For the Love of Chocolate

I was watching the movie "Chocolat" recently, about a woman who reinvigorates a little French village by opening a Chocolate shop. In the "making of" featurette, I learned that the first chocolate bar was produced in the mid 1800s. Before that, chocolate was mainly used as a drink.

I normally associate chocolate with Switzerland. So it came as a surprise to learn that England produced the world's first chocolate bar. We always visit candy shops when we visit England, and you can find lots of varieties of candies and chocolates that are not available in the United States. But to hold the title of world's first chocolate bar producer, well, I think you'll agree that's something special.

Chocolate may not own the title of many Hollywood films, but it often plays an important role in literature. American author Joanne Fluke's first novel appeared in 1980, but twenty years later, her novel The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder proved so popular she's written a staggering twenty-five sequels. Children's author Roald Dahl may have written James and the Giant Peach first, but his followup Charlie and the Chocolate Factory became his best known novel, and produced his only sequel. 

Then there's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, whom Agatha Christie introduced to the world in her first published novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Poirot indulged in fine chocolates on occasion (particularly at Christmas), and also enjoyed drinking cocoa. Chocolate figures prominently in a few Poirot stories, including "The Chocolate Box." So it seems fitting that, when Clive Exton adapted Agatha Christie's first Poirot novel, he had Captain Hastings bump into the distinguished gentleman when he is purchasing cocoa for his evening drink.

On last year's trip to England, we visited Norwich Cathedral. Over 900 years of history have brought many changes to the city's center of worship. One recent addition is a brass baptismal font. The large brass bowl was once a mixing bowl used in the making of chocolate, until the local factory closed down. It now fortifies worshipper's spiritual lives, and reminds locals of Rowntree Macintosh, a center for employment there until 1994. The chocolate producer, in its storied career, created confections such as Rolo and Kitkat that people all over the world still enjoy. 

So the next time someone tells you chocolate isn't good for you, remind them that chocolate has brought happiness, success, and spiritual fulfillment to the world. Just be careful about eating any chocolates that come through the post, or are delivered by people you don't trust. You never know: they could be poisoned!

Dragon Dave

Roald Dahl's Wondrous Delights

Hungry for something sweet and substantial? Something that will delight you, and transport you on wondrous delights? Then consider James and the Giant Peach, a story that could be considered both an appetizer or an entree. 

In his book, author Roald Dahl relates the story of James, a young boy who lived happily in England until his parents went shopping in London.

A busy street in London
November 2013

Now everyone knows that shopping is incredibly dangerous. On this occasion an even more terrible thing happened to his parents than racking up large credit card bills and getting their credit privileges revoked. A rhinoceros escaped the zoo, and on a busy street in London, in full view of other shoppers, the animal ate James's parents. So James was sent off to live with his aunts in their house in the south of England. 

Aunt Spiker & Aunt Sponge,
Illustration by Quentin Blake

His aunts lived in a little house on top of a hill in the south of England. They made him work all day, beat him for his efforts, and never let him go anywhere. He had no friends. Despite the terrific view, all he could do was stand by the fence and peer out at the surrounding landscape. 

A cottage at Seven Sisters, England.

James was terribly lonely.

One day, a kindly old man appeared in his garden and offered James a bag filled with strange and magical items. He told James how to use them, and promised that if James obeyed his instructions to the letter, he would have a wonderful adventure.

Author Terry Pratchett at the World Fantasy Convention in
Brighton, England, in 2013.
A kindly old man whose strange and magical stories
transported me on many wondrous adventures.

Before James could fulfill the old man's instructions, he tripped over an exposed tree root, and dropped the bag. The contents seeped into the soil before he could gather them back together. Suddenly, a peach appeared on the old tree. 

This peach grew as large as his aunts' house. That night, James discovered a hole in its skin. He climbed inside, and and walked down a tunnel. There, deep inside the peach, the young boy who never got to see anyone else saw some interesting people.

Author Mary Robinette Kowal at the 2013 World Fantasy Convention.
From the lighting, you can tell she did her reading
inside a giant peach.

He met a musical grasshopper, a kindly spider, a polite ladybug, a mischievous centipede, and a frightened earthworm, among others.

James meets interesting people.
Illustration by Quentin Blake

These friendly bugs were as big as him, spoke perfect England, and welcomed him to the heart of the peach. Suddenly, the boy who was always lonely had some new and interesting friends. In the morning, his new friends freed the peach from the old tree. It rolled down the hill, tumbled off the cliff, and plunged into the ocean.

Seven Sisters, England, 2013

From there, James and his friends sailed off across the sea. Later, due to James' ingenuity, they even flew into the sky. Suddenly, the boy who never went anywhere was traveling, and seeing sights he could never have imagined.

To mark the 99th anniversary of Roald Dahl's birth, I read James and the Giant Peach for the first time. His delightful prose, Quentin Blake's magical illustrations, and my own journeys through England combined to satisfy my cravings for a sweet and satisfying read. Even if you haven't traveled to England, and even if your edition doesn't include Quentin Blake's masterful illustrations, I feel confident that Roald Dahl's prose alone will conjure up sufficient imagery to help you visualize James, feel for him and his friends, and help you accompany them on their journey aboard the giant peach. 

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, my brief summary cannot possibly have spoiled your appetite. I haven't told you half of his story, or touched on more than a tidbit of Roald Dahl's strange, magical, and wondrous delights. 

Bon Appetit!

Dragon Dave

Roald Dahl's Advice to Michael Palin

While vacationing in Ireland in October 1980, Michael Palin's friend, cartoonist Mel Calman, suggested they collaborate on a children's story. Palin started work on two ideas the next day, and that evening, he handed "the scribbled pages (snatched from Rachel's drawing pad) to Mel to think about." As it would turn out, Calman (best known for his "Little Man" newspaper cartoons) would illustrate neither.  But three months later, Methuen, who had previously published Dr. Fegg's Nasty Book (a parody of British annuals) for Palin and Terry Jones, expressed interest in one of the stories.  

Methuen promised Palin a 15,000 print run for his first story, Small Harry and the Toothache Pills, and tasked an illustrator named Caroline Holden with the artwork.  Palin didn't fuss over the contract terms, as he had much bigger projects (i.e. movies) on his mind.  He would later publish additional children's books, and Holden would illustrate the second story he wrote during that 1980 holiday: Cyril and the Dinner Party.

A year after his initial meeting with Methuen, in January 1982, Palin was attending a function at the BBC when who should he find next to him but the famous author Roald Dahl.  By this time, Palin was a celebrity in his own right.  Yet Palin went to "introduce myself and bother him with praise."  Dahl advised him "that a good standard popular kids' book is the way to make money," and further added, "a successful children's author will do a lot better in the long run than Graham Greene."  

Having read several of Dahl's stories, I'm not convinced that he (or for that matter Palin) ever wrote a standard kid's book.  Both men possess an edgy, if unconventional sense of humor.  Dahl even mentioned "he had received many letters of complaint about his books from teachers, and Danny [Champion of the World] was banned in Denmark because it 'teaches children to cheat.'" But he seems to be right about Graham Greene, as I've never read a novel about this Nobel-nominated author who saw many of his stories adapted into movies.   

Chance meetings like this, between a young author and an idol who inspired his own writing efforts, offer another reason to get my work published as quickly as possible.  It also amazes me that, even though he was on holiday, Palin leapt at the opportunity to write a story with his friend.  With so many competing demands on his time, he could have put the idea off for later, or dismissed it as being unworthy of his time. (It wasn't as if the books would greatly enhance his fame or bank balance).  Yet he grasped the opportunity when it was presented to him, and when he later met Roald Dahl, he met the man as, if not an equal, at least as a fellow children's author.

That must have been a good feeling.

Dragon Dave

P.S.  I can't find much information on Caroline Holden's life and work, except that she later ended up in California, were she worked as a lifeguard during the final four seasons of the TV show "Baywatch." Probably not the same woman, but hey, you never know....

Related Internet Links
Mel Calman cartoons
Two short reader reviews of Small Harry and the Toothache Pills

Dahl’s Chickens

“What amazes me,” Sophie said, “is how you ever learned to write in the first place.”

“One night,” he [the BFG] said, “I is blowing a dream through a window and I sees this book lying on the little boy’s bedroom table.”  So the Big Friendly Giant explains that, while he would never steal anything from a human, he borrowed it for a short time.  “Perhaps only about eighty years,” the BFG said.  “Soon I shall be putting it back.”

“And that’s how you taught yourself to write?” Sophie asked him.

“I is reading it hundreds of times,” the BFG said.  “And I is still reading it and teaching new words to myself and how to write them.  It is the most scrumdiddlyumptious story.”

Sophie took the book out of his hand.  “’Nicholas Nickleby,’” she read aloud.

“By Dahl’s Chickens,” the BFG said.

(Quoted from The BFG, Chapter 14: Dreams, by Roald Dahl.  Illustration by Quentin Blake).

Lately, I’ve been reading Generation Dead by Daniel Waters.  In the novel, Adam plays football at a high school where teenagers are not just returning from the dead, but also attending classes and petitioning to join the sports teams.  Yearning to grow, Adam takes karate classes, participates in a work-study program geared at enhancing the living’s understanding of the Differently Biotic (the current, politically correct term for zombies), and reads Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.  We follow Adam’s interactions with his undead friends, and in times of difficulty, Adam centers himself with words of wisdom from Master Griffin his karate teacher.  But we never learn what he thinks of Wuthering Heights, or how the novel impacts his life.  I found this disappointing, not only because it’s one of those classics of literature I would someday like to read, but also because great stories have a way of seeping into our consciousness, and coloring our view of the world.

When I picked up The BFG in the library sale room, I merely thought it’d be interesting to compare it with one of Roald Dahl’s more popular works.  At most, I thought I might mention it once in a post.  When I started reading it, I quickly grew tired of the way the giant spoke, and had to slog through the novel for a while, before I learned to accept the dialogue as a valid (and not excessive) aspect of the story.  Yet by the time I had finished the novel, I realized that I had really enjoyed it, and have since mentioned it several times in this blog. 

At the Austin Zoo, humans shared the paths with peacocks and chickens.  When I found myself posing for a photo before a particularly large example of the latter, I couldn’t help but reflect on how much Dahl’s literature has seeped into our lives.  Nearly all of us, from every walk of life, either read his delightful books in our youth (while learning to read and write), read them to children, or watched adaptations in the cinema.  Thus, we live in the shadow of Dahl’s literature.  The paradigm through which we view the world is colored in part by the characters and situations he created.  Whether we engage in his delightful humor, strut around in our finest attire, or cluck over our children, we are all Dahl’s chickens. 

I think I’ll have corn for lunch.

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Why Many Children Love—and many adults hate—Roald Dahl’s The BFG

“On Dahl’s Chickens”

Queen Elizabeth II: Mother to a Nation Part 2

In The BFG, Sophie watches as the giants run away.  The Big Friendly Giant has told her that every night, while he travels the world bringing pleasant dreams to children, the other giants venture out and eat humans.  Although the BFG feels bad about this, he doesn’t see how he can convince them to change their ways.  The only plant that grows in their land is the Snozzcumber, and it tastes so revolting that none of the other giants will eat them.

But Sophie feels she must do something.  After all, tonight the giants are heading off to her country, to eat her fellow British citizens.

So she concocts a plan.  Using the BFG’s stores of collected dreams, Sophie has him mix a nightmare about giants snatching British citizens out of their homes and eating them.  Then she asks him to take her to Buckingham Palace.  Using his trumpet-like device, he blows this nightmare into the Queen’s bedroom.  Needless to say, when the Queen awakes, and Sophie tells her that her nightmare was true, the Queen bursts into action.

Queen Elizabeth II,
captured by renowned illustrator Quentin Blake

She calls the kings and queens of other countries.  She summons the heads of the British Army and Royal Air Force.  While she awaits their arrival, she sits down for breakfast and asks Sophie and the BFG to explain the situation, and suggest how she can remedy it. 

I'm glad the BFG enjoyed his breakfast,
but oh, that poor piano.
And those grandfather clocks!

Her butler organizes the staff, and he fashions a table and chair for the BFG.  Then he watches, aghast, as the giant eats up all the food the cooks serve up, until the royal pantries are emptied (and the BFG discovers that the humans’ food tastes infinitely better than those yucky Snozzcumbers).

When the heads of her military seem incapable of coming up with a means of capturing the other giants, the Queen turns to the BFG and Sophie, who offer her a solution.  The heads of the Army and Air Force don’t like it, but they agree to go along with this strange plan concocted by a giant and an orphan girl.  After all, they can’t really refuse a royal command.

While other authors might have portrayed the situation more realistically, Dahl never mentions the important roles that the Prime Minister, the other Ministers, or the Houses of Parliament play in the everyday running of the United Kingdom.  Instead, he has Sophie take her problems directly to Queen Elizabeth II.  Far from being remote and unconcerned, the Queen is horrified at the thought of her subjects’ needless deaths.  A politician, faced with the same situation, would gauge public reaction to various proposed remedies, and ensure he had the necessary support to weather any potential backlash before he committed himself to a particular plan.  But the Queen acts like a mother whose children are threatened, she immediately takes charge of the situation, and demonstrates how relevant she is to her country by her decisions. 

You know, maybe America really does need a Queen.

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Illustrator Quentin Blake, who the Queen recently awarded with a knighthood, has a wonderful website.  Check it out at quentinblake.com

Roald Dahl: The Importance of Mothers Part 2

Alas, our See's Easter Eggs have vanished.
Please come to our aid, Willy Wonka!

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie lives in a small house with his mother and father, who care for his four grandparents.  As the house is small, his grandparents share the bed, while Charlie and his parents sleep on the floor.  As his father’s meager wages from the toothpaste factory must satisfy all their needs, Charlie’s mother has little money for food, and sometimes she and his father miss a meal to ensure Charlie has enough to eat.  But when his father loses his job, and only brings home a fraction of his former pay shoveling snow, Charlie refuses to take their portion of food.  Instead, he stops playing, and refuses to do anything that will make his body burn precious calories.  Even so, he grows dangerously thin.

Contrast Charlie with Augustus Gloop, a nine-year-old boy who finds the first Golden Ticket for a tour of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.  He was, in Roald Dahl's words, so enormously fat he looked as though he had been blown up with a powerful pump.  Great flabby folds of fat bulged out from every part of his body, and his face was like a monstrous ball of dough with two small greedy curranty eyes peering out upon the world. 

“I just knew Augustus would find a Golden Ticket,” his mother had told the newspapermen.  “He eats so many candy bars a day that it was almost impossible for him not to find one.  Eating is his hobby, you know.  That’s all he’s interested in.  But still, that’s better than being a hooligan and shooting off zip guns and things like that in his spare time, isn’t it?”

Or how about Veruca Salt, the girl who lived with her rich parents?  When she heard about the Golden Tickets, she told her father that she simply had to have one.  So her father, who owns a peanut business, stops buying peanuts and buys Wonka candy bars by the hundreds of thousands.  Each night, his father went home to find his daughter lying on the floor for hours, kicking and yelling and screaming for her Golden Ticket.  So on the third day, one of his workers found a ticket inside a candy bar wrapper.  The newspaper carried a picture of Veruca sitting between her beaming parents, and the girl was grinning from ear to ear.  

Better yet, meet the third lucky ticket holder, Violet Beauregard.  She stands on a chair in her living room, loudly telling the assembled reporters how much she enjoys chewing gum all the time.  “My mother says it’s not ladylike and it looks ugly to see a girl’s jaws going up and down like mine do all the time, but I don’t agree.  And who’s she to criticize, anyway, because if you ask me, I’d say that her jaws are going up and down almost as much as mine are just from yelling at me every minute of the day.”

“Now Violet,” Mrs. Beauregard said from a far corner of the room where she was standing on the piano to avoid being trampled by the mob.

“All right, Mother, keep your hair on!” Miss Beauregard shouted, and goes on to tell the reporters about her record for continuous gum chewing.

Strangely, the fourth ticket holder, Mike Teavee, grows annoyed by the reporters who swarm his living room.  “Can’t you fools see I’m watching television?” he asks angrily, “I wish you wouldn’t interrupt.”  He then goes on to tell the reporters how much he enjoys all the shows involving guns and gangsters and shootings.  “Their terrific, those gangsters!” he says.  “Especially when they start pumping each other full of lead, or flashing the old stilettos, or giving each other the one-two-three with their knuckle-dusters!  Oh boy, what wouldn’t I give to be doing that myself!”

Clearly, a mother’s presence alone is not enough.  For a person to grow up respectful of others, and capable of acting responsibly in society, more is required.

On the day of the tour, the other four children show up with both parents, who are beaming and dressed to the hilt.  Charlie’s father decided he didn’t deserve to go, but Charlie’s grandpa Joe did, as he had fed the boy’s dreams of touring Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.  And his mother feels it’s her duty to stay home and care for the other three grandparents, so she consigns Charlie to his grandfather’s care, knowing that her presence is not necessary for the boy to conduct himself properly during the tour.

Despite the presence of both parents, the other four lucky ticket holders lack Charlie’s maturity and discipline, and come to grief amid so many fantastic temptations.  Charlie, on the other hand…well, let’s just say that he does his mother proud.

Dragon Dave