Pure Imagination

When I was young, Raold Dahl's "Charlie & The Chocolate Factory" was an important book to me. I was reading it for the first time when my grandfather died. I have a clear memory of reading it while sitting vigil at my grandmother's house the day my Grandpa died. The fanciful characters and silly imagination was a welcome contrast to the shock of my first family death and that weird cold feeling from stilted dialogues in the wake of the body being taken out of the house. I was ten years old. I'm convinced that this book saved me from certain early-age trauma.

I re-read it many times over, including its subsequent sequel, but I always came back to the original book. I had vivid images in my mind of the characters and scenes, always appreciative of the absurdity of the context. It has a fond place in my heart.

Recently, some tech product commercial introduced a song from the 1970s musical film version of "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory." I liked the film when it came out (for it captured the surreal silliness of the novel that I loved) and I have watched the film several times over the past few years. The song utilized in the commercial was one of my favorites in the film and it made me sentimental for this comforting story.

So perhaps this is the power of commercials. That damned commercial pitching a product that I can't recall (OK, so not the most effective advertising) has prompted me to buy the film DVD (thank you, Amazon) and purchase the book to read again (thank you, Amazon). I don't think the advertiser will appreciate this, but Roald Dahl's estate will.

And because I can't get this song out of my head, please enjoy this scene from the film.