beni cok eglendirdi

I remember not liking The Magic Finger as a kid despite being a huge Roald Dahl fan but I couldn’t quite put my finger (ahhh!) on why, so I thought I’d re-read it to see if maybe my view on it has changed - and it hasn’t!

A girl - who’s such a non-character she doesn’t even have a name; if she did it’d be “Plot Contrivance”! - has a magic finger that does magic when she gets angry and points it at people. She points it at a local family who enjoy duck hunting, turning them into ducks to be hunted by ducks with guns.

Hmm. Ok. This is just an aside but I feel like it’s worth mentioning. Hunters have been given a really bad rap this past hundred years or so in the West and that really needs to stop. I think a large part of that is down to Disney, not just for that notorious scene from Bambi but for their many lovable talking animal characters. And that’s what turns some people to vegetarianism or veganism.

The truth about hunting is more complicated. Hunters keep animal populations down, ensuring their environment continues to thrive through balance. It’s a skilful sport, the meat is often healthier to eat than shop-bought meat and it connects us to our deepest roots as a species. It’s a better alternative to factory farming if you’re going to eat meat, not least as it’s more humane - and I’m certain Dahl was a meat eater too. What a hypocritical stance to take - hunting your own meat is wrong but eating meat killed by others Far Away is better??

Even that infamous photo of an American dentist standing over a lion he shot is more nuanced than the narrative pushed of some rich asshole wanting to prove he’s a “real man” by killing a “noble creature”. The fact is that the local rangers cull lions to keep the human population safe as well as allow the remaining lions enough food to keep from preying on local children. That they were paid to let someone else cull that particular lion only meant that they got much-needed funds to improve their community. But online outrage culture doesn’t allow for nuance so people on Twitter went crazy and came up with their own silly narrative.

I could go on but I’ll just leave it at this: hunting is vastly more complex than simply seeing it as a sadistic activity for psychos.

Not that this simplistic portrayal of hunters is why I continue to dislike The Magic Finger. The book is just not very interesting. The story is very one-note, unengaging and oddly unimaginative by Dahl’s standards. The characters aren’t particularly memorable either, though the large humanoid ducks were amusing. It’s not his worst book but The Magic Finger is definitely down there as among Roald Dahl’s lesser efforts.

چی از ادبیات کودکان مهم‌تر خوب؟

دوسش داشتم، نقطه اوجش جایی بود که اردکها تفنگهاشون رو به سمت خانواده گرِگ نشانه رفته بودن و گفتن ما هم از این به بعد این اجازه رو به همدیگه میدیم که به انسانها شلیک کنیم!

عزیزِ عزیزِ عزیز
همه ی دنیا باید این شکلی باشه.

Oh I loved the theme of this one! It's a story about how humans shoot animals for food and a little girl doesn't like that and then she takes revenge on that family who is shooting and made sure they became victims in a sorta way to learn that it's not okay to shoot other living creatures. I LOVED IT. I also love the magic element in it and the storytelling in general.

Lol, 1st book for the Booktube-A-Thon complete!

Stay out of her way - or she'll zap you! The book The Magic Finger is a wonderful story about controlling your temper from the ever-exuberant and humorous Roald Dahl. Up there in the second tier of my favourite Dahl books!

The Magic Finger was another long distance buddy read with my seven year old niece, Daisy. We both enjoyed this, but not as much as Esio Trot. Daisy loved that Mr and Mrs Gregg changed their surname to Egg. We both thought it was a shame that Girl didn’t have a proper name of her own, so we decided to call her Maddy Finkley, as it sounds a little bit like magic finger. I can certainly think of a few occasions in the past when a magic finger would have come in useful. Overall, this was a 4 star read for both of us.

Quite forgettable, and rather meh

Un libro piccino piccino che insegna il valore della vita e quanto essa sia preziosa, che appartenga a un essere umano o a un animale, non importa

No estoy segura de haber reseñado algún libro de Roald Dahl alguna vez, pero lo cierto es que sus historias me acompañaron en gran parte de mi infancia y atesoro lindos recuerdos de éste autor. Tuve que leer "The Magic Finger" para una de mis materias del profesorado, y a pesar de ser una historia super corta, me pareció entretenida y cómica. Es de esas lecturas a las que uno recurre cuando aparece la famosa "resaca lectora". No es nada que requiera demasiada atención, se lee fácilmente en un suspiro, y de cierta aporta algo, al menos a la variedad. Tiene valiosos mensajes especialmente destinados a quienes todavía se están formando tanto en la literatura como en la vida, lo cual considero importantísimo. Roald Dahl es la clase de autor que le recomendaría a cualquier chico.