Disagreeing with the author

Forget Tv Is Evil.

EVERYTHING about Roald Dahl, and his lovely belief in Humans Are Bastards.

edited 6th Aug '11 11:03:20 AM by MrAHR

With Mike Teavee's character, I don't think he was arguing TV Is Evil so much as he was arguing "babysit your own kid instead of making TV do the babysitting for you or you end up with a spoiled brat like this one".

edited 6th Aug '11 11:16:15 AM by annebeeche

You've never read anything else by Roald Dahl, have you?

Actually I was a fan of Roald Dahl when I was a kid.

I also read his autobiography, Boy. He was heavily abused by the primary school when he was a kid, which explains all his evil grownups.

edited 6th Aug '11 11:19:09 AM by annebeeche

Frankly, TV is nearly as brain-deadening as Roald Dahl said it was. So there.

Watching TV indiscriminately/couchpotatoing is bad. Choosing your shows and watching them for their merit is not bad.

Mike obviously watched way too much TV, which is obviously bad for you.

edited 6th Aug '11 11:21:05 AM by annebeeche

Then you would know it wasn't just that book. Matilda, for example, uses it to contrast with the more wholesome book reading.

It wasn't Mike's actions that was criticized, it was definitely the TV.

The oompa loompa song

edited 6th Aug '11 11:23:22 AM by MrAHR

Matilda's parents veged in front of the TV all day. Mealtime was in front of the TV and nobody talked. Matilda's mom was obsessed with her shows.

Yeah, uh, her parents also watched too much TV.

That doesn't sound like "it's just overindulgence he was criticizing" to me.

edited 6th Aug '11 11:25:21 AM by MrAHR

Okay, maybe you have me convinced.

Could still be hyberbole though.

Were there any genuinely good, well-written, thought-provoking shows back then?

He lived from 1919-1990.

I doubt it was all shite.

'Kay, fine, Roald Dahl hated TV. Doesn't mean that's the only way his TV-obsessed characters can be interpreted, though.

Part of me wants to compose an oral poem speaking against books and telling people to listen to oral tradition instead.

Unless you can produce a positive depiction of watching tv by Roald Dahl, I do not think there is much you can argue.

However, that's not really the topic here.

Right, but Charlie And The Chocolate Factory is a morality tale (as are most of his stories), so of course it has strongly-worded aesops.

Most of them? Was this one? or this?

I'm curious

edited 6th Aug '11 12:06:53 PM by MrAHR

I never got what was so bad about Mike Teevee as a person that he deserved what he got. I mean, he was rude, but the way in which he was rude was by bringing up the fact that Wonka uses slave labour and not letting it go!

Dahl also had a problem with Always Chaotic Evil races, IIRC, I know he's used them at least twice and suggested killing them all as the best solution to the problem. At least the film of The Witches made one of them (the Big Bad's browbeaten assistant) sympathetic and had her survive.

Really? I remembered Teavee being a spoiled, obsessed groupie who took his merch everywhere. I guess he's closer to his portrayal in Tim Burton's film, then.

I need to read that book again, it's been a while.

If I recalled correctly, he was always emulating his favorite gangster show in the original book, carrying a toy gun around and all.

So yes, there was something wrong with him.

edited 6th Aug '11 7:46:17 PM by chihuahua0

Fahrenheit451 also had a giant anti-TV moral (no, it's not the whole thing and neither is censorship - Bradbury has a touch of the troll in him), but nobody's complaining about that.

^ Bradbury at least says that television could theoretically be used to convey wisdom.

edited 6th Aug '11 10:43:01 PM by feotakahari

@AHR: I don't know about Danny, since I never read it, but The Twits is one-hundred-and-twenty percent pure morality tale.

edited 6th Aug '11 10:56:00 PM by Sporkaganza

My issue with this is that it says that fetuses have souls.

Many abortions take place way to early in pregnancy for the unborn to have any sort of sapience.

Yeah, that's what creeps me out about the shrines dedicated to the memory of aborted babies in Japan. But meh, if it makes those directly involved feel better, the worst you can say is that the enterprising young priest who decided to set the first one up is an insensitive twatmonkey for trying to make a little extra temple-maintenance-money off of people's unhappiness.

I was going to say something about the unwisdom of bringing up abortion anywhere near the Internet, but thought the better of it.

I like a few of Dahl's children's books, but for the most part, I just don't like morality tales. I kinda agree with the quote on Writer on Board: there are better ways to send messages.

@Anna: I would totally read (listen to?) that poem. And then compose a response of my own about reading responsibly.

edited 7th Aug '11 1:14:46 AM by FreezairForALimitedTime