Unpublished Chapter of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory + Musings

A previously unreleased chapter of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has been released which offers fans some insight into the early versions of the novel. The addition of Sir Quentin Blake's illustrations are wonderful additions to the short little chapter.

Context informs readers that there were originally more than four children as well as Charlie being accompanied by his mother rather than his grandfather. The chapter, entitled The Vanilla Fudge Room, focuses on the disobedience of Wilbur Rice and Tommy Troutbeck. Readers also may pick up on some changes that happened previously regarding the chocolate river and Augustus Pottle and Miranda Grope.

As the Guardian's companion article reports, the chapter was "deemed too wild, subversive and insufficiently moral for the tender minds of British children almost 50 years ago, has been published for the first time."

Musing
When an author wrote prior to the computerized office age, there oftentimes were many versions and drafts. This is what makes releases such as the above enjoyable and interesting. We get a glimpse of the changes the text went through in order to end up in its final published state. For readers and fans alike, we find giddy pleasure in these hidden secrets. Does it shed light on a character, choice, or event? Do we feel the author should have included the text in the final version or is it better without it? The short sample may be the spur we needed to finish reading that other novel or pick up an old favorite again.

But what happens when an author writes in easily editable and erase-able formats that are available on all computers? Whether it is a purchased product such as Microsoft Office or freeware such as Apache Open Office, we are no longer trained to write drafts of our writings. Incidentally, that used to be my least favorite thing about writing in middle and high school. All I wanted to do was write my reports out in as best a way possible. I remember even faking misspelling words and putting a few things out of order so that when we had to edit and review our work in class, I would have something to do and mark in our required red pens. To this day, I still have a hard time jumping around a writing project. I have the need to write things in order from start to finish. Now, however, with the importance of preservation always on my mind, I wonder how our digitally-born works will fare.

When J. K. Rowling's handwritten notes for Order of the Phoenix appeared online a few months ago, I was extremely delighted. I ogled it with the eye of a bibliophile and enjoyed tracing the plot points while testing them against the book. While she certainly isn't the only modern author to create such sheets, inadvertently I think it can inspire readers and writers by showing that she used simple techniques and tricks that we all have used before. It might seem messy and we might cross out (and then go back to) points we are not sure about, but these kinds of "behind the scenes" insights into writer's works are the things that help us connect and reconnect with the authors, stories, other readers, and the medium as a whole.