HP and "The Witches"

[Joywitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 2158

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Scott " <harry_potter00 at y...> 
wrote:
> Of all the Roald Dahl books "The Witches" is probably my favourite, 
> and so I was flipping through it (BTW, I was thinking to recommend 
> this as reading for a 9yr. old, at least one who hasn't already 
read 
> it!)  when I came across this passage-
> 
> "Soon after my seventh birthday, my parents took me as usual to 
spend 
> Christmas with my grandmother in Norway.  And it was over there, 
> while my father and mother and I were driving in icy weather just 
> north of Oslo, that our car skidded off the road and went tumbling 
> down into a rocky ravine.  My parents were killed.  I was firmly 
> strapped into the back seat and received only a scratch on the 
> forehead."
> 
> Now, this CANNOT be an accident, sorry but it just can't...the 
> Dursely's have obviously been reading too much Dahl (despite the 
fact 
> I don't take them as being the literary type). But seriously this 
> must be where JKR got the "your parents died in a car crash" thing 
> from -OR- The other highly probably idea, I am reading far to much 
> into everything....

Yes, Scott, I entirely agree.  I have said MANY times (several 
members of the group are rolling their eyes) that Roald Dahl CLEARLY 
inspired JKR.  The Dursleys, especially, are clearly Dahl-type 
characters (like the parents in Matilda, or the aunts in James and 
the Giant Peach), and I think the whole car accident scene you quote, 
Scott, is absolutely NOT a coincidence.  There is another character 
in The Witches, another little boy who gets turned into a mouse, who 
is a lot like Dudley Dursley.  Harry s story has some parallels to 
Charlie s (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).  I could go on, but I 
suspect you would all be happier if I didnt.

-- Joywitch