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Matilda
Dec 10, 2008 10:04:20 GMT -5
Post by Hermes on Dec 10, 2008 10:04:20 GMT -5
In the Unauthorized Autobiography, one of the books on the list which Kit gives to her students is Roald Dahl's Matilda, but, unlike all the other books on the list, there is no extract from it in Lemony's commonplace book. Does anyone here know the book, and, if so, can you say what would make it suitable for a VFD recruit?
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Matilda
Dec 10, 2008 11:09:00 GMT -5
Post by Hermedy on Dec 10, 2008 11:09:00 GMT -5
I've read it. Matilda reads a lot of books and develops telekinetic powers, allowing her to find happiness by overthrowing a tyrannical principal at her school and escaping the oppression of her parents.
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Matilda
Dec 10, 2008 11:20:32 GMT -5
Post by Hermes on Dec 10, 2008 11:20:32 GMT -5
Thank you, gTragedy. I suppose the bit about the tyrannical principal makes it particularly suitable for students at Prufrock Prep. (But I don't think members of VFD have telekinetic powers, so that might be considered false advertising.)
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Matilda
Jan 12, 2009 11:26:05 GMT -5
Post by Ernist on Jan 12, 2009 11:26:05 GMT -5
I think it means the poem Miss honey says
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Matilda
Jan 19, 2009 13:29:45 GMT -5
Post by hieitouyaicedemon on Jan 19, 2009 13:29:45 GMT -5
Miss Honey teaches her students to spell using a poem. This could be translated as a V.F.D. code. Here's the poem used to spell the word "difficulty."
Mrs. D, Mrs. I, Mrs. F-F-I. Mrs. C, Mrs. U., Mrs. L-T-Y!
It is also notable that the letters are all used as initials, similar to the way V.F.D. used initials to describe their members. This is the scene I think Lemony was thinking of when he mentioned Matilda.
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Matilda
Feb 3, 2009 11:13:05 GMT -5
Post by Ernist on Feb 3, 2009 11:13:05 GMT -5
I ment the one she said as they were walking to her house but thats possible
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Matilda
Feb 3, 2009 12:16:57 GMT -5
Post by Dante on Feb 3, 2009 12:16:57 GMT -5
I wonder if you could quote that poem for us, Ernist? Or type it out from your copy of Matilda? (I'm afraid mine has quite vanished.)
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Post by Ernist on Feb 4, 2009 9:13:31 GMT -5
sorry but it was about a wolf I will see if I Can't get it for you
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Matilda
Sept 5, 2009 10:42:53 GMT -5
Post by bitterapples on Sept 5, 2009 10:42:53 GMT -5
The poem , which was by Dylan Thomas, goes:
"Never and never, my girl riding far and near In the land of the hearthstone tales, and spelled asleep, Fear or believe that the wolf in the sheepwhite hood Leaping and bleating roughly shall leap, my dear, my dear, Out of a lair in the flocked leaved in the dew dipped year To eat your heart in the house in the rosy wood."
Sorry my text goes all over the place! I copied it from the book as best I could.
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Matilda
Sept 5, 2009 11:31:03 GMT -5
Post by Dante on Sept 5, 2009 11:31:03 GMT -5
Thank you for posting that, bitterapples. I'm not sure I see quite what Ernist is getting at, but it's good to have this to work from.
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Matilda
Sept 5, 2009 16:40:08 GMT -5
Post by bitterapples on Sept 5, 2009 16:40:08 GMT -5
No problem. I'm not sure if this will help any, but apparently Miss Honey was an orphan. Her father died in a suspicious manner, supposedly at the hands of Miss Trunchbull . Could there be any correllation between this and the suspicious death of Beatrice and Bertrand Baudelaire?
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Matilda
Sept 6, 2009 3:36:36 GMT -5
Post by Dante on Sept 6, 2009 3:36:36 GMT -5
I wouldn't read too far into it, but I certainly think it's suggestive - Matilda's adult guardian and mentor also being an orphan reminds me of Dewey Denouement, for instance.
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Matilda
Nov 2, 2009 11:48:17 GMT -5
Post by Christmas Chief on Nov 2, 2009 11:48:17 GMT -5
I think it may have to do with Matilda's last name "Wormwood", or- and this is stretching it- maybe at the beginning when Dahl refers to grasshopper's ears being inside their abdomens or something of the sort. (Such as the V.F.D. crickets) But I think the first is more likely.
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Matilda
Nov 2, 2009 13:10:53 GMT -5
Post by Dante on Nov 2, 2009 13:10:53 GMT -5
I'd quite forgotten about her surname being Wormwood, although wormwood wasn't mentioned for a couple of books after the U.A. was written. I think the general plotline is probably the most likely parallel to look for, although it's nice that wormwood and grasshoppers are mentioned.
By the way, congratulations on becoming Member of the Month.
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Matilda
Nov 2, 2009 14:15:32 GMT -5
Post by Hermes on Nov 2, 2009 14:15:32 GMT -5
The Wormwood idea is good. I suspect that Lemony meant to include an extract from the book in his commonplace book - as he does with all the other books on Kit's list - and was prevented from doing so for copyright reasons. In which case it might indeed be the grasshoppers. (Imagine we didn't have the commonplace book, just the list, and were trying to work out what Ramona Quimby or Laura Ingalls was doing there - it would be difficult.)
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