http://epaper.navhindtimes.in/NewsDetail.aspx?storyid=12133&date=2016-09-18&pageid=1
Fun with Gobblefunk!
This past week we‘ve been having a scrumdidlyumptious time celebrating
100 years of the British author Roald Dahl, who invented gobblefunk. Chatbag,
babblement, scrumdidlyumptious, muggled, snitching and wonka- vite are some words
that every reader of Roald Dahl books identifies with. Nicknamed Moldy, Lofty
and Stalky, Roald Dahl was born on 13 September, 1916. His motto - “My candle
burns at both the ends/ it will not last the night/ but ah, my friends, and oh’
my foes / it gives a lovely light” inspired him to write children’s books which
have sold more than 200 million copies and have been translated into 59
languages.
RD was terrorized by the thought of writing boring books for
children. He did not want his books to be daunting and preachy. On the contrary,
he wanted them to be funny, exciting and wonderful. He wanted children to laugh
(belly-rumbling laughter), squirm in their seats or be tense and excited while
reading his books. This made his books real page-turners. Some of his famous
works are Matilda, Esio Trot, The Magic Finger, The Enormous Crocodile and Fantastic
Mr Fox.
His formula of success was to conspire with children against
nasty adults. Matilda had nitwit parents, Mr Fox had not-so-fantastic
neighbours, Jame’s aunts were mean and the Twits were ugly in themselves. He
said it was important to have nasty characters in a book - the more you loathe
them, the greater the fun you have when you see them being scrunched in the end.
Whenever a brilliant idea struck him, he quickly wrote it down and later worked
on it to develop it into a complete book. The famous book ‘Charlie and the
Chocolate Factory’ germinated in a flash – “How about a chocolate factory that
makes fantastic and marvellous things… with a crazy man running it!”
He specially noted to parents – “Be sparky and fun with your
children – never forget how you were when you were a child.” Sophie, his granddaughter recently wrote, “He had all the accoutrements of magic: Amaretto biscuits
whose wrapping papers you lit and watched shoot into the sky, a miniature steam train, that huffed and
puffed round the dining room table if you filled it with water; the house was dotted
with Witch Balls – ancient, mirrored spheres that hung from a window so that,
should a witch be so bold as to come knocking, she would be confronted with her
own hideous reflection and flee, never to darken the door again. He was famous
for writing the names of his children, and later on, me, in the grass with weed
killer while we slept. ‘The fairies have been,’ he’d say over breakfast.
‘Let’s
go and see what they’ve been up to.’”
Roald Dahl
enjoyed inventing words, especially naming of things. For example, in the book BFG, there are some wonderful names for the
giants and for food, not to mention the BFG’s particularly interesting
vocabulary. “But if you don’t eat people like all the others,” Sophie said, “then
what do you live on?” “That is a squelching tricky problem around here,” the
BFG answered. “In this sloshflunking Giant Country, happy eats like
pineapples and pigwinkles is simply not growing.” At the beginning of
his career as a writer, Roald Dahl collected lists of words in an old school notebook.
“When you’re describing something or someone,” he said, “you can’t just choose
dull words like beautiful, pretty or nice. You must search for more meaty and
imaginative words.
Here is a list of words Roald Dahl collected under the
heading ‘Angry and Rude or Nasty’:
arrogant
blazing brutal choleric coarse cruel dangerous devilish disdainful disgusting
evil fierce furious ghoulish grim gruff harsh hostile icy-frosty inflamed
infuriated impudent irritable insinuating intolerable malicious malignant menacing
mocking murderous nauseating nettled noxious odious offensive ominous piqued
rapacious repellent repulsive revolting rough scowling shrill smouldering smug
snapping snarling superior stern taunting truculent tyrannical vengeful venomous
vindictive.
Now isn’t
that what being a writer is all about – to have the most appropriate word in
context for a character? No wonder, he succeeded in fleshing out the most
intriguing characters such as Mrs Trunchbull, Willi Wonka, Matilda and BFG.
His
personal life was most interesting. Very much a family man, he begins his two
autobiographical books ‘Boy’ and ‘Going Solo’ with a background about his
Norwegian ancestry, his parents and siblings. These are my favourite reads and
I keep revisiting them whenever I have to prepare for a book-reading on RD, and
this particular year there have been umpteen revisitings. RD was the apple of
his mother’s eye, who called him ‘BOY’, but when it was time for him to take
wings and fly, she let him go and he enrolled for a job overseas, first in wild
Africa and later in the RAF before leaving for the US. His adventurous spirit
led him to explore deserts, learn Swahili, trudge rainy forests, fly Tiger
Moths and Hurricanes in battle zones, and ultimately write when he was posted as
an Air Attache in the US. With the birth of his five children he let his
imagination run wild, becoming even more animated and joyous by telling stories
to his children and concocting fun games at home.
There is much more to RD
than just being a writer of successful books. He often said, “If I wasn’t a writer,
I would have been a doctor.” He started a charitable trust – The Marvellous
Children Society (in Misseden, Buckinghamshire, England) that supports children
with terminal illness and other ailments. The Roald Dahl Museum is a centre for
children’s workshops and reading programmes. Ten percent of his writing
royalties go to these establishments even today. He valued kindness as the
greatest human value, even more than courage and bravery.
Alright children, remember
to don a Willy Wonka top hat or your fantastic bushy Mr Fox tail for a
Dahlicious dress-up day at Broadway Book Centre on 18th Sep 2016 at
5 pm. Craft your own Matilda Reading Corner, Solve a RD Crossword or take part in
the RD Quiz.
RD fun is going to be bigger
than James’s peach, more enormous than a crocodile and more marvellous than
George’s medicine.
“Never do anything by
halves, Go the whole hog, if you want to get away with it- BE OUTRAGEOUS!” –
Matilda
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