The magic of Roald Dahl

An array of emotions, primarily nostalgia, stir up in me whenever Roald Dahl’s stories are spoken about. His books define pretty much all of my childhood. He was probably the first author I read, whose stories fascinated and satisfied my young mind. Like millions of children all over the world, I too, grew up reading and re-reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Glass Elevator, The Gremlins, Matilda, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Twits and The Witches, among his other works. These stories about witches-both friendly and scary, giants, magic, friendships and happy endings, opened up a completely new universe of fun and imagination for me. 

In addition to expanding my imagination, being a Roald Dahl fan as a child worked in my favour in multiple ways. There was never a lack of hacks on how to deal with witches, fun pranks to play on friends and wild, unreal adventures in my English compositions in school. In fact, school teachers would often get impressed when I used references from his stories in my essays. Dramatically delivering excerpts from The Witches even won me multiple Elocution Competition awards in school. 

His writings did include much more than his books for children. As I grew up, I got a chance to read his works for adults, like Kiss Kiss, Lamb to the Slaughter, My Uncle Oswald and The Smoker, among others. While some of these were extremely engaging, thought-provoking pieces of literature, Dahl for me, will always remain the man behind some of the most loved children’s books of all times. A master storyteller, his works have inspired multiple film-makers to tell his story their way. He also wrote the screenplay for Ken Hughes’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. 

But when I go back to read his books today, the vengeful, ruthlessly funny stories seem inappropriate at many levels. Today, I seem to understand better, the ‘bad’ characters that he tortured and punished in his books. I seem to get that all these characters that he morally judged for being greedy, arrogant and unfaithful were not given a chance to put forth their side of the story. Not only does his writing seem to have a very western, imperialistic approach, but they also seem to be misogynous in bits. 

However, all that said, Roald Dahl’s work is unforgettable. His almost childlike imagination made me believe in magic. While Charlie and The Chocolate Factory taught me not to be greedy and arrogant, The Witches sent a chill down my spine. While The BFG made me want to have a giant for a best friend, Matilda taught me that nothing is impossible. I owe my love for reading and obsession with books to Dahl. His words, ‘Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it’, have stuck with me for over a decade, now. I yearn for a world with more storytellers like him. 

Shruti Shenoy has dabbled in journalism, theatre, marketing and blogging, She currently spends her days running two social initiatives, travelling and reading.