To think Roald Dahl books should be banned in schools and libraries....

[Oakenbeach]

.... because he’s known to have had expressed some highly anti-Semitic opinions.

I would take the good and unpack why being anti Semitic isn’t good

Did he express them in his books? If so they went totally over my head as a child so imagine they would do the same with most other children.

Would you like us to burn the books as well?

Ooooh whilst we are at it lets ban all classic books because of the authors views formed in the times they lived in. Hell lets ban history in schools its full of un pc stuff. Maybe lets ban english too as loads of books in schools have iffy context.

YABU

He’d be 102 if he was still alive today. He was from a different era, and he never murdered anyone or did any dastardly things as far as I know.
I won’t judge him by today’s standards or morals but will continue to read his works and hope they are still used in schools and libraries.

Christ this place gets worse by the day!!

Banning authors now.... nah love. Not gonna happen!

Huh? None of his books are anti sematic.

Roald Dahl was quite a nasty piece of work but a lot of writers are/were.

Oh fgs NO OF COURSE NOT
HTH

Don't worry everyone..... this rather odd OP won't be able to stop you buying it from eBay/selling sites/car boots!!

Elvis was racist and had relationships with underage girls. Gaugin was a pedophile. Dr Dre beat up his wife. Joss Whedon is an arse. Roman Polanski is a rapist.

I'm getting to the point where I think almost all our heroes turn out to be demons.

The Royal Mint chose not to create a coin in honour of his 100yrs because of this.
Banning his books is utterly ridiculous.
The man was a genius who produced some amazing literature.

Yes, I definitely read The Witches as a seven year old and found it had many deeply problematic themes, particularly a casual attitude of anti-semitism dressed as humour.

Oh wait. No I fucking didn’t.

No.

In the same vein we shouldn't be censoring or removing or hiding other works of art or statues or anything else.

Talk it through. Debate it. Have an informed opinion. Don't repress anything you don't agree with.

I don't recall any anti-Semitic themes in his books. I'm definitely not saying that there aren't any, just that they aren't something that's stuck with me from his books.

I'd still read the books with my kids, and possibly use it as an opportunity to discuss anti-semitism.

I'm not a fan of banning books. By all means choose not to read something, but don't censor it. Banning books has pretty Nazi connotations for me, ironically.

He was injured in a plane crash flying for the RAF in the war and was lucky to get out without being burned alive wasn't he? So it kind of balances out.

We should just ban all art.

Honestly I am sure we’re headed towards a handmaids tale puritanical existence

If there is nothing in the books to represent his supposed views, why on earth would we ban fabulous stories? I can think all manner of thoughts about, for example, the ignorant, but unless I expressly express them, I'm surely only poisoning myself?

I've just found out that a local school banned The Colour Purple from its library because it's "smut" apparently.

Banning books does nothing except throw a rose-tinted veil over the past. Let's keep our books, but talk them through with our children so they understand why they are products of their time, why the authors had the attitudes they did, and how we as a society are moving on.

My husband remembers his school library removing all the Roald Dahl books. That was after Roald Dahl said the following.

"“There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason. I mean, if you and I were in a line moving towards what we knew were gas chambers, I’d rather have a go at taking one of the guards with me; but they [the Jews] were always submissive.

He was at a Jewish primary school and many of his classmates had grand parents who were Holocaust Survivors.
His books are entertaining and have been enjoyed by many children. We discussed whether to have Dahl books in our house and decided we would but that when our children were old enough we would talk about his views (also TS Elliot).

you could ban most historical authors for one reason or another based on that stance.

I'm not a perfect person. If anything I'm pretty flawed and generally a bit of a pain in most people's eyes. I have views that aren't necessarily always that popular.

But I'm not a nasty person. I don't wish ill on anyone in particular, I would never deliberately harm or upset anyone and would be deeply upset and concerned if I did.

Bad and Good and Right and Wrong aren't simplistic concepts. Life is mainly lots and lots of grey areas.

I would hate to be judged on my opinions now in the future by future standards. I might be wrong now but I don't mean to be wrong and I would hope future generations would understand.

"When the Wind Blows" was a crazy kind of CND propaganda thing. There would be more reason to ban that-but I think we can kind of live with it all, given his talent. By the way...…...did he draw his own illustrations?.

Would you also ban Enid Blyton ,she had a lot of references to "Golliwogs" in her books and her views could be deemed as somewhat controversial by todays standards ?