As I reminisce about my past and mull over ways to keep young, I think about celebrated British author Roald Dahl who would be 92 years old if he were alive today. He is best known for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. His suspense stories, written with a gripping bite, have also been recognized as enthralling. They were even adapted to Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV episodes.
His literature was introduced to me by a girl I was trying to court in high school. Just like his twisted stories, I fell in love with Dahl and was more fascinated with knowing about him than the girl. I eventually parted with the girl and continued a loving relationship with Dahl who I would readily recommend to anyone trapped on a deserted island.
It was because Roald Dahl was larger than life. It wasn’t just because he stood 6’6” but because his words and their wisdom pulsated with life. At a time when age was only skin-deep and skintight, Dahl, whose stories were entertainingly “splendifferous” (as I imagine he would describe them), also taught that the fountain of youth is not mere appearance. It is in the free-flowing quality of blood coursing through your veins. It is in how your heart pumps up and about for each new adventure. It is in the way your pulse does not dillydally over what is good and right.
And all of Dahl’s character lived by this principle, whether penned for an adolescent or adult audience. Charlie Bucket of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was chosen to own the candy factory because Willy Wonka wanted a good, sensible, loving child to have his secrets. Wonka couldn’t have a grown-up person who would be too stubborn to listen to him. Dahl also had good adults such as Danny’s dad from Danny, The Champion of the World and the incredible Mr. Fox who taught their children how to gracefully fight the twits of this world. For his adult short stories, Dahl created Henry Sugar who used his X-ray vision to raid the casino games around the world. Sugar, however, had a change of heart after finding himself empty with his bag of loot. He soon gave his winnings to charitable institutions, even one in the Philippines.
Sunset Romance
My personal favorite Dahl story, though, is Esio Trot. It is what I think is the most novel and one of the least recognized works of this giant author. In this charming tale, the shy senior Mr. Hoppy has a crush on the widow Mrs. Silver who lives in the apartment below him. Hoppy greets her every morning through leaning on his balcony but cannot muster the confidence to run down. One morning, Mrs. Silver shares that she wishes her tortoise Alfie could grow bigger and coyly offers to be a slave to anyone who would do it. Hoppy’s heart skips a beat and he cooks up a scheme to win her affection. The next morning he slips down a paper with the incantation Esio Trot (or Tortoise spelled backwards) to Mrs. Sliver and explains that the spell will make her pet grow bigger. Without giving out the plot twist away, Mr. Hoppy devises an inventive way in Dahl fashion of making Alfie increase in ounces and is able win Mrs. Silver’s heart in the end.
I, myself, was enchanted with Esio Trot like Mrs. Silver because it was a breath of fresh of air from teen and now tween romances. It showed that love isn’t reserved for the young but young of heart and that the glow of romance can definitely turn back the years. I also found it undeniably cute to read about an elderly man whose heart was skipping not just because of a pacemaker. Thus, I believe it is a buried treasure of a story waiting to be adapted to TV or maybe film.
Blood Type D
As whimsical as Dahl’s characters are, the author’s life was a story in itself. This big friendly giant, as his daughter Ophelia describes him, always lived with a sense of adventure. As a young man, he traveled to Africa and fought in WWII as fighter pilot (this is later recounted with flair in his autobiography Going Solo). Later on, as he drove his children to school, he never saw driving as an exercise of getting from point A to B but always found a way to chase the local firetruck or zigzag through a new route. Back at home, he would create funky inventions in his writing hut as he wrote his incredible stories. He even set up his own foundation to fight neurological problems, rare blood diseases, and illiteracy.
This is why Roald Dahl was voted Britain’s favorite author and has a day dedicated to him on his birthday (September 13) for all the passion that he has inspired in his readers. Ironically, as much as he got the hearts of many pumping, Dahl passed away due to a rare blood disease. This type of death, I believe, was not merely ironic. It is because Dahl always had a different blood type from the rest of us mortals. His veins were filled with compassion, imagination, and a zeal for life. If this was the type of plasma that took his life, maybe we should get infected by his blood type and leave the world in the same way.