it wasn't nearly the scariest Roald Dahl children's book, that was George's Marvelous Medicine (though The Twits was also scary, for much the same reason)
I'll admit my tastes have a double standard, because Phantom Tollbooth is still one of my favorite children's books ever, but it got pretty fucked up too. But it was more like "good things happen from surmounting the fucked up" and came out optimistic? Whereas Wonka felt "fucked up comes from enforcing the morality" and came out creepy as hell. I wasn't able to put my finger on it that well back then, but it really felt that way to me from the beginning.
I think I just never thought very hard about books and such back then. I probably didn't even notice how fucked up these things were, never mind the exact context of it.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
I was a weird kid. The fuckedupedness of a lot of Dahl's work appealed to me.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Also everything to do with snozzberries. EVERYTHING. Oh God, I'm glad 5-year-old me didn't know the story behind that.
he just re-used the same nonsense word in a different context, right? Meaning he may not have had a rude joke in mind when he wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
unless the word already meant something before that
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Also everything to do with snozzberries. EVERYTHING. Oh God, I'm glad 5-year-old me didn't know the story behind that.
he just re-used the same nonsense word in a different context, right? Meaning he may not have had a rude joke in mind when he wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
unless the word already meant something before that
Yeah when I heard that story my assumption was that the thing in the other book was meant as a (dirty) reference to Charlie.
I loved Phantom Tollbooth (the book) as a kid, though I barely remember any of it now. I never saw the movie, mostly because I didn't know it existed back when I was into the book.
he just re-used the same nonsense word in a different context, right? Meaning he may not have had a rude joke in mind when he wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Like, if it were another author I might give that benefit of the doubt.
But Dahl disturbed me enough even before I knew about My Uncle Oswald. I don't think I have that much benefit in my doubt for him. I can totally picture him writing a scene and snickering because the kids are secretly licking wall-dicks.
My friends, it's 2016. It's time for a change. It's time for a renewal. It's time to rebrand ourselves as a bunch of mad-eyed hunters living on the floating corpse of a truly massive turtle, sailing on a giant boat pulled by sea worms and surviving entirely off of what we can kill.
Now, I know what you're thinking. "But Yarrun," you ask, "why a turtle? won't this drive property values down? and what the hell is that smell?" Well, generic Heaper, is it not true that the turtle is the foundation of the universe, beneath the Elephants and the Disc? And who needs neighbors when you're constantly surrounded by the decaying corpses of leviathans that you yourself have killed? And that smell? That's the smell of progress. The smell of a new age. The smell that only a turtle corpse weathered by salt wind and populated with filthy, violent squatters can have.
Join me. Join me on this journey to a new age. Join me on this boat made entirely of bones and pulled by two enormous, stinking worms. Let's trade bluish-green for the emptiness of gant.
Anyway, now that I've actually played the game, I have a counterproposal to your suggestion:
PROGRESS WITHOUT CHANGE IS POSSIBLE IN T H E N E W S E Q U E N C E
Comments
I can't actually remember disliking any book (or movie) at that age, though. I did not have discerning tastes as a child.
i liked the book, mostly. the "minus" stuff confused me and the Knids were scary
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
he just re-used the same nonsense word in a different context, right? Meaning he may not have had a rude joke in mind when he wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
unless the word already meant something before that
I just now clicked on this thread and know what happened.
Carry on, everybody.
haven't read the book
I loved Phantom Tollbooth (the book) as a kid, though I barely remember any of it now. I never saw the movie, mostly because I didn't know it existed back when I was into the book.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Nowadays it's ruling guinea pigs and rats for fun and sport