I went to see Weapons on Friday night (at a very cute drive-in, very retro, very charming), and of course, I loved it. Very nicely done, absolutely charming, full of cute kids, and an adorable childish-looking adult professional woman made up to look like Madonna in Papa Don't Preach, all battling evil together.
Its tenor reminded me of Roald Dahl and his charming comedy worlds, full of plucky innocent wide-eyed boy heroes-and the odd girl- struggling against horrific evil – sometimes immediate family, but other times forces that they couldn't even begin to understand- just that they were out to harm them.
I read a lot of Roald Dahl – in fact his short story "The Hitchhiker" was one of my first reading bonding experiences with my mom- she read it, in an old paperback "Tales of the Unexpected", with a purple and orange cover- told me to read it, and then later we went out and had knickerbocker glories. I wonder if they still serve them in British pubs on rainy days. I miss her so much.
Oh yes, Roald Dahl, and how adults were horribly, horrifically cruel to children, and how children had to navigate these terrible worlds -gardens, factories, woods, homes, schools, that were set up to actively damage them. Us, I mean, damage us. The moral of the books was that most adults are dangerous, terrible creatures, but with luck, if you find a good one, and if you're very brave and very smart and also a little bit good at making yourself unnoticeable by adults, you might just get by, and even have quite a nice life. Life can be quite fun and joyful, in a Dahlian world, albeit strewn with a few mangled children and adults here and there.
I read his autobiography Boy later, about the horrors he endured at school, and I looked around me, and then I started to gradually understand- how adults had treated children -my parents being polite nice people who would never talk of such horrors, sending me to a nice school where a teacher who talked threatened corporal punishment was sacked. I learned to be thankful that I had been born when I had been born, where I had been born. I read Charles Dickens, and I was like oh my god, what are we monsters, why were we like this, oh dear god, thank god for progress and enlightenment, thank god for Dahl and Dickens, and may we never return to where we had been.
by 1000andonenites