After reading Five Children and It and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in short succession, Your Humble Blogger wanted to read another children’s book, but it was going to be tough to choose one that looked good in that company. As it happened, I had purchased a copy of The Witches a few months ago—possibly a few years ago—and hadn’t got around to reading it yet. Roald Dahl seemed like a good bet. And so it was.
Ten years ago or so, there was a movie called An Awfully Big Adventure, which was totally unmemorable except that Alan Rickman played a sad and sensitive actor famous for his marvelous Captain Hook, and Hugh Grant played a vain and vicious director. In the film, we see a scene in rehearsal with Mr. Rickman’s character playing Hook the way he’s always played him, and Mr. Grant’s character trying to change things in some way that I don’t recall in any way. At any rate, Mr. Rickman ignores him. The second time we see the scene, it’s in front of an audience full of boys and girls squealing in terrified ecstasy. The third time, Mr. Rickman’s character is out, and Mr. Grant’s character has stepped in to the Hook suit, and the audience full of boys and girls is sobbing in terrified terror. It’s awful. It’s amazingly awful, and a great scene.
The thing is, particularly in children’s books, the villain needs to be just the correct combination of scary and silly. Or scary and weak, or scary and contemptible. Mr. Dahl is great at that. Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker are probably the best, but the big, unfriendly giants in the BFG as well, and even Willy Wonka, although he turns out not to be a villain, after all. It’s tricky, though, and a villain who is too scary or too silly can ruin a book (as can a hero who is too strong). Anyway, the Grand Witch is perfect: she’s hideous (under her disguise), she has an Evil Plan that is incredibly preposterous, and she’s beaten without breaking a sweat.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.
Do you think that combination of scary and silly is what we try to force our real world villains into? We make fun of Hitler’s mustache and height, or of Kim Jong Il’s hair, or of Saddam’s hole in the ground.
Is it a natural way to alleviate tension and fear, or is it because so much children’s literature has taught us to think that way?
Both, I think. We think the way we think because of what we read, which influenced us because it judged correctly the way we think.
And, of course, for some people, speaking poo-poo to power is the only way they have of making seemingly invulnerable people fit the silly children’s-story type, thus making them as vulnerable as Captain Hook or the Queen of Hearts.
Thanks,
-V.