A World of Pure Imagination
Aug. 2nd, 2008 08:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vovatI finally got around to actually reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as its sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. They were very quick reads, and I enjoyed them. It does seem like some of the kids' sins in the original book are a little out of date nowadays. It's not as common for people to object to gum-chewing in general (although, admittedly, Violet Beauregarde was pretty gross about it), and the fact that the Oompa-Loompas' song about Mike Teavee implies that the main problem with kids watching a lot of TV is that they don't read books anymore suggests that there might have been some professional jealousy involved on Roald Dahl's part.
One thing I noticed about Great Glass Elevator was the advanced technology in it. In Chocolate Factory, the world seemed to be pretty normal aside from the factory itself. In the sequel, however, the United States has just launched its own space hotel. Near the beginning of the book, Dahl writes, "Newspapers and television had been shouting about almost nothing else for the past six months. Operation Space Hotel was the event of the century." But since Elevator is an immediate follow-up to the first book, does that mean the space hotel and the golden tickets were Big News at the same time? Anyway, perhaps when this book came out, a space hotel really seemed like something that would be built pretty soon. I know I had a book as a kid that said the Hiltons planned to build a space hotel if the cost of space travel dropped to a certain level, and Dahl has the United States government consider "Mr. Hilton" as a possible saboteur of the Space Hotel. Anyway, the book had a lot of clever ideas, but a much looser plot than Chocolate Factory, which might explain why it's never been filmed.
On a related topic, if Willy Wonka is supposed to make the best candy in the world, how come the actual company called "Willy Wonka" makes kinda crappy candy? I think there's a general difficulty associated with using fictional product names for real-life things. I mean, I guess making a Muggle approximation of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans was all right (and yes, I did eat a small box of them, including the gross flavors), but it's possible to take the idea too far. Incidentally, on the commentary for The Beast with a Billion Backs, someone mentioned that Fox copyrighted the name "Slurm" for a drink. If they decide to market Slurm and it doesn't actually come out of a colossal worm heinie, I'm not interested. :P
Finally, I saw a link to this list of the top 50 children's books on the Oz Club forums some time ago. I thought it would make a good meme, but I forgot about it at the time. Reading Chocolate Factory reminded me of it, though, so here it is in meme form. I'm bolding the ones I've read all the way through, and italicizing the ones I've read part of. (There aren't quite as many of those as usual, since these are mostly fairly short books, but it's the case for some of the story collections.) Also, I'm underlining my favorites.
1 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C S Lewis - Well, I wouldn't make it number one, but it is a good book. Not my favorite Narnia book, but I get the impression that the people who make these lists often use the first book in a series to stand for the whole thing.
2 The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
3 Famous Five series, Enid Blyton
4 Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
5 The BFG, Roald Dahl
6 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J K Rowling - I guess this is one case where they DIDN'T use the first book to stand for the entire series.
7 The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
8 The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
9 Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll - I liked Through the Looking-Glass better, but I generally consider them to be two parts of the same basic story.
10 The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson
11 The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter - I don't know that I've read ALL of them, but I did have a Peter Rabbit Treasury of which I read a fair amount.
12 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl - As I indicated, I just recently finished reading this. Didn't you read the rest of the post?
13 Matilda, Roald Dahl
14 The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
15 The Cat in the Hat, Dr Suess [sic] - Yes, they actually misspelled "Seuss." Doesn't The Telegraph have a proofreader?
16 The Twits, Roald Dahl - Never read it myself, but I heard most of it read aloud in school.
17 Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves - This was actually a bunch of books, and I had a few of them, but not all. I believe![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bethje had never heard of them. A Mr. Men activity book I had will probably be forever entrenched in my mind with staying at a Holiday Inn in Culpepper, Virginia, when my dad was considering taking a job there.
18 A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
19 The Malory Towers Series, Enid Blyton
20 Peter Pan, J M Barrie - I know it was a play before it was a book, but I'm not sure how close the Mary Martin TV version (which I have seen) adheres to Barrie's original script.
21 The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
22 Hans Christian Fairy Tales, H C Andersen
23 The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum - I'm glad Oz actually makes an appearance on this list. I'm hoping it's another case where the first book more or less stands for the entire series (since it's far from my favorite Oz book), but it seems like a fair number of people don't realize there IS more than one book.
24 The Witches, Roald Dahl
25 Stig of the Dump, Clive King
26 The Wishing Chair, Enid Blyton
27 Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell
28 The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr
29 Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jan Brett - Is this a particular version of the story? Obviously I've read the story of Goldilocks, but I couldn't say whether Brett had anything to do with it.
30 James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
31 A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond - I remember having parts of Paddington books read to me as a kid, but I'm not sure whether we finished any of them. A picture book about Paddington going to the supermarket (whether actually written by Bond or not, I can't remember) was also involved in the aforementioned Culpepper stay, if I'm not mistaken.
32 Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
33 Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
34 Aesop's Fables, Jerry Pinkney - As with #29, I know some of the fables, but I couldn't say whether I've seen Pinkney's version.
35 The Borrowers, Mary Norton
36 Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling - I read some of these, and had others read to me.
37 Meg and Mog, Jan Pienkowski
38 Mrs Pepperpot, Alf Proyson - Haven't read it, but I think I remember an excerpt from it being in a treasury of children's literature that my grandmother had. Wasn't it about a woman small enough to fit in a pepper-pot, or something like that?
39 We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen 4
40 The Gruffalo's Child, Julia Donaldson
41 Room on a Broom, Julia Donaldson
42 The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy
43 Miffy, Dick Bruna
44 The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery - I've been meaning to read this. I saw part of the movie, and a few episodes of the Nickelodeon cartoon (not that the latter had that much to do with the book, I'm sure).
45 Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown
46 The Snail and the Whale, Julia Donaldson
47 Ten Little Ladybirds, Melanie Gerth
48 Six Dinners Sid, Inga Moore
49 The St. Clares Series, Enid Blyton
50 Captain Underpants, Dav Pilke
One thing I noticed about Great Glass Elevator was the advanced technology in it. In Chocolate Factory, the world seemed to be pretty normal aside from the factory itself. In the sequel, however, the United States has just launched its own space hotel. Near the beginning of the book, Dahl writes, "Newspapers and television had been shouting about almost nothing else for the past six months. Operation Space Hotel was the event of the century." But since Elevator is an immediate follow-up to the first book, does that mean the space hotel and the golden tickets were Big News at the same time? Anyway, perhaps when this book came out, a space hotel really seemed like something that would be built pretty soon. I know I had a book as a kid that said the Hiltons planned to build a space hotel if the cost of space travel dropped to a certain level, and Dahl has the United States government consider "Mr. Hilton" as a possible saboteur of the Space Hotel. Anyway, the book had a lot of clever ideas, but a much looser plot than Chocolate Factory, which might explain why it's never been filmed.
On a related topic, if Willy Wonka is supposed to make the best candy in the world, how come the actual company called "Willy Wonka" makes kinda crappy candy? I think there's a general difficulty associated with using fictional product names for real-life things. I mean, I guess making a Muggle approximation of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans was all right (and yes, I did eat a small box of them, including the gross flavors), but it's possible to take the idea too far. Incidentally, on the commentary for The Beast with a Billion Backs, someone mentioned that Fox copyrighted the name "Slurm" for a drink. If they decide to market Slurm and it doesn't actually come out of a colossal worm heinie, I'm not interested. :P
Finally, I saw a link to this list of the top 50 children's books on the Oz Club forums some time ago. I thought it would make a good meme, but I forgot about it at the time. Reading Chocolate Factory reminded me of it, though, so here it is in meme form. I'm bolding the ones I've read all the way through, and italicizing the ones I've read part of. (There aren't quite as many of those as usual, since these are mostly fairly short books, but it's the case for some of the story collections.) Also, I'm underlining my favorites.
1 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, C S Lewis - Well, I wouldn't make it number one, but it is a good book. Not my favorite Narnia book, but I get the impression that the people who make these lists often use the first book in a series to stand for the whole thing.
2 The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
3 Famous Five series, Enid Blyton
4 Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
5 The BFG, Roald Dahl
6 Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J K Rowling - I guess this is one case where they DIDN'T use the first book to stand for the entire series.
7 The Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
8 The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
9 Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll - I liked Through the Looking-Glass better, but I generally consider them to be two parts of the same basic story.
10 The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson
11 The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter - I don't know that I've read ALL of them, but I did have a Peter Rabbit Treasury of which I read a fair amount.
12 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl - As I indicated, I just recently finished reading this. Didn't you read the rest of the post?
13 Matilda, Roald Dahl
14 The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
15 The Cat in the Hat, Dr Suess [sic] - Yes, they actually misspelled "Seuss." Doesn't The Telegraph have a proofreader?
16 The Twits, Roald Dahl - Never read it myself, but I heard most of it read aloud in school.
17 Mr Men, Roger Hargreaves - This was actually a bunch of books, and I had a few of them, but not all. I believe
bethje had never heard of them. A Mr. Men activity book I had will probably be forever entrenched in my mind with staying at a Holiday Inn in Culpepper, Virginia, when my dad was considering taking a job there.18 A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
19 The Malory Towers Series, Enid Blyton
20 Peter Pan, J M Barrie - I know it was a play before it was a book, but I'm not sure how close the Mary Martin TV version (which I have seen) adheres to Barrie's original script.
21 The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
22 Hans Christian Fairy Tales, H C Andersen
23 The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum - I'm glad Oz actually makes an appearance on this list. I'm hoping it's another case where the first book more or less stands for the entire series (since it's far from my favorite Oz book), but it seems like a fair number of people don't realize there IS more than one book.
24 The Witches, Roald Dahl
25 Stig of the Dump, Clive King
26 The Wishing Chair, Enid Blyton
27 Dear Zoo, Rod Campbell
28 The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Judith Kerr
29 Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Jan Brett - Is this a particular version of the story? Obviously I've read the story of Goldilocks, but I couldn't say whether Brett had anything to do with it.
30 James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl
31 A Bear Called Paddington, Michael Bond - I remember having parts of Paddington books read to me as a kid, but I'm not sure whether we finished any of them. A picture book about Paddington going to the supermarket (whether actually written by Bond or not, I can't remember) was also involved in the aforementioned Culpepper stay, if I'm not mistaken.
32 Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
33 Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak
34 Aesop's Fables, Jerry Pinkney - As with #29, I know some of the fables, but I couldn't say whether I've seen Pinkney's version.
35 The Borrowers, Mary Norton
36 Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling - I read some of these, and had others read to me.
37 Meg and Mog, Jan Pienkowski
38 Mrs Pepperpot, Alf Proyson - Haven't read it, but I think I remember an excerpt from it being in a treasury of children's literature that my grandmother had. Wasn't it about a woman small enough to fit in a pepper-pot, or something like that?
39 We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Michael Rosen 4
40 The Gruffalo's Child, Julia Donaldson
41 Room on a Broom, Julia Donaldson
42 The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy
43 Miffy, Dick Bruna
44 The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery - I've been meaning to read this. I saw part of the movie, and a few episodes of the Nickelodeon cartoon (not that the latter had that much to do with the book, I'm sure).
45 Flat Stanley, Jeff Brown
46 The Snail and the Whale, Julia Donaldson
47 Ten Little Ladybirds, Melanie Gerth
48 Six Dinners Sid, Inga Moore
49 The St. Clares Series, Enid Blyton
50 Captain Underpants, Dav Pilke
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-03 06:16 pm (UTC)On a related topic, if Willy Wonka is supposed to make the best candy in the world, how come the actual company called "Willy Wonka" makes kinda crappy candy? Because how good of candy can you expect a company to make if they grab a name from fiction to capitalize on it at the spur of the moment? That said, I rather like Nerds.
3 I'm surprised how much Enid Blyton is on the list, let alone that the Famous Five made #3. Makes me wonder who TOOK this survey. Who anymore even knows who Enid Blyton IS who isn't a kid-book nerd?
6 Half Blood Prince is my LEAST favorite though, I think! Only explanation is this survey must have been made just after it came out when everyone was still Hyped.
17 I heard the Mr. Men books are coming back into print. Like how Strawberry Shortcake and Care Bears are coming back, I guess. My aunt used to read us these all the time, that's my indelible memory.
18 I never thought A Christmas Carol was a children's book. Granted, it's probably the only Dickens accessible by most kids, but still.
20 I think the original stage version of Peter Pan is pretty identical to the musical, though I don't know about the songs.... The DISNEY version on the other hand takes some liberties, but, you know, that's Disney
29 Jan Brett is a famous illustrator-- I personally don't like her (her? I THINK her, but I suppose it could be some Scandinavian or German male I don't know about) work, but other people love it!
44 The Little Prince is totally an adult book that happens to be in picture book form, anyway.
50 Dav Pilke ? PILKEY! PILKEY! My beloved's name has been misspelled! Amusing that they remembered to drop the last letter of "Dave" but really, you shouldn't drop the last letter of "Pilkey."
no subject
Date: 2008-08-04 11:05 am (UTC)6. I'm not really sure what my favorite and least favorite in the series are, but I do think Half-Blood Prince might be the least able to stand on its own; it's largely stuff that Rowling needed to introduce and wrap up before the last book. And there's nothing wrong with that, but I would think that they'd want to use something more self-contained to represent the series.
17. I'm pretty sure I've seen Mr. Men T-shirts before, probably from Hot Topic or somewhere similar. And I wouldn't be surprised if the people wearing them had never actually heard of the books.
20. I've never actually seen Disney's Peter Pan.
50. Well, hey, they also misspelled "Seuss." You'd think someone would have proofread this thing, especially since they're talking about literature.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-03 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-04 11:05 am (UTC)Yeah, I'm not sure why I ended up not reading that much of his stuff. I DID, however, read Fantastic Mr. Fox, which didn't make this list.