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Original poster

+++++ WARNING - ROALD DAHL, MY UNCLE OSWALD ++++++

161 replies

Somanybabyseagulls · 19/10/2006 09:53

11 year old dd came home from school yesterday with this book. She didn't read the back or flick through inside but hadn't seen this in our local library before.

This book was apparently his foray into adult writing. References to 'huge and long-lasting erections' are made in the first few pages, you can guess the rest. Anyway, I have obviously complained to the school and I am destroying the book. The school obviously apologied and like many of us assumed that any Roald Dahl book would be suitable for any school library.

Please be aware that this book was supplied by a reputable school book supplier (the school would not give me their name) so I urge you all to contact your school library to ensure no one elses child has access to this book.

OP posts:
lulumama · 19/10/2006 19:41

i won't sleep tonight blairaitch!!

Piffle · 19/10/2006 19:45

Ahhh yes Judy Blume
My ds has read Oswald, got it from town library as he is nearly 13 and autonomous within reason on books, I never knew
I shall ask him later
He is about to embark on patricia cornwell...
I read Dick Francis as an 8 yr odl as was horse mad, there was sex and stuff in it, never really thought about it any earler than any other girl who grew up on Sweet Valley High books tbh.
I'm a bit liberal I think...

TheBlairAitchProject · 19/10/2006 19:46

bbbbzzzzzzzz, lulu, bbbbzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

lulumama · 19/10/2006 19:47
TheBlairAitchProject · 19/10/2006 19:47

i read dick francis too, piffle. although the sex in DF was tempered by my voracious appetite for Georgette Heyers. Sprig Muslin... now there's a book for a yougn girl. utterly wholesome.

WriggleJiggle · 19/10/2006 19:49

Personally I don't have a problem with a sexually explicit book in a secondary library. Having said that I would have thought it 'good practise' to put books like these on an 'adult' shelf.

Older teenagers should have access to it, but without a younger reader picking it up by accident.

Now if a younger reader should pick it up deliberately ..... well thats a whole new thread!

PretendFriend · 19/10/2006 19:50

We had Lady Chatterley in the house straight after the trial - I was 10

(Not that I read it at 10 but I did find the naughty bits not long afterwards )

harpsichordcarrion · 19/10/2006 20:24

oh we had lady chatterley in the house too, couldn't make head nor tail of it.
and some filthy poetry by Robert Burns (ditto)
and a book about Tantric Sex I shit you not.
and my granny used have lots of those appalling plantation set novels, like Drum etc.
I read all of those before secondary school ....

TheBlairAitchProject · 19/10/2006 20:28

YES!! i rememeber those plantation-y novels... lots of dreadful rape and illegitimacy and being cut out of inheritances (and slavery, of course). they were appalling, weren't they? had read loads of them before secondary school.

rustycreakingdoorbear · 19/10/2006 21:17

So - those of you who say the book should not be in the school library, but should not be destroyed - what should the school do with it then? Put it in a glass case? Give it to a charity shop where a child could come along with their pocket money & think 'ooh a Roald Dahl I haven't read'?

I used to be a librarian, and I've destroyed hundreds of books - there's nothing sacred about the physical bits of paper, as long as the original still exists.

I'd say the book should be in the library, but there should be a restricted loan system - and if schools didn't replace qualified librarians with people with a 'good general level of education' this might happen more often.It's like replacing teachers with TA's.

Flamebat · 19/10/2006 21:22

Give it to a local library perhaps who do have proper sections and qualified librarians?

It is the sentiment behind destroying the book that feels wrong to me - it isn't destroying it because it is damaged etc, it is destroying it because you feel the content shouldn't be read, which imo is wrong.

TheBlairAitchProject · 19/10/2006 21:24

yes, give it to a charity shop. what's the problem with that? that's not the same as a school library, and that's where most of my unsavoury reading came from as a child. well, that and my grandma's house
i understand destroying a book that's knackered and falling apart, but not if it's in good condition. it's just plain wasteful imo.

rustycreakingdoorbear · 19/10/2006 21:59

Yes but Somanybabyseagulls is just going to destroy one copy of a book that the school said they would destroy if she sent it back - that's hardly the end of civilization as we know it.

MrsSchadenfreude · 19/10/2006 22:00

Personally, I'd have been fascinated to read abuot guge and long lasting erections at eleven. But I was a bit precocious.

sorrell · 19/10/2006 22:02

She ISN'T going to destroy it! She's posting it back to teh school in respectable manner. Move on, nothing to see here...

TheBlairAitchProject · 19/10/2006 22:02

why can't she just keep it and read it herself? he's a good writer.

Socci · 19/10/2006 22:02

Message withdrawn

TheBlairAitchProject · 19/10/2006 22:07

sorrell you are a spoilsport... i was hoping that roald dahl's erection-gate was going to kick off...
that's right, somanyseagulls isn't going to destroy it, but if the school is than i also disapprove. why bother when they can give it away and a charity could make some cash from a consenting adult?

NotQuiteCockney · 20/10/2006 08:02

It's interesting how much banning books gets kids interested. I read "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" when I was still in primary school, I think, because my parents had made it forbidden. Of course it's completely bloody nonsensical to someone of that age!

Then again, I did a book report, when I was 14 or so, on Portnoy's Complaint . I have no idea why. I mean, it's a good book, really, but it's just the tiniest bit rude. (my parents didn't know I was doing a book report on it!)

FrannyandZooey · 20/10/2006 08:10

'Forever' is quite suitable for teenagers, unless you have some huge and odd problem with them knowing about sex at all. It deals with first sexual experiences in a teenage relationship.

'My Uncle Oswald' is a really smutty book involving a plot using a prostitute armed with drugged chocolates, to collect semen from famous men in order to fertilise wealthy women with genius babies. It's not remotely suitable for children. I am really surprised a librarian wouldn't know Roald Dahl wrote some very adult themes.

NotQuiteCockney · 20/10/2006 08:12

His adult work is really misogynist, isn't it. I've only read a few, and although they're well-written and compelling (I remember lots of details from them, although I've not read them for ages and ages), they're also quite hateful, really.

The whole thing casts a bit of a pall over his kids' books, and make me notice the aspects of those that are troublesome ...

FrannyandZooey · 20/10/2006 08:16

Yep, he was a hideous old man

I think children tap into the general misogyny of our culture though, and really relate to it, so his books are very powerful for them

To be fair I think he is a misanthropist as well

Marina · 20/10/2006 08:44
Marina · 20/10/2006 08:45

but even with many years' experience you are still allowed to hate misogynist old creeps like Roald Dahl

hulababy · 20/10/2006 08:50

Ok, we have been warned. The school librarian should have realised. I guess she/he didn't think she'd have to check from a reputable supplier though. Your complaints should also go to the supplier, via the school.

But to destroy a book is not on IMO. Really. Can't see why you can't return it to school, with your letter of complaint - either in person or by post. It can then go back to the suppliers with a further complaint.

Their is nothing wrong with the book that warrants it being detroyed though, surely. It is just not suitable for the school library/childrens section.

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