
As much as a soft spot in my heart that I maintain for his works, it's worth noting that the man himself was also a virulent anti-Semite. I wonder what he thought of Gene Wilder playing Willy Wonka.
Curious about why that's worth noting...
My personal favorite is Danny the Champion of the World. Maybe its appeal lies in the idea of a child besting the evil villain.
Jodru: Curious about why that's worth noting? You mean that even if there's no overt overtones in his work, it would nevertheless not give you pause to expose your children to works from that source? (And whether there's anything in his works is another debate: one could make a case for THE WITCHES being a thinly veiled showcase of Jewish stereotypes.) Think of it this way: if his works are as timeless and beloved as they are DESPITE their creator's flaws, well, is that not an even greater testimony to their merits?
No, it would not give me pause to expose anyone to Dahl's works (not even my inexistent children).
Good point about the work transcending the limitations of the author, which is essentially why I question whether it's even worth bringing up in the first place.
Dahl was virulently anti-Zionist, to be certain. But that does not equate to anti-Semitism. Lots of people, Jews included, think the modern state of Israel is a bad idea (looking worse by the headline, btw).
Whether he was as virulently anti-Jew as he was anti-Jewish State is far from clear. And like any character flaw, there is a context to which attention must be paid.
To me, anti-Semitism in Dahl or Wagner is no different than misogyny in Schopenhauer or Patrick O'Brian. If every artist were held to account for the particular character flaws of theirs that found its way into their work, we'd have very few books in our libraries.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home