Misogyny: Dahl's misogyny, especially in his adult stories, is quite extreme, and, in shades of Harper Lee and Go Set a Watchman being turned into To Kill a Mockingbird at the publisher's insistence, the first draft of Matilda: I don't believe in banning books, but Dahl was an unpleasant character and it is wilful blindness to ignore the feet of clay our heroes sometimes have as we place laurel wreaths on their brows. Ironically, this book is banned in some educational districts in the US for 'teaching poor moral values' and cannibalism. In the mid-to-late 20thC there was less emphasis on paedophilia than there is now, and I wonder if this book could have been written at all in the 21stC. When Disney gets hold of them, they lose both and become the anodyne Barbie-doll princesses (cue violins-in-the-background) we are used to. Lots of them include sexual and violent elements which children either don't notice (sexual) or thoroughly enjoy (violent).
It is an inventive story without doubt, and all fairy stories require you to absolutely suspend disbelief. Dahl sees himself as the BFG giving Sophie, children, a new way to think, different from human adults, who don't even believe in giants. (view spoiler) It all ends with the little girl giving the BFG kisses and living next door to him and everyone is very happy. Taking her away from the orphanage she lives in to the land of the extremely unfriendly giants who, in the original draft forced the little girl to look at their giant 'clubs'. The first thing he does is enter her bedroom in the middle of the night, blow "dust" over her and kidnap her. This story is of a man's interest in a prepubescent girl. But Do you know what the BFG stood for before his publisher told him he had to think of other words for the acronym? Dahl wasn't joking either, not at all. Do you know what the BFG stood for before his publisher told him he had to think of other words for the acronym? Dahl wasn't joking either, not at all.
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