Poetry Friday/Banned Books Week: Day 7: All the scolding

A twofer for today, to cover both Poetry Friday and my little celebration of Banned Books Week. I laughed when I read that a librarian in Boulder, Colorado, in 1988 had removed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl from the shelf to keep in a locked reference collection (from which books presumably didn’t circulate) because the librarian thought the book embraced “a poor philosophy of life” — what Ursula K. Le Guin referred to as “ethical crassness”. Perhaps eating too much candy, or supporting the idea of a lottery? Or possibly the wretched ideas of consequences, however fantastic, for being a great big greedy nincompoop, always chewing chewing gum, being spoiled and spoiling (after all, Veruca Salt and her parents both go down the chute), and of course watching too much television.

Also touching on the issue of censorship — with changes Dahl made to the first edition — and the role of fantasy vs. realism (such as the idea of being imprisoned for life in a candy factory) is this this long and fascinating exchange, mainly between children’s fantasy author and critic Eleanor Cameron and Dahl, in the pages of The Horn Book in 1972-73.

“Veruca Salt!” sang the Ooompa-Loompas.
“Veruca Salt, the little brute,
Has just gone down the garbage chute,
(And as we very rightly thought
That in a case like this we ought
To see the thing completely through,
We’ve polished off her parents, too.)
Down goes Veruca! Down the drain!
And here, perhaps, we should explain
That she will meet, as she descends,
A rather different set of friends
To those that she has left behind –-
These won’t be nearly so refined.
A fish head, for example, cut
This morning from a halibut.
‘Hello! Good morning! How d’you do?
How nice to meet you! How are you?’
And then a little further down
A mass of others gather round:
A bacon rind, some rancid lard,
A loaf of bread gone stale and hard,
A steak that nobody could chew,
An oyster from an oyster stew,
Some liverwurst so old and gray
One smelled it from a mile away,
A rotten nut, a reeky pear,
A thing the cat left on the stair,
And lots of other things as well,
Each with a rather horrid smell.
These are Veruca’s new found friends
That she will meet as she descends,
And this is the price she has to pay
For going so very far astray.
But now, my dears, we think you might
Be wondering –- is it really right
That every single bit of blame
And all the scolding and the shame
Should fall upon Veruca Salt?
Is she the only one at fault?
For though she’s spoiled, and dreadfully so,
A girl can’t spoil herself, you know.
Who spoiled her, then? Ah, who indeed?
Who pandered to her every need?
Who turned her into such a brat?
Who are the culprits? Who did that?
Alas! You needn’t look so far
To find out who these sinners are.
They are (and this is very sad)
Her loving parents, MUM and DAD.
And that is why we’re glad they fell
Into the garbage chute as well.”

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More Poetry Friday fun and today’s roundup to be found over at Stacey’s and Ruth’s Two Writing Teachers. Thanks for hosting, Stacey and Ruth!

And my previous Banned Book Week series posts:

Banned Books Week: Day 6: I’ll be finked

Banned Books Week: Day 5: Running with scissors

Banned Books Week: Day 4: Boo

Banned Books Week: Day 3: Just lousy

Banned Books Week: Day 2: What big teeth you have

Banned Books Week: Day 1: Banned in Boston