Roald Dahl (1916–1990) was a children's literature writer, playwright, and short story writer who spent his early years as a RAF pilot and foreign intelligence officer. Born in Wales to Norwegian parents.
After novels such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Good-Hearted Giant were adapted into movies, more people knew the name Roald Dahl. According to the Roald Dahl Story Company, Dahl's work has now been translated into 63 languages and has sold a total of 300 million copies worldwide. In 2021, Netflix acquired Roald Dahl Stories, announcing that it would develop a series of animated series adapted from Dahl's work, a deal worth a total of $500 million to $1 billion.
Dahl has also written adult novels and screenplays, with plot twists and humorous language, published in magazines such as Playboy and The New Yorker, and received a lot of praise, but these have not kept up with his achievements in children's literature.
Dahl's children's literature mostly contains black humor, eccentric plots, and horrific violence, and teachers are often evil, even when they are kind, unable to impart any insight. Because some of his views were considered anti-Semitic, the controversy over his work never stopped. But Maria Nikolajeva, a professor of children's literature at Cambridge's College of Education, disputed the idea that Dahl's novels show young readers the dark side. She insists that "he is one of the most colorful and lighthearted children's book authors."
Today we enter the "Children's Book Writers" column No. 7 – Roald Dahl. The author of this article is a children's book editor, she started from her own reading experience, the comments on Roald Dahl are positive and positive, she said that in retrospect, maybe becoming a children's book editor was influenced by reading Dahl's "The Giant with Good Eyes" when she was a child.
He was so cunning that he wrote his courage into a thrilling plot
Late last year, I flipped through the Proust questionnaire I had filled out and was surprised to find that my favorite writer was Roald Dahl every time. I myself didn't realize that I was so determined about Dahl's choice, and I couldn't help but think back to the experience of reading Dahl for the first time.
It was three o'clock in the afternoon one summer day, and I was in the third grade of elementary school sitting by the window and diving into the world of "The Good-Eyed Giant." When I closed the book, summer night fell outside the window, and my mother told me to eat, but I couldn't come back to God. I felt so good, as if I had really gone to a world that had always existed but been neglected, and felt a sense of strength in my heart.
The Giant with Good Eyes, by Roald Dahl [Norway], [English] Quentin Black, translated by Ren Rongrong, Tomorrow Press, March 2009.
I want to be a giant with good eyes, and I also want to have big ears that can hear the sound of dreams, and use the dream catching net to catch dreams and put them in glass jars to blow dreams for children. I also wanted to be tall enough to walk across the football field, wear a cloak, fly like a big black bird, and enter the unknown giant country just by running.
Looking back, maybe becoming a children's book editor was also influenced by the "giant of good eyes" - at least the point of blowing dreams to children is similar. A 14-year-old boy in the United States commented on "The Good-Eyed Giant" and said what I said when I was a child: "This book is one of the few 'comfortable books' that can take you far away and firmly grasp your heart." When you finish reading it, you will feel very good and feel much better about yourself than you did before reading it. ”
Where does this good sense of self come from? Perhaps because Dahl's story is about empowering children.
The well-meaning giant stirred up different dreams and concocted them into a new one.
In his story, seemingly vulnerable children and the elderly have real wisdom. They see things better than those who seem powerful and wealthy, embrace changes in complex circumstances, and are keenly aware of turnarounds in shocks, making courageous and unexpected choices in times of crisis. For example, in "The Witch", the boy who mistakenly entered the witch convention and was turned into a little mouse was not frightened by bad luck and had weak legs, but felt that it was very cool to be a mouse! He decides to sneak into the witch leader's room and steal the magic potion, causing the witches' evil plan to fail!
The cunning Dahl is very good at writing thrilling plots, and when the reader is caught in the heart by fear and the atmosphere is afraid to breathe, his character can break through the fear and make exciting choices. Just like in The Witch, the little boy who turns into a rat doesn't just feel fear and sadness, fear becomes a stimulant for him, he's excited about his new big plan.
Reading this, the reader who is caught by fear and frightened by the weak legs will be shocked: it turns out that when timid and afraid, complaining is not the only choice, seizing the turning point, but will be full of courage. Such moments of awakening can accompany a person for a long, long time, especially if the reader of this book is a child.
The little boy and grandma in The Witch.
The words in the philosophical book "Why Grow Up" may explain the reading pleasure that Dahl's story brings to children: "Those who seem braver than you are as scared as you, they just whistle louder in the dark." 」 When you understand this, self-confidence is enhanced, and that self-confidence itself is the source of happiness. ”
Dahl has created many stubborn, decisive, and courageous characters, and Matilda, who loves to read, and Charlie, who won the Willie Wonka Gold Ticket, have accompanied generations of children to grow up. The belief that Dahl wants to convey is simple: even if the environment is unreasonable, the impact is strong, and the person is weak, he can use his clever brain to think of ways to do what only he can do.
Dahl's story has never been forgotten. More than thirty years after the publication of Dahl's last work of children's literature, Matilda, the story of matilda, a prodigy who loves to read and punishes the evil headmaster with magic, continues. In 2018, on Matilda's 30th birthday, Quentin Black, the creator of the character of Dahl's children's book and a master picture book, drew three covers. On the cover, Quentin depicts Matilda, who worked in three professions as an adult: globetrotter, director of the British Library, and astrophysicist.
Cover of the 30th Anniversary Edition of Matilda.
Children who read Matilda as children and envision the future have grown up, and in fairy tales, time is passing. Matilda, who cared about the world, about books, about the heart, and about justice, had become such an outstanding adult.
Perhaps, some childhood dreams can still be realized in Dahl's story.
Adventurous and courageous, do "what only you can do"
Roald Dahl himself, like his characters, was a full explorer and an energetic genius. Before the official publication of his first children's book, James and the Giant Peach, at the age of 45, Roald Dahl's life experience was legendary enough. He was a RAF pilot who died nine times in World War II, a British spy sent to the United States, a Hollywood darling, the husband of an Oscar for Best Actress, and a well-behaved short story writer.
Dahl's legendary life experience has in some ways contributed to his children's book writing — his experience of multiple worlds allows him to create one magical fairy tale world after another, and his own qualities of excitement for change and seizing the turning point in changing events have also enabled his characters to capture the hearts of children deeply.
The spirit of pioneering and adventurousness runs through the blood of the Dahl family. Dahl was born on 13 September 1916 to a Norwegian family in the British port city of Landav, the son of a Norwegian businessman who had come to England to start his own business.
The Good Boy – Childhood Stories, by Roald Dahl [Norway] and quentin Black, Tomorrow Press, March 2009.
In Dahl's autobiography about childhood, The Good Boy – Childhood Stories, he describes his father's shipbroker career this way: "A shipbroker is responsible for supplying everything a ship needs when it enters port—fuel and food, cables and paint, soap and towels, hammers and nails, and thousands of other small bits and pieces." Unfortunately, in 1920, Dahl's 7-year-old sister died of tuberculosis, and Dahl's father was crushed by the loss of his daughter and died not long after.
Dahl's mother, who was still pregnant at the time, did not move back to her mother's house in Norway, but stayed in England for her husband's last wishes: Dahl's father wanted his children to be educated in England, because "the education provided by England has made the inhabitants of a small island a great empire and produced the greatest literature in the world." ”
The death of his father did not become a shadow over Dahl's childhood, he received enough love, understanding and support from his powerful mother to spend his naughty childhood.
Dahl remembers his childhood fondly. He remembers the desire to ride his bike down the hill and get his hands off the handlebars. I also remember the corporal punishment I suffered in the principal's room after putting a dead rat in a sugar jar in a candy store. I remember my mother seeing his blood-stained buttocks and going to school to ask for a firm shelter. Although this dispute between mom and principal ended with Dahl's transfer.
Dahl and his sisters.
In Dahl's later creations, many shadows of childhood memories can be seen. The sense of freedom of the wind whistling as the well-meaning giant gallops is a hundred times stronger than the experience of loosening the handlebars on a bicycle. The headmistress in Matilda, who viciously throws her child away in a ring like a shot put ball, is clearly the prototype of Dahl's childhood principal. The deep connection between the iconic child and the kind adult in Dahl's work is exactly what he experienced as a child in childhood.
In Dahl's story world, children are not alone, they are always surrounded by the unwavering understanding, support and love of a truly "good adult" - Charlie's grandfather in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "The Witch" is the little mouse's grandmother, in "The Kind Eye Giant" is Sophie's giant, and in "Matilda" is the young female teacher.
These adults are full of excitement, believe in magic, understand everything about children, and stand in the child's innocent perspective to challenge the chaotic and unjust world in the story. It can be said that all the "good adults" in Dahl's stories are the doppelgangers of Dahl's mother.
As a teenager, Dahl longed for a more thrilling and interesting life. In 1934, as soon as the 18-year-old Dahl graduated from high school, he passed the "107 into 7" interview and successfully entered shell oil company. The reason why Dahl chose Shell is simple – he is bent on embarking on "distant fantasy places" and is better to be "sent to a distant place, Africa or China". At that time, the places Dahl wanted to go could only be reached through work, so he chose Shell, where "the East is the essence of the essence".
Alone in the World, by Roald Dahl [Norway], illustrated by Quentin Black, Tomorrow Press, March 2009.
After several years of training, Dahl was finally offered a transfer to East Africa for a three-year period. In his autobiography, Alone in the World, Dahl described his excitement when he received the notification: "That's great, sir! That's remarkable! How awesome! Dahl jumped up in excitement and sat down again. The big guy at Shell smiled and said, "There's a lot of dust there, too." ”
Twenty-year-old Dahl said to himself, "I'm going to that place where there are palm trees, coconut palms, coral reefs, lions, elephants, and deadly poisonous snakes, and a hunter who has lived in Mombasa for ten years told me that if a black cobra bites you, within an hour you will writhe in pain and foam and die." I can't wait. ”
Dahl's mom always supported his decision, and when Dahl told her the news, she didn't want her reluctance to affect Dar's happy mood, she said, "Oh, you did a good job!" This is great news! That's exactly where you want to go, right? ”
In the autumn of 1938, the 22-year-old Roald Dahl set foot on the African continent as an employee of Shell, where he was involved in managing the entire East African sector. He got his wish and went through many adventures, such as watching a python crawl into the living room of a friend's house and save their lives, or grabbing a shotgun and chasing after his cook's wife when she was taken away by a lion.
Most importantly, Dahl said in his autobiography, "I learned to take care of myself in ways that young people in civilized society would never use." ”
Dahl did not stay as planned for three years, and World War II broke out. When war broke out, Dahl immediately applied to join the RAF. In November of that year, Roald Dahl trained as a member of the Royal Air Force, flying Hurricane fighter jets around the Mediterranean. His big, one-meter-nine-meter-tall man needed to curl up together to get into the cabin, but that didn't stop him from being a good pilot.
Dahl during flight training.
But it didn't take long for Dahl to experience an air crash. "I shot down a few German planes, and I shot them myself down, fell in a cloud of flames, and finally climbed out of the plane, and was saved by the brave soldiers who crawled over the sand with their stomachs."
After surviving and recovering from the air crash, Dahl came to Greece to fight. His unit fought 15 fighter jets against hundreds of German Nazi bombers. Dahl's first mission to take to the skies was to protect a Greek ship full of ammunition from being bombed, dahl wrote in his autobiography: "I remember, I want absolute calmness and fearlessness." One of my desires is to carry out my task properly and not to mess things up. ”
In this operation, he stepped on the tails of six twin-engine bombers with the recklessness of a novice, and with the luck of a novice, shot down a Ju88 bomber, using the narrow space between the valleys to successfully escape.
In battle, in addition to being quick and bold, it is more about luck. Dahl had carefully checked after the war that no less than 13 of the 16 cadets he had trained with at the Nairobi Junior Flight Training School had been killed in battle.
In 1941, Dahl's old illness recurred, and when he fought in the air, he would have a headache and his eyes would be dark. He was approved to return to England as a wounded man. Apparently, Dahl was not destroyed by the brutal war. On the way home, Dahl bought a bag of lemons and limes in Freeport and another pocket full of canned jams, sugar and chocolates, as well as a high-quality French silk horse, enough for each of the sisters to make a dress. It's like a Santa Claus.
In fact, Dahl didn't even know at this point whether his mother and sisters had survived the massive bombardment. Fortunately, Dahl's family also survived the war. After some tossing and turning, they finally met after three years.
At this time, it was still twenty years before the publication of his children's book debut, James and the Great Immortal Peach.
James and the Great Peach, by [Norway] Roald Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Black, Tomorrow Press, March 2009.
Dahl knows what true adventure is and what true courage is. Dahl, who personally fought in the war, experienced the extreme evil and darkness of humanity that most people, even most creators, did not experience. And after experiencing all this, he told the children stories over and over again, telling them that a weak individual could rectify a new order in the midst of chaos and injustice.
Do everything in your power because you are afraid that your child will lose interest
The bold, adventurous Dahl is also an arrogant person, and before the creation of children's books, Dahl had already achieved many achievements. But when creating children's books, Dahl naturally puts children's reading experience first, and even confesses: "I am very afraid of children closing the book and saying, Oh my God, isn't this boring?" ”
After the war, Roald Dahl traveled to the United States to become an assistant officer in the Air Force at the British Embassy. His story of "The Elf" caught walt Disney's attention and was almost animated, he published a collection of short stories as a novelist, married the Oscar-winning best actress Padrisha Nell, and co-wrote the screenplay for "007 James Bond"...
Walt Disney and Dahl.
Interestingly, when Dahl officially began his career in children's literature at the age of 45, he had an extremely mature "child-oriented" view of children's book creation. For Dahl, the rationale for putting children first is rational — "Children are very picky and quickly lose interest." You have to keep the story going. If you think your child is going to get bored, you have to come up with something that tickles people and piques their interest. You have to know what kids like. ”
Many creators who write for adults despise children's literature, unlike Dahl, who switched from short stories to children's literature, arguing that it is much more difficult to write a children's book of comparable quality to a good adult novel.
Dahl once said in an interview about the difficulties of writing for children: "When you're old and experienced enough to be a qualified writer and write for children, you've usually become pompous, adult, grown-up, and you've lost all your jokes. Unless you're an underdeveloped adult with a huge childlike heart that giggles at funny stories and jokes, I don't think you can write it well. ”
Revisiting classic children's literature, we will find that the creative attitude of putting children first is the commonality contained in it, and remembering your childhood experience is a crucial part of it.
On the title page of The Little Prince, St. Exupéry says to children as follows: "Please forgive the children for dedicating this book to an adult... All adults have experienced childhood (but few adults remember being children). ”
In the preface to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain also emphasizes the importance of immersive childhood experiences: "Part of my plan is to make adults reminisce about their childhood life in a relaxed and pleasant way, to think about how they felt, how they thought, how they talked, and what strange adventures they would do." ”
Perhaps both Dahl and Mark Twain agree that in the nature of children who are not indoctrinated by the rules of society, there is the value that is closest to the origin of human life. Therefore, what they explore in children's literature is not the education and discipline of children, not the expectation of well-behaved children, but the infinite possibilities of being born as a human being.
Comic avatar in Roald Dahl's official website.
So how does Dahl, who puts children first, create stories?
For Dahl, humor is the magic that tickles a child's heart when reading. Dahl's humor is not about setting up one irritant smirk after another, but about the cunning and surprise that runs through the story. Dahl holds everything in his hands, always ready to break the reader's expectations and existing experiences.
Dahl likes to create strange words of his own, and the upside-down language in the giant's mouth in "The Good-Eyed Giant" adds a lot of fun to the story. Also in the story of the giants, Dahl also created the "steam cola", reversing the direction of the bubbles in the soda — the bubbles that should have been rising became downward grunting bubbles — and naturally, Dahl replaced "burps" with "farts", and exclaimed through the naïve giants: how happy it is to fart, burp is impolite. This kind of game is a fun shared between Dahl and his readers.
Dahl emphasizes the plot of the story. He believes that the average reader needs something that will keep them reading, and they want to know what happens next. Dahl always condenses his work when revising, trying to delete every possible meaningless or useless sentence because he is "afraid that the reader will throw the book away!" Dahl wants the reader to guess how the plot will unfold and lament the wonder and charm of the story. It was too hard, but Dahl did.
Dahl likes to tell the truth to children, and his stories do not avoid the importance of light whitewashing, nor do he feel that children are confused and tell superficial things that coax children. In the story, Dahl occasionally joins sharp, child-readable speculations, such as Dahl's profound exploration of the absurdity of war through the mouth of a well-meaning giant:
"Human beans have been killing each other." The well-meaning giant said, "They shoot and fly bombs over each other's heads, and there are a lot of them every week." Human beans always kill human beans. "Of course he's right, Sophie knows..." Even so, I think it's despicable for those damn giants to eat people every night, and that people don't really hurt them." "That's exactly what Piggy says every day," replied the well-meaning giant, "and Piggy said, 'I haven't hurt anyone, so why do people eat me?'" "Oh my God!" Sophie said. "The human beans make rules that suit their own," said the well-meaning giant, "but these rules cannot be applied to the piglets." Am I right? "Yes." Sophie said. "Giants also make the rules. Their rules cannot be applied to human beans. Each of them makes their own rules that apply to them. "But you don't approve of those savage giants eating people every night, do you?" Sophie asked. "I don't approve." The well-meaning giant replied firmly, "You can't get a tit-for-tat." ”
In Sophie's discussion of good and evil with the Well-Meaning Eye Giants, Dahl constantly switches the perspective of moral judgment, breaking the thinking about the moral surface. This kind of discussion may become another moment of awakening for children, and perhaps they will like the joy of speculation from now on.
Dahl's sharp and direct explanation of his own writing: "I am making my point of view in an exaggerated way, and only in this way can children understand." If there are parents who are as hateful as in Matilda, Matilda has the right to flee. There are a lot of parents, about ten percent of it, and it's bad. If they read this story, they might be shocked! ”
Dahl's working cabin.
Dahl not only plays and thinks with children in the stories he creates, but also loves to let more children create their own stories. He once gave 7 writing tips for young readers who want to become writers:
1. You should have a vivid imagination.
2. You should be able to write well and be able to bring a scene to life in the reader's mind. Not everyone has this ability. It's a talent, and you either have it or you don't.
3. You must have endurance. In other words, you have to be able to stick to what you're doing and never give up, hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month.
4. You must be a perfectionist and never satisfied with what you write until you rewrite it again and again to make it as good as possible.
5. You must have strong self-discipline. You're working alone, and no one is hiring you. If you don't go to work, no one can fire you, and if you start being lazy, no one can send you away.
6. If you have a keen sense of humor, it will help a lot. This is not important when writing for adults, but it is crucial for children.
7. You must have a certain level of humility. Writers who think their work is great are asking for trouble.
During his career as a children's book writer, Dahl lived in the English countryside, with a wooden sign "Gypsy Home" hanging on the front of his house. In his apple orchard, there was a "work hut" where Dahl walked into the hut at a fixed time every day and sat in his green armchair to write. Dahl writes for no more than two hours at a time, because focused writing is very draining.
In the final chapter of his autobiography, The Good Boy : Childhood Stories, Dahl talks about life as a novelist.
"If he were a novelist, he would live in a world of horror. Every day there was going to be a new idea, and he never knew if he could come up with it. Two hours of fiction writing would have absolutely exhausted the writer, for in those two hours he had traveled many miles, gone somewhere else, in a different place with a completely different person, and had to swim back to his normal environment with a great deal of effort... When the writer man is a fool, his only remedy is absolute freedom, and he has no master except his own soul. ”
Roald Dahl was a brilliant fool who saw adventure and freedom as the highest meaning of life. In his youth, he set foot on the African continent for adventure and freedom, participated in the Royal Air Force, and in his later years created endless adventures and freedoms for himself and for his children.
On 23 November 1990, Roald Dahl, 74, died of complications from pre-leukemia. More than 30 years after his death, the world has changed dramatically. In 2021, Netflix, which created the hit drama "Squid Game", announced that it has bought all the rights to Roald Dahl's story and will create a "Dahl Universe" from an all-media dimension in the future.
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Resources:
1.https://www.bbc.com/ukchina/simp/vert_cul/2016/09/160929_vert_cul_the-dark-side-of-roald-dahl
2.https://about.netflix.com/zh_tw/news/netflix-acquires-iconic-roald-dahl-story-company
3.https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/fantastic-mr-dahl
4.https://www.sohu.com/a/491281350_258858
5.https://creativelyy.com/roald-dahl/
6.https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl/timeline/1920s
Written by | Tyurin Cardina
Edit | Shen Chan
Proofreading | Li Ming