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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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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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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