Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Jul. 14th, 2005 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeI would like to see the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--I always loved that book. But I don't get why they keep talking about "getting back to the darkness of the original." The original book was not pasrticularly dark, although it WAS controversial. My mother told me that the Oompa Loompas raised quite a few eyebrows, what with they're being small and dark, and living in trees until the rich white man swoops down to lift them out of their miserable existences, and of course they laugh and sing a lot. As a child you read this and the stereotypes go right over your head (partly because you're not as aware of stereotypes at all at that age, it's acquired knowledge) but when you start thinking about it as an adult you're like "Uh, wait---" She also said there was weirdness over the book's title, "Charlie" being black slang for a white guy (at the time, I guess--the book came out in the early '60s) coupled with the phrase "chocolate factory." This makes me think of when I was a kid in Virginia, and the road we took to church went down Lee Highway which goes through the heart of Arlington, including one of their Freetowns (Green Valley/Nauck/Shirlington is the better-known one, but Lee Highway just north of George Mason Drive is another). There used to be this shacky-looking place that had a sign on it saying "Chocolate City" which I just thought sounded like the coolest place ever. I used to imagine what a chocolate city would look like--buildings of dark chocolate, and rivers of cocoa--and I asked my mom if we could go there. She told me it wasn't what I was thinking--I found out later it was some kind of dive/bar/club where fights broke out regularly, and I think someone was even killed there. Anyway, Mom said the potential for offense was why they changed the name from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Willy Wonka..., although I've heard other explanations as well.
So, ANYWAY, the book. The book was not particularly dark. WW was quirky and had a great sense of fun, but I don't think he was dark at all. Apparently, he conceived of the story as a kind of Victorian tale--the belching, Industrial-era factory (God, someone should retool Sweeney Todd and cross it with CatCF, the bad children who come to bad ends and the one good child, the eccentric Victorian gentleman (and the "native" Ooma Loompas are part of this tradition as well). Also, Charlie's family is very poor in a Dickensian way--what darkness there is comes from that. I always remembered the part where Dahl talks about how the toothpaste factory where Charlie's father works goes bust, and he's forced to start shoveling sidewalks and makes even less money than before, and the family is basically starving to death. There's a line that always stuck with me--the weather has turned cold, and Charlie starts fantasizing about yummy things to eat, like applie pie and fresh-baked cookies, like people normally do in the cold. "Because most of us are a great deal luckier than we realize, we are generally able to eat whatever we like. But Charlie could not." I always remembered the gentle reminder of how lucky we are.
So, ANYWAY, the book. The book was not particularly dark. WW was quirky and had a great sense of fun, but I don't think he was dark at all. Apparently, he conceived of the story as a kind of Victorian tale--the belching, Industrial-era factory (God, someone should retool Sweeney Todd and cross it with CatCF, the bad children who come to bad ends and the one good child, the eccentric Victorian gentleman (and the "native" Ooma Loompas are part of this tradition as well). Also, Charlie's family is very poor in a Dickensian way--what darkness there is comes from that. I always remembered the part where Dahl talks about how the toothpaste factory where Charlie's father works goes bust, and he's forced to start shoveling sidewalks and makes even less money than before, and the family is basically starving to death. There's a line that always stuck with me--the weather has turned cold, and Charlie starts fantasizing about yummy things to eat, like applie pie and fresh-baked cookies, like people normally do in the cold. "Because most of us are a great deal luckier than we realize, we are generally able to eat whatever we like. But Charlie could not." I always remembered the gentle reminder of how lucky we are.
