{"id":24289,"date":"2020-11-24T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-24T05:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/?p=24289"},"modified":"2020-11-19T14:09:24","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T19:09:24","slug":"the-witches-roald-dahl-and-a-renewed-legacy-of-harm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/2020\/11\/the-witches-roald-dahl-and-a-renewed-legacy-of-harm\/","title":{"rendered":"The Witches, Roald Dahl, and a Renewed Legacy of Harm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recently, HBO adapted Roald Dahl\u2019s 1983 novel The Witches<\/em> into a film. This isn\u2019t the first time the extremely popular novel has been adapted \u2013 it was first made into a film in 1990, and has also been turned into a radio play and an opera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also a novel that\u2019s built upon a framework of antisemitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dahl and Antisemitism<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A brief summary of The Witches<\/em>, if, like me, you never read it as a child: a young boy discovers that his grandmother\u2019s stories about witches are true. He stumbles upon a large gathering of them, lead by the Grand High Witch. So far, so fine. The problems begin when you examine the way Dahl describes these witches, and how they align with antisemitic stereotypes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • The witches are described as powerful, extremely wealthy, and lurking in society, secretly passing as \u201cnormal\u201d women. This is built upon the antisemitic, and completely false, belief that Jewish peoples control wealth and secretly manipulate powerful institutions in society. We know that Dahl believed that Jewish peoples controlled the media, because he said so, in a 1990 interview with The Independent<\/em>: \u201cThere aren\u2019t any non-Jewish publishers anywhere, they control the media \u2013 jolly clever thing to do.\u201d<\/li>
  • Large noses and wigs. While there is no such thing as a \u201cJewish nose,\u201d there is a prevalent stereotype about \u201clarge\u201d and \u201chooked\u201d noses being a Jewish trait (see the 1990 film\u2019s costuming of Grand High Witch Angelica Houston). In the book, witches are described as having large noses. The witches are also described as bald and wearing wigs, and wig-wearing is part of some Jewish traditions.<\/li>
  • Blood libel. For centuries, people have baselessly accused Jewish people of killing children. This is the entire plot of the book. It is, of course, the plot of many children\u2019s books, but when taken with the previous stereotypes and bigotry, it takes on a different light.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    In case these might appear to be mere coincidences, it helps to know that Dahl himself was vocal about his antisemitism. In 1983 (the same year The Witches<\/em> was published), he said to The New Statesman<\/em>, \u201cThere is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity. I mean, there\u2019s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn\u2019t just pick on them for no reason.\u201d Later, in 1990, he reportedly told The Independent<\/em>: \u201cI have become anti-semitic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    HBO\u2019s The Witches and Limb Differences<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Fortunately, HBO\u2019s recent adaptation does not repeat some of the problematic elements of both the book and the first film (no prosthetic noses here). Unfortunately, it adds a new layer of harm. In the book, the witches are described as having \u201cclaws\u201d instead of fingernails. In the 2020 film, these \u201cclaws\u201d have been interpreted as the witches having only three fingers on each hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Many members of the disability community have spoken out against this choice. It is perfectly normal for people to have limb differences. Critics have pointed out that portraying limb difference as an evil disfigurement hurts both children with limb differences, who see themselves depicted as the bad guy, and children without limb differences, who are encouraged to see such differences as bad or scary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    What do we do with Dahl?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    What do we as library staff do with Dahl\u2019s works, and the subsequent adaptations? It\u2019s a long-standing library principle that we must be \u201cneutral,\u201d but as many, many others have pointed out, a library collection that includes bigotry does not feel \u201cneutral\u201d to many. As the library world reckons with the prejudice that runs throughout many big names in children\u2019s literature, from Laura Ingalls Wilder to Dr. Seuss, we are left with items in our collection that hurt many, but are also beloved by many others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I wish I had a good answer, but I don\u2019t. In my library system, we continue to replace copies of books like The Witches<\/em> when they get worn, and we will likely be ordering HBO\u2019s adaptation when it is released on DVD (I am not the collection manager for my library system, so I’m going off our collections policies). Many of our patrons want these items, and I want to supply our patrons with the books they want – it’s the baseline of our service. I certainly don’t want to censor away what my patrons want to read. However, I also struggle with the fact that including these items in our collection also means that many patrons feel that the library is complicit in a culture that harms them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"This<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Today\u2019s guest blogger is <\/em>Chelsey Roos<\/em><\/strong>. Chelsey has been a member of ALSC\u2019s Advocacy and Legislation committee, and is currently a children\u2019s librarian at the Castro Valley Branch of the Alameda County Library.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This blog relates to ALSC Core Competencies of I. Commitment to Client Group, and IV. Knowledge, Curation, and Management of Materials<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Recently, HBO adapted Roald Dahl\u2019s 1983 novel The Witches into a film. This isn\u2019t the first time the extremely popular novel has been adapted \u2013 it was first made into a film in 1990, and has also been turned into a radio play and an opera. It\u2019s also a novel that\u2019s built upon a framework of antisemitism. Dahl and Antisemitism A brief summary of The Witches, if, like me, you never read it as a child: a young boy discovers that his grandmother\u2019s stories about witches are true. He stumbles upon a large gathering of them, lead by the Grand High Witch. So far, so fine. The problems begin when you examine the way Dahl describes these witches, and how they align with antisemitic stereotypes: The witches are described as powerful, extremely wealthy, and lurking in society, secretly passing as \u201cnormal\u201d women. This is built upon the antisemitic, and completely…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[2079,210,22,47,1605,1614,1],"tags":[1991,477],"class_list":["post-24289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-chelsey-roos","category-books-2","category-childrens-literature","category-collection-development","category-commitment-to-client-group","category-knowledge-curation-and-management-of-materials","category-uncategorized","tag-collection-development","tag-childrens-literature-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alsc.ala.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}