Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

It seems amazing to me that I hadn’t read this before now. I will guess that most people know the idea of Willy Wonka, the man with the chocolate empire, but I will also guess that though many people have seen the movie, either the 1971 masterpiece or the more recent offering from Tim Burton, too small a number of those have read the book.

Roald Dahl’s gift to us is not only his imaginings but his ability to tell the story simply and with a contagious sense of fun. The hope then is that his encouragements to children and their parents are just as catching. He would like us to be respectful of ourselves and of our parents, to check our greed and selfishness. He encourages thinking and imagining, and never ever chewing gum. My favorite lesson was this, sung by the Oompa-Loompas about Mike Teavee:

‘How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?’
Have you forgotten? Don’t you know?
We’ll say it very loud and slow:
THEY … USED … TO … READ! They’d READ and READ,
AND READ and READ, and then proceed
to READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!
The nursery shelves held books galore!
Books cluttered up the nursery floor!
And in the bedroom, by the bed,
More books were waiting to be read!

I only hope that this lesson is paid the attention it deserves despite being delivered much more briefly in the 1971 film as, “Why don’t you try simply reading a book, Or could you just not bear to look...You’ll get no commercials!” Dahl's verse above could have described my childhood but in this I know absolutely that I am in the minority. Even so, they don’t have to have bookshelves, boxes-full under the bed, closets filled to bursting with books, I just hope that kids today* are reading.

J.K. Rowling must have had Dahl’s spirit on her shoulder while she was writing Harry Potter. The writing style, the youthful twinkle in the eyes of the magical role model, even the form and functions of the bullies in her world echo those in Dahl’s (who was, he said, himself influenced by Kipling and Dickens, amongst others). The list of candies available in Honeyduke’s, some of them are direct translations from Wonka’s glass elevator’s buttons... Well, I would give you examples, there are many, but instead I’ll encourage you to get a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and judge for yourself. If you haven’t read the Harry Potter books, read those too. And there is the real comparison. Rowling, over the past ten years, and Dahl, since 1943, have both actively encouraged reading by inviting in children and the young-at-heart, and showing them the power of their own imaginations.

Recently Noah Scalin, originator of the Skull-a-Day project, had his book Skulls named one of the "Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Teen Readers" by the Young Adult Library Services Association. However it happens, wherever the influence, whichever book is the gateway, I am grateful that there are writers, artists and makers of great things who are encouraging people to read, and then to imagine, and from there, who knows? Incredible things happen in the mind and greater things still when we encourage our minds to grow.

*Every time I use a phrase like “kids today” or “young people” it reminds me of my grandfather. I seem to be leaping past turning into my mother and straight into turning into my grandparents. I’m cool with it.


Results:
Title: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Author: Roald Dahl
Page count: 155, with many illustrations by Quentin Blake (whose work reminds me of Al Jaffee of MAD magazine fame)
Time: An hour and twenty minutes, including a break for chocolate tea.


Friday: The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli and The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain