December 3, 2022

"He made sure I was aware that he was taking me to one of the finest Italian restaurants in New York. He knew the owner..."

"... who was John Huston’s father-in-law. He was acquainted with just about everybody. And he was interested in everything. He spoke of paintings and antique furniture and the joys of the English countryside. He was as charming that evening as he had been rude the first time we met. I remember his taking a sip of wine and looking at me for a long moment through the candlelight. 'I would rather be dead than fat,' he said."

Wrote Patricia Neal — the actress and Roald Dahl's first wife —  about her first date with Dahl, quoted in "Making It Big/In Roald Dahl’s stories, cruelty begets cruelty, children grow large, adults grow small, and everyone is trapped in a fun house of dirty, depthless mirrors"  (NYRB).

Not long thereafter, she learned that “one of Roald Dahl’s great assets was his desire never to leave a female unfulfilled,” and while this, and the prospect of a household full of children, seemed to be enough for her, her crowd of New York writers and actors were unimpressed when he proposed marriage with a ring on credit from one of his wealthier friends. (He had recently lost his entire inheritance on a bad stock tip.)

“I think he’s a very silly dull fellow,” wrote Dashiell Hammett, one of several people who had told Neal flat out that accepting Dahl would be a grave error. “The ring isn’t bad looking, though, and I told her I was glad she was getting that out of it because she didn’t look as if she was getting much else.”

Much more at the link, with an interesting emphasis on Dahl's use of bigness and smallness. The essay begins with a summary of a story Dahl published in Playboy in 1974:

The story’s plot is a plot, a conspiracy by an English rake and raconteur, Oswald Cornelius, to remove the corrupt American president from office by inducing him to rape a woman during a live television broadcast. How? By having him inhale a top-secret perfume called Bitch, a fragrance made from sexual stimulants so intoxicating that any man who smells it will proceed to have wild and possibly—no, probably—nonconsensual sex with the first woman he sees....

There's a scene where the main character's penis grows "three feet long and thick to match" and keeps growing while rest of him shrinks smaller and smaller.

"Bigger and bigger grew my astonishing organ, and it went on growing, by God, until it had enveloped my entire body and absorbed it within itself. I was now a gigantic perpendicular penis, seven feet tall and as handsome as they come."

Perpendicular to the floor, I had to stop and think. It's a little difficult to visualize. The article-writer paraphrases: "Determined to bring down Tricky Dick, Oswald grows up, up, up into an even trickier one, lusty and fleet-footed." I understand the intended cleverness, but I'm having trouble seeing this character. It has feet

30 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

"... a plot... to remove the corrupt American president from office by inducing him to rape a woman during a live television broadcast."

Made me think of Trump shooting a man on 5th Avenue.

Saint Croix said...

wow

awesome!

Andrew said...

"Made me think of Trump shooting a man on 5th Avenue."

Made me think of Bill Clinton, and Jones, Willey, etc.

Bob Boyd said...

It has feet?

Must be where pecker tracks come from.

Joe Smith said...

'I understand the intended cleverness, but I'm having trouble seeing this character. It has feet?'

Or balls.

Whatever...

mccullough said...

Dahl was as anti-Semitic as Kanye, for what that’s worth.

British literature declined as the Empire dissolved. Dahl is a prime example.

rcocean said...

The quoting of "Dash" as some sort of oracle made me laugh. "Dash" was a druken communist who had the morals of a dog in heat. And a tax cheat. He was a boyfriend of O'Neil's for a while, and probably jealous.

As for Dahl, I was suprised to find he wasn't a communist. He was a British Spy in the USA for several years, posing as an Attache. He was fairly palsy-walsy with Communists like Martha Gellhorn and was responsible for befriending and spying on "Isolationists" who might injure the UK interests.

Turns out his Jihad against Hitler wasn't due to being a commmunist, it was due to him being Norwegian. BTW, he was responsible for Hemmingway going to the UK in 1944 and covering the D-Day landings. Originally, "Hem" didn't want to go at all, but Gellhorn got Dahl to book "Hem" on a PanAm Clipper, in return for "papa" writing about the RAF. Gellhorn was supposed to go on the same Clipper but got "bumped".

Dave Begley said...

Nothing like a "kiss-and-tell" for us to learn the behaviors of our betters. Many of them are crazy.

And what's in it for Neal? Other than money? Settling scores?

Gilbert Pinfold said...

Dahl was an RAF fighter pilot in WWII, and served in the Middle East flying Gladiators (last RAF biplane fighter) and Hurricanes. He crashed, had his skull fractured, and temporarily blinded. Returning when his sight was restored, he flew in one of the most intense Middle East air battles over Athens. He likely shot down several German planes, but credit could not be assigned to any particular British pilots because of the fighting intensity. He was eventually invalided out of service, and commenced a post war writing career. More honorable service than Hammett gave (servicing both Lillian Hellman and the Communist Party), I would wager.

Lilly, a dog said...

Famous people, even moderately famous people, used to be much more interesting. Today we just have Harvey Weinstein's malformed ween and nuts to talk about.

Josephbleau said...

Dahl was an RAF fighter ace in the Middle East. And an influencer in Washington politics as an attaché at the uk embassy in ww2.

Kate said...

Neal should've listened to Hammett.

Big Mike said...

Made me think of Trump shooting a man on 5th Avenue.

Made me think of Joe Biden and Tara Reade. Of course, good feminists assume Reade must have been asking for it.

Lurker21 said...

You could probably have thrown a rock anywhere in NYC back then and hit one of John Huston's fathers-in-law.

Roald Dahl, was a repellent creep, but in privileged Brits the difference between disgusting and charming is a very fine line, if it exists at all.

It was a little moving in Boardwalk Empire when Richard Harrow, the character played Huston's grandson Jack, an actor who is himself a privileged Brit, makes his way back to the Midwest, where great-grandfather Walter Huston more or less started out from.

Leora said...

Since Neal has been dead for more than a decade she's not getting anything out of it. I do wonder about the sourcing.

Lurker21 said...

And what's in it for Neal? Other than money? Settling scores?

Wherever she may be now, none of that will do her any good.

I was surprised she lasted until 2010. She had serious medical problems already in the Sixties.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Dave Begley said...

And what's in it for Neal? Other than money? Settling scores?

Not much, she's been dead since 2010.

Rocketeer said...

Makes me think of RISD’s mascot, Scrotie:

https://twitter.com/kohquette/status/561631452299657216?s=46&t=QGTisvVTcftTSgEoH-m8GQ

Sebastian said...

""He made sure I was aware that he was taking me to one of the finest Italian restaurants in New York. He knew the owner...""

She seemed impressed. Did that lower his respect for her?

Anyway, chicks like bad boys. Been ever thus.

Dave Begley said...

Okay. Neal has been dead for a decade. But she was alive when she wrote the book. She had a motive to make money then and settle scores.

BTW, her estate might still exist and the estate can be getting royalties from the books and her acting roles.

Copyright is a wonderful thing for artists. I read the other day that Grace Slick still lives off the royalties for just one song.

Stan Smith said...

Paul Anka got/gets? $35,000 a year from the "Tonight Show" theme.

Old and slow said...

All this hatred for Dahl. The man was a brilliant writer. Get over yourselves for fuck's sake. I don't care what his political predilections might have been, his books were fantastic. Politics are very boring, even though in their own realm they are very important.

Jeff said...

"was now a gigantic perpendicular penis, seven feet tall and as handsome as they come."
... It has feet?


It's a lawyer!

wendybar said...

Big Mike said...
Made me think of Trump shooting a man on 5th Avenue.

Made me think of Joe Biden and Tara Reade. Of course, good feminists assume Reade must have been asking for it.

12/3/22, 4:21 PM

I was going to say the same. The media kept Tara hidden. She is going to get her say now. Bill Clintons many victims were BIMBO ERUPTIONS according to the lefts Queen Hillary. Funny, how she claims to be for women when she hates them.

Cato said...

What was the restaurant run by Huston's father in law?

Cato said...

What was the restaurant run by Huston's father in law?

Cato said...

What was the restaurant run by Huston's father in law?

Iman said...

Give that prick a little Viagra, he was unstoppable…

Jim said...

Was the title of the Playboy article James and the Giant Penis?

H said...

Enrica Soma's father ran the famed Tony's Wife restaurant in Manhattan, a popular celebrity dining spot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrica_Soma