June, 2011
- June's book was The BFG by Roald Dahl, and as promised I went low tech on the minutes so I wouldn't lose the juice. Turns out that was a good thing as Jess The Younger and Pia were notably absent. Some lame excuse about flu or something... The first ten minutes was spent admiring my scar and hearing Elder Jess talk about how awesome I am!
- Down to business: The BFG was enjoyed by all of us, in fact it was the target of the most collective enjoyment so far. It was chosen because Anna said she wanted to read a children's book as an adult and think about the things you remembered from reading it as a kid and also the things you didn't pick up on until you were a growed-up. Some of this things came up:
- Dahl is influenced by his time as a pilot and paints them in the same light as pilots the world over still paint themselves, "He was very proud of his moustache. He was also quite fearless and he loved adventure."
- We were quite surprised at the depth of some of the themes in the book, including, but not limited to, vegetarianism, "That is what the little piggy-wig is saying every day." And war, "Human beans is the only animals that is killing their own kind." (Not strictly true, but we all know what he meant.)
- Next we talked about how there is so much more to Roald Dahl than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the world needs to realise this fact! One thing we all loved about Dahl's books is the importance of language - there is always something other than strictly English in there, the made up words, onomatopoeia in a way (no doubt the various English majors will correct me). If you had to decide which of these two words was preferable to the other, which would you chose: winksquiffler or trogglehumper - It may seem a tough choice at first, but if you think about it I would rather have my wink squiffled than my troggle humped, any day.
- For some reason I wrote in the margin of my notes the words, "Almost like being brain washed" so whom ever's idea that was, please remind me why?!
- As always, please leave comments below to fill in the bits that I have missed! (It's like having blank pages in the back of your atlas!)
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