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  • Re: MT VOID, 02/16/24 -- Vol. 42, No. 33, Whole Number 2315

    From Gary McGath@21:1/5 to Evelyn C. Leeper on Tue Feb 20 05:02:16 2024
    On 2/18/24 11:28 AM, Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:
    WONKA (2023): WONKA is a prequel to WILLY WONKA & THE CHOCOLATE
    FACTORY (of which there was a 1971 film (with Gene Wilder) and a
    2005 remake renamed CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (with Johnny
    Depp).  This is a musical, but the beginning is also a spoof of the
    musical genre.  It is also Dickensian with a dash of Victor Hugo.

    Roald Dahl's _Charlie and the Chocolate Factory_ has some highly
    disturbing features, yet somehow he gets a pass. A few days ago I was
    struck by an item that crossed over elements of Harry Potter and
    Charlie, and the former was presented as the one people might not want
    to touch.

    In the original version of Charlie, the Oompa Loompas were Africans who
    were brought over and kept in isolation. They were slaves or close to
    it. As I understand it, the new _Wonka_ totally rewrites this story.

    Dahl's reaction to Khomeini's murder contract on Salman Rushdie was to
    heap contempt upon Rushdie: "This kind of sensationalism does indeed get
    an indifferent book on the top of the best-seller list — but to my mind
    it is a cheap way of doing so." On another occasion he said, "There is a
    trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity."

    I'm not saying people shouldn't read his books; it's no longer possible
    for him to benefit from their sales. But I find it bizarre that people
    give him a pass so easily while spewing hatred on someone who deviates
    from the orthodoxy on trans people.

    --
    Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

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  • From Paul Dormer@21:1/5 to All on Tue Feb 20 12:54:00 2024
    In article <ur1tb9$2emf0$1@dont-email.me>, garym@mcgath.com (Gary McGath) wrote:


    I'm not saying people shouldn't read his books; it's no longer
    possible for him to benefit from their sales. But I find it bizarre
    that people give him a pass so easily while spewing hatred on someone
    who deviates from the orthodoxy on trans people.

    Just recently, Victoria Coren Mitchell, the host of the quiz show Only
    Connect, made a snide comment about Dahl and his anti-semitism when he
    was the answer to a question on the show. Didn't know that, but then,
    not an author I was familiar with growing up.

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  • From Keith F. Lynch@21:1/5 to Gary McGath on Wed Feb 21 03:27:32 2024
    Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com> wrote:
    On another occasion [Roald Dahl] said, "There is a trait in the
    Jewish character that does provoke animosity."

    I'm not saying people shouldn't read his books; it's no longer
    possible for him to benefit from their sales. But I find it
    bizarre that people give him a pass so easily while spewing
    hatred on someone who deviates from the orthodoxy on trans people.

    Careful, or you'll win a (mandatory) free vacation at a DEI
    re-education camp. The central orthodoxy of DEI is that every person
    consists entirely of the intersection of every group they are a
    member of, and that groups can be cleanly divided into oppressor
    and oppressed. Since Palestinians are oppressed, that necessarily
    means Jews are oppressors, hence that anti-semitism is virtuous.
    --
    Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
    Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

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