The morality question

[psychic_serpent]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "joywitch_m_curmudgeon" 
<joym999 at a...> wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "psychic_serpent" wrote an 
> extremely excellent post about morality in children's literature.  
> Thanks, Barb.  Just one question.  You say:
> 
> > since we know that JKR likes Dahl, and 
> > since it's not difficult to see her homage to Dahl in things 
> > like her descriptions of the Dursleys (think Aunt Spiker and 
> > Aunt Sponge.
> 
> I totally agree -- the first time I read SS, the Dursleys made me 
> think of Matilda's parents.  But, do we actually know that JKR 
> likes Dahl?  I mean, has she said so in an interview, or is this 
> just what we've surmissed from her (pretty obvious) 
> references/tributes to Dahl?
 
According to this interview:

http://slj.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?
layout=articleArchive&articleId=CA153024&publication=slj

she is very flattered to be compared to Dahl and calls him "an 
absolute master at what he did."  OTOH, she says that she read 
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the age of eleven, but not 
later works like Matilda and The Twits (which, oddly enough, makes 
repeated use of the word "Mugglewumps").  So it's possible that one 
should really look to CATCF for similarities to HP characters.  I, 
for one, know that I cannot read about Violet Beauregard without 
thinking of Dudley, and it would be very interesting to do a 
comparison of Dumbledore and Willy Wonka (remember--Dumbledore's 
passwords are always sweets).

--Barb

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