Comments on: Oompa Loompa Loompa dee Jew

By: Kenneth H. Ryesky

Kenneth H. Ryesky — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 21:17:51 +0000

Absent some sort of explicit directive from the deceased, nobody has any standing to apologize on behalf of a dead person. Or, for that matter, any obligation. Anything in the way of an apology on behalf of a decedent is obviously done in the way of some self-interest.

Josef Mengele’s son’s statements regarding Dr. Mengele’s notorious misdeeds were expressly made so that Mengele Jr. could resolve his own personal conflicts; apology was not a primary purpose (nor did it need to be).

https://apnews.com/article/e96931bd9aca0713cef6ff46215c689f

Regardless of one’s views of Rudy Giuliani, he has neither the standing nor the need to apologize for the felonious activity of his now-deceased father. Ditto with Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, whose father was one of the corrupt Tammany Hall judges who participated in the Erie Railroad scandal.

Roald Dahl’s family clearly has a self-interest in proffering its apology.

Oscar Wilde, Norman Mailer, Victor Hassine, Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, and Robert Louis Stevenson were all authors of worthy literature. They each had some very objectionable personal traits. But if anyone would apologize for them I would be quite suspicious of the apologist’s motives.

By: tanita♥

tanita♥ — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 19:49:09 +0000

I never understand – except in cases where a parent apologizes for a pre-linguistic child – how one person believes that they can offer apology for another. Dahl’s family magnanimously coming to make sure historically the Dahl name looks good is just… optics. That he was so steeped in mentally limiting, racist colonialism that he couldn’t see WHY the NAACP would object to the Oompa Loompas by the 70’s is … *heavy sigh.* That the company felt JUST NOW, in the Year of Our Lord 2020 that it would be a good time to add that P.S., The Old Man Was Okay To Us is … truly into eye-roll territory.

By: Sarah Khayat

Sarah Khayat — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 16:37:36 +0000

I’m gonna be honest, I have never really liked his work. Even before I had any clue about all this.

By: paulina borsook

paulina borsook — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 00:40:59 +0000

yeah his short stories for adults were seriously nasty — in an entertaining kind of way.

By: Sumac

Sumac — Wed, 09 Dec 2020 22:21:54 +0000

Dahl had a mean streak that’s apparent in his work, and that (I have argued elsewhere on this site) is one of his attractions. His villains are truly hateful and we revel in it when they get their comeuppances. Take that, Miss Trunchbull! Eat dirt, Mr. & Mrs. Twit!