Rare Roald Dahl interview from 1990 - How he became a writer

[TheDellanator]

He was good looking when he was young. Anyway. throughout my whole life i've been reading roal dahl books. expecially when I was younger, I used to always pick em up from the school library, his books were so easy to understand and interesting.

[lesterclaypool1]

@TheDellanator

My wife says that the best present that she was given as a child was a used copy of "Danny, The Champion of the World" from a girl in her Brownies' Troop who's family had limited means to participate in the annual Christmas present exchange. That present gave her a favorite author, to this day.

She was also very saddened, fairly recently, to see a hardcover copy of the BFG in a milk crate of books that had been pulled from our local library's circulation.

[ThePrinceDhani]

Roald Dahl said BULLSHITTING! That's like seeing Santa pissing.

[lesterclaypool1]

@ThePrinceDhani

Have you read Roald Dahl's books for adults? Pretty racy stuff!

All family accounts paint him as a right menace, too. A brooding terror of a man who alternately dominated the household and all in it or locked himself in his caravan in the garden, writing, for weeks on end.

The epitome of the temperamental artiste. I doubt that his time in the second world war helped his gloomy outlook, I had family members who came back deeply scarred from the experience.

[Mazorquera20]

Your imagination is eternal, you'll be always in our hearts.

[Mazorquera20]

You are eternal, always in our hearts and in our imagination.

[Mazorquera20]

RIP rest in peace forever

[animalmother16]

A racist,and anti-semantic? Hmm. I guess you could be all kinds of things and still write books for kids. It's called being human. You cant be perfect and be human too. Whatever Dahl's hangups were, he was a hell of a writer. His adult stories were great as was his children's stories.

[lesterclaypool1]

@animalmother16

Read the entire 1983 interview that a certain oft cited, and glaringly cherry picked, quote comes from. Dahl was neither a racist or an anti-anyone, he was an intelligent and informed man commenting on a political situation that cast very decisive opinions in varying groups of people. The quote, in context, refers to glaring cases of censorship and spin coming out of the middle east, at the time.

[animalmother16]

@lesterclaypool1 if you read my comment, i didn't say he was a racist. i was commenting on what someone else said. i was saying no one is perfect. don't give two shits what political or racial, or if he didn't think chairs should copulate with tables was wrong. I said he was a GREAT WRITER.

[lesterclaypool1]

@animalmother16

You said that "if he was" no one is perfect, I'm telling you that he wasn't.

[MysterySparkStudios]

Omg did he say uxbridge!? thats where im from. its not even an raf camp anymore :(

[martyn580]

i expected him to have a Scandinavian accent

[LaviniaVeiled]

@martyn580 Nah, he was raised in England but yes, he's Norwegian.

[KimKoomKum]

@LaviniaVeiled in Wales, not England; his parents are from Norway, that's right ;)

[saubhagyinisingh]

*Swoons*

[GetThisThingCrunk]

i forgot anti-Semitic, why write kids books if your like that, I suppose you don't care about kids either.

[lesterclaypool1]

@GetThisThingCrunk

He was a domineering man, to be sure, but he wasn't a racist or an Anti-Semite. "Ist" "ism" and "anti" labels are the domain of the simple minded who can't be bothered to investigate certain cherry picked quotes beyond the headlines that they were used to create.

Much of Dahl's reported "sex-ISM" is par for the course in his generation and really nothing to be maligned when you learn about the men and women who contributed to this imprinting.

[GetThisThingCrunk]

@lesterclaypool1 thanks for the input, perhaps you could explain further?

[GetThisThingCrunk]

@lesterclaypool1 after reading more about Dahl I don't see what good points you can make in his defense. From what I'm reading most his books had to be edited and re-written to remove objectionable content. Most of his books couldn't even sell, he wrote kids books because they sold. He only gave money to charity to try to get Knighted, along with a lot of other stuff. marrying the woman he begged his wife to let him keep cheating with when she was ill.

[lesterclaypool1]

@GetThisThingCrunk

If he only gave his money to charity to be knighted why would he turn down an OBE from the same crown? Most books have to be edited and re-written because of questionable and objectionable content, that's why there are people who fill the job of copy editor.

I'm not a fan of his relationships with women, as I mentioned in my first comment, but I see that, like most poor debaters, you're unable to argue your original points forcing you to bring up new ones.

[GetThisThingCrunk]

@lesterclaypool1 I wasn't here to debate, just to make a point of what I read about him, if you have contrary information you can present that. I don't remember the original source where I originally read it, but there seems to be at least 4 sources. My main point was he shouldn't be writing books for children.

[lesterclaypool1]

@GetThisThingCrunk

I don't think that children are too worried about their favorite author's personal life. Page Six fascination is the domain of avaricious and salacious grownups, kinda like the characters in Dahl's books that he wrote for that set.

[GetThisThingCrunk]

@lesterclaypool1 I'm not sure I think kids like to know more about the people that write the books. Perhaps I should say more so that schools shouldn't promote the books, without schools and movies I'm not sure how popular these books would be. So if kids ask about the author and you give a true bio I think kids might not want to continue to read them, most kids seem to want people to be good. no author is going to be perfect but there are somethings you have control over.

[lesterclaypool1]

@GetThisThingCrunk

So now you've changed your argument, again, from Dahl shouldn't have been writing books in the first place to schools shouldn't promote the books that he has written?

If we considered the character behind those who create our artistic offerings, and censor based on someone's subjective idea of morality we'd have nothing to read or watch.

[GetThisThingCrunk]

@lesterclaypool1 okay so instead don't ban the book, inform the students and/or parents on the background of the book and the author and decide if they want to read it or not. This way you're not banning material and also not promoting material that people might not like if they know the whole story.

That would probably be the best option. Don't tell them after because then they already view the author favorably due to emotional connection to the stories.

[lesterclaypool1]

@GetThisThingCrunk

How do you present this information? Where does it come from. Some people believe Dahl to be a racist and an anti-Semite from a comment taken completely out of context while the likes of my wife, who has studied the man and his life extensively, sees that these impressions largely come from people who think that any comment about a social group fits these parameters.

As I said, ideas of morality are subjective and will reflect on the source material.

[GetThisThingCrunk]

apparently he was a creepy sexist, racist, douche, too bad.

[Ruffgo]

Beautiful. He spoke so elegantly and just like the way he wrote, so descriptive & gentlemanly. Please find more interviews & post them for the world to learn from.

[rh7onda7]

Is there more?

Would love to hear the rest.

[notasissy]

@rh7onda7 yeah there is, towards the end of the interview he reads The Anteater, a short story. I'll be putting that up soon.

[gokiburi666]

@notasissy I'd also love to hear the rest

[AdventureQuestGuidez]

This person is not him! is the business man!

[hugh0221]

Roald's accent's Welsh, right?

[pgfmedia]

@hugh0221 No, thats RP - clear diction and a fantastic english accent with excellent tone and delivery.

[aydansavaskan]

@hugh0221 no, as queen's/bbc/received whatever you want to call it- english as you will find, despite his childhood spent in Wales

[grandoko]

tjubiduuuoo