Let me speak to my personal experience with the Brown University football team of 1975-76. I worked in the Brown University kitchens in the aforementioned "The Ratty". There was a side gate along a public street where the building could be accessed without running the "frat row" gamut - but most frat boys were passed out anyway when I made my way there for my 5am shift in the bakery on Saturday and Sunday mornings. However, during the week, I worked shifts in the main kitchen chopping cabbage and making mashed potatoes for 3000. I was eventually assigned to "special dining service". It turns out there was a special dark wood-paneled dining room for the football team. An endowment paid for steak, roast beef, fresh vegetables and other delicacies not seen in the regular cafeteria. As I was serving food to players that I was personally barred from eating, a player reached across the steam table, seized my breasts in both his hands and twisted. Much laughter ensued in response to this "hilarious" performance. I turned on my heel and slammed back into the kitchen. I was enraged and the head chef David noticed. When I explained what had happened, he encouraged me to return to the dining room and continue serving - which I did with the 6'6" tall Portugese family man Chef David standing behind me casually holding a knife in each hand.
Wait, it gets better. A few weeks later, the Brown Team was anxiously awaiting hosting the Harvard team at a meal around the big game. There was much whispering and exclaiming about the Harvard quarterback who was a "Renaissance man" - a winning quarterback who was a classical scholar who played the piano. Finally, the Harvard team showed up and I found myself swept up in a large man's arms and swung around, "Myra!" he exclaimed. It was Jimmy Curry, a fellow student I had known from our days at Exeter. He was Harvard's miracle man quarterback. I enjoyed the look on Brown team member's faces at the dawning knowledge that HE knew ME. Finally one Brown player slunk over and asked me how I knew Jim Curry. "He's my brother (he was not my brother - Jim is Black and I am White), " I deadpanned, "And I've told him all about you guys." Brown lost that year to Harvard, 45-26.
The children's deaths seem so out of proportion to what they actually did with my understanding of how the factory worked according to Roald Dahl that I see Willy Wonka as a worthy moral arbiter. He's just idiosyncratic like a lot of business leaders he lies practices deception to find a kid who will run the factory for him. Wonka was just running a maze of death/squid game on kids.
Maybe the bigger point is why the most horrible characters are girls. The boys weren't great, except Charlie, the boys were treated with more understanding.
You've made a more interesting argument. I'm thinking more about the Oompa Loompas were kidnapped is my understanding and all these children end up being killed by Willy Wonka's criminal negligence. It's really a horror story as a child I could find it funny but as an adult nope. Come to think of it making Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a horror movie with Veruca actually screaming and burning to death would be interesting then Charlie is the final girl.
I guess Kanter would also consider Scarlett O’Hara a feminist hero just trying to get by in a man’s world rather than an heiress blithely exploiting her slaves even after slavery was abolished.
I know the patriarchy and misogyny are real things, and it sucks how women are still treated in the workplace but there are bad actors, man and women, who we should not be celebrating for their sins.
The only honest take on the Wonka movie is that Grandpa Joe is a monster for faking a disability while Charlie’s mother toils away to support a six person household.
I am reminded of my Dramatic Literature class at Brown when the majority of my classmates agreed that Stanley was the "hero" of "Streetcar Named Desire". That was a very weird day.
well many people think Tony Soprano is the hero of the show instead of its protagonist the heroes are Arty's wife, an English teacher who didn't have time for AJ laziness and a police officer who gave Tony a speeding ticket. FBI are antagonists yes and some people think Skylar White is the villain not her husband who watches people choke to death. Too many people think a protagonist is a hero instead of a mad man with no moral center so he writes ad copy instead
I am unsure of what happened to any of my classmates. I left the college at the end of the academic year. I can tell you that about a third of the people in that class were Vietnam veterans attending college on the GI bill - meaning they were five or more years older than I was and had been through an entirely different kind of "college prep" in their late teens and early twenties. Their perspective and opinions on certain plays and characters were "interesting", to say the least. In no way do I mean to imply they were sociopaths, but they had been through a whole hell of a lot that I had not. It was an eye opener for me, for sure. My hope is that they all did well in their academic and post-college lives. Now the Brown Football team? Some of THOSE guys were definitely sociopaths, maybe even psychopaths.
I mean…I just assume that a not insignificant portion of every college football program is some kind of sociopath or psychopath. The way this country cult worships the sport makes those programs really attractive to people who want fame and power over other people.
“It’s admirable to leverage your unearned position of authority to exploit and purchase other human beings” is a side of the argument I didn’t see coming.
Violet at one point told Veruca to "can it, you twit!," so at least had that one redeeming quality. Also, since Denise Nickerson, as you noted, was on "Dark Shadows," I have a fondness for her portrayal of Violet. There is nothing redeeming about Veruca, and she reminds me more of trump than anyone else in all of literature, the movies, and TV.
Thanks for exposing that bizarre misreading of a seminal text. Now I want to write a “Why You Suck” song for Trump: “oompah loompah doopity do/We’ve got another lesson for you/oompah loompah doopity dump/ what do you do with a person called Trump?”
The point is all of the kids who are spoiled have...spoiled. It is the one engaging in life, working hard who is the winner.
Of course, that isn't how it works in capitalism, is it? The argument that any of these children are actually just stories of success in our world, favored by wealth, nepotism, and lack of empathy, rings tragically true.
Look, I get the impulse. But it's important not just to be contrary.
Veruca Salt would abuse the Oompa Loompas to increase production, gut all of the fantastical from the factory, buy the cheapest ingredients she could get, ruin the existing product and not come up with anything new unless she stole it or exploited someone to get it. Yes, I suppose the company could be a success and make a lot more profits for shareholders, but the product would be enshittified and the workers miserable and too poor to buy one of her now noxious chocolate bars.
If that is your idea of a good boss, then you're part of the problem of modern society.
Let me speak to my personal experience with the Brown University football team of 1975-76. I worked in the Brown University kitchens in the aforementioned "The Ratty". There was a side gate along a public street where the building could be accessed without running the "frat row" gamut - but most frat boys were passed out anyway when I made my way there for my 5am shift in the bakery on Saturday and Sunday mornings. However, during the week, I worked shifts in the main kitchen chopping cabbage and making mashed potatoes for 3000. I was eventually assigned to "special dining service". It turns out there was a special dark wood-paneled dining room for the football team. An endowment paid for steak, roast beef, fresh vegetables and other delicacies not seen in the regular cafeteria. As I was serving food to players that I was personally barred from eating, a player reached across the steam table, seized my breasts in both his hands and twisted. Much laughter ensued in response to this "hilarious" performance. I turned on my heel and slammed back into the kitchen. I was enraged and the head chef David noticed. When I explained what had happened, he encouraged me to return to the dining room and continue serving - which I did with the 6'6" tall Portugese family man Chef David standing behind me casually holding a knife in each hand.
Wait, it gets better. A few weeks later, the Brown Team was anxiously awaiting hosting the Harvard team at a meal around the big game. There was much whispering and exclaiming about the Harvard quarterback who was a "Renaissance man" - a winning quarterback who was a classical scholar who played the piano. Finally, the Harvard team showed up and I found myself swept up in a large man's arms and swung around, "Myra!" he exclaimed. It was Jimmy Curry, a fellow student I had known from our days at Exeter. He was Harvard's miracle man quarterback. I enjoyed the look on Brown team member's faces at the dawning knowledge that HE knew ME. Finally one Brown player slunk over and asked me how I knew Jim Curry. "He's my brother (he was not my brother - Jim is Black and I am White), " I deadpanned, "And I've told him all about you guys." Brown lost that year to Harvard, 45-26.
The children's deaths seem so out of proportion to what they actually did with my understanding of how the factory worked according to Roald Dahl that I see Willy Wonka as a worthy moral arbiter. He's just idiosyncratic like a lot of business leaders he lies practices deception to find a kid who will run the factory for him. Wonka was just running a maze of death/squid game on kids.
Maybe the bigger point is why the most horrible characters are girls. The boys weren't great, except Charlie, the boys were treated with more understanding.
You've made a more interesting argument. I'm thinking more about the Oompa Loompas were kidnapped is my understanding and all these children end up being killed by Willy Wonka's criminal negligence. It's really a horror story as a child I could find it funny but as an adult nope. Come to think of it making Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a horror movie with Veruca actually screaming and burning to death would be interesting then Charlie is the final girl.
Veruca was really the only terrible one.
It just occurred to me that Veruca Salt was the only Wonka kid who sang a song
VERUCA: I want it now! What’s the matter with those twerps down there?
Hand to God, I always thought she called them twats
I guess Kanter would also consider Scarlett O’Hara a feminist hero just trying to get by in a man’s world rather than an heiress blithely exploiting her slaves even after slavery was abolished.
I know the patriarchy and misogyny are real things, and it sucks how women are still treated in the workplace but there are bad actors, man and women, who we should not be celebrating for their sins.
The only honest take on the Wonka movie is that Grandpa Joe is a monster for faking a disability while Charlie’s mother toils away to support a six person household.
He was cured by the golden ticket.
"I never thought my life could be
Anything but catastrophe
But suddenly I begin to see
A bit of good luck for me!
'Cuz I've got a golden ticket!
I've got a golden twinkle in my eye"
I am reminded of my Dramatic Literature class at Brown when the majority of my classmates agreed that Stanley was the "hero" of "Streetcar Named Desire". That was a very weird day.
Dafuq! what, what!
well many people think Tony Soprano is the hero of the show instead of its protagonist the heroes are Arty's wife, an English teacher who didn't have time for AJ laziness and a police officer who gave Tony a speeding ticket. FBI are antagonists yes and some people think Skylar White is the villain not her husband who watches people choke to death. Too many people think a protagonist is a hero instead of a mad man with no moral center so he writes ad copy instead
I just had to look up the play because I've never read it, but wow. That's...that's something.😬
Have any of those classmates ended up in prison for sexual assault?
Hopefully the answer is no they haven't assaulted anybody
I am unsure of what happened to any of my classmates. I left the college at the end of the academic year. I can tell you that about a third of the people in that class were Vietnam veterans attending college on the GI bill - meaning they were five or more years older than I was and had been through an entirely different kind of "college prep" in their late teens and early twenties. Their perspective and opinions on certain plays and characters were "interesting", to say the least. In no way do I mean to imply they were sociopaths, but they had been through a whole hell of a lot that I had not. It was an eye opener for me, for sure. My hope is that they all did well in their academic and post-college lives. Now the Brown Football team? Some of THOSE guys were definitely sociopaths, maybe even psychopaths.
I mean…I just assume that a not insignificant portion of every college football program is some kind of sociopath or psychopath. The way this country cult worships the sport makes those programs really attractive to people who want fame and power over other people.
Anti hero, maybe...
“It’s admirable to leverage your unearned position of authority to exploit and purchase other human beings” is a side of the argument I didn’t see coming.
Veruca Salt still makes me cringe. And thanks for the Dark Shadows reference-I loved that show!
I've seen a lot of, uh, interesting takes online. "Veruca salt was good actually" is definitely up there in terms of sheer audacity.
Hmm... if Veruca Salt is her idea of an aspirational girl boss, I bet I can guess Ms. Kanter's position on unions.
Violet at one point told Veruca to "can it, you twit!," so at least had that one redeeming quality. Also, since Denise Nickerson, as you noted, was on "Dark Shadows," I have a fondness for her portrayal of Violet. There is nothing redeeming about Veruca, and she reminds me more of trump than anyone else in all of literature, the movies, and TV.
Thanks for exposing that bizarre misreading of a seminal text. Now I want to write a “Why You Suck” song for Trump: “oompah loompah doopity do/We’ve got another lesson for you/oompah loompah doopity dump/ what do you do with a person called Trump?”
The point is all of the kids who are spoiled have...spoiled. It is the one engaging in life, working hard who is the winner.
Of course, that isn't how it works in capitalism, is it? The argument that any of these children are actually just stories of success in our world, favored by wealth, nepotism, and lack of empathy, rings tragically true.
Look, I get the impulse. But it's important not just to be contrary.
Veruca Salt would abuse the Oompa Loompas to increase production, gut all of the fantastical from the factory, buy the cheapest ingredients she could get, ruin the existing product and not come up with anything new unless she stole it or exploited someone to get it. Yes, I suppose the company could be a success and make a lot more profits for shareholders, but the product would be enshittified and the workers miserable and too poor to buy one of her now noxious chocolate bars.
If that is your idea of a good boss, then you're part of the problem of modern society.
Today I learned someone liked and aspired to be Veruca Salt.
That's diabolical work!
I have to admit I thought it was a joke at first. Then I remembered we live in the dumbest timeline.
Humanity contains multitudes. I'm sure she truly believes that and isn't just saying it for the clicks abs shares.