Audiobook
Film (Tales of the Unexpected)
Creative writing with Roald Dahl
A VERY BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales; he was the son of a rich Norwegian family who had migrated to Great Britain. Roald was named after the poles’ explorer Roald Amundsen.
In his book Boy: Tales of Childhood, he narrates his childhood, his time in the school village and in a boarding school. According to him, it was an unhappy time.
As a teenager, he attended Repton School, near Derby. In the same book, he reports about the cruel and violent atmosphere of the place, with its hazings and its physical punishments.
When he was 18, he started working for the Shell Petroleum Company, and, after four years of training in Britain, he went to Kenya and other places in Africa as its employee. From his job in the Shell Co and his years in the RAF, another book resulted: Going Solo.
The second year he was staying in Africa, WWII started, and he had to join the British army there. He applied for flying in the RAF, and after a very short training, he piloted a plane and fought in different battles in Africa and in Greece. In one of his raids, he had a crash that left him some time blind and wounded; but once he had spent some months in hospital, he went flying and fighting again.
When the war was finished, he was given a post in the British Embassy in Washington, and later he worked for the British Intelligence. Here he met C. S. Forester (author of Captain Hornblower –in Spain, the film adaptation was called “El hidalgo de los mares”, with Gregory Peck as the star). Forester encouraged him to write his experiences as a pilot in the war, and from that moment, Roald Dahl became a writer.
After the success of narrating his RAF experiences, he started to write fiction, usually stories for children and short stories for adults. Who doesn't remember Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or The Witches?
His short stories were adapted for a television series under the name of Tales of the Unexpected, of which our story Skin is a famous one.
He also wrote a novel, My Uncle Osvald, and the scripts for James Bond’s You Only Live Twice, and for Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang.
He died at 74 of a rare cancer.
SUMMARY
This is one of the most typical stories by Roald Dahl: a tale of the unexpected. A bit of horror, a bit of thriller, sophisticated atmosphere and surprising ending.
A man called Drioli sees a picture in an art gallery and all of a sudden remembers its painter, Soutine, and the golden age in Paris where they had lived the bohemian life of the romantic artists. The painter was at that moment a young refugee from Russia and had a great talent, but he couldn’t sell any of his pictures: they were too modern. Drioli was a tattooer, and Soutine was in love with Drioli’s wife, his model.
One day, Drioli had a lucky strike (he tattooed a lot of drunken sailors) and got a lot of money from them. Now, the only thing he wanted to do with it at the moment was to celebrate this success, and the only thing he could imagine for a celebration was getting drunk. So the three of them had a party and got really boosted. In the middle of their intoxication, Drioli had a wonderful idea. He was so enthusiastic about Soutine paintings that he wanted to have something by him, and it came to his head to have a drawing tattooed in his skin made by Soutine. But Soutine didn’t know anything about the art of tattooing, and Drioli had to teach him how to use the needle. The motive had to be, of course, a portrait of Drioli’s wife, and the best part of his body where to do it was his back. The painting exhibited the Soutine's art to perfection. Once done, Soutine loved his work so much that he signed it with delight.
Then, a lot of things happened: there were two world wars and Drioli’s wife and Soutine died.
Now, we are just after WWII, when Europe was totally devastated, and Drioli, as almost everybody, was poor and hungry. Drioli was passing by a famous art gallery in Paris and saw Soutie’s picture in its window. Suddenly, he became aware that he was, at last, a renowned painter, and that his paintings were highly valued in the art market… and that he had a painting by him on his back!, in his skin! But he could get money from it! The thing was, how?
How could he sell the painting?
Someone from the gallery proposed him to be a sort of mobile picture, a live painting walking and exhibiting himself in a luxury tourist resort, bed and meals paid for life. Another art lover proposed to him that a surgeon stripped him of his back skin and replaced it with skin taken from other parts of his body; someone said that would kill Drioli, but the other assured he knew expert surgeons who could do the operation without any risk.
What did Drioli decide to do?
Sorry, but we aren’t going to give away spoilers.
QUESTIONS
-Do you have a tattoo? Are you pro, or against, tattoos? If you have a tattoo, or you know something about it, can you describe the process? Can a tattoo be art?
-And what about piercings? Do you have to be legally an adult (18 y-o) to have a piercing or a tattoo?
-Who decides if a painting is really a work of art? And how? Is there something really objective in the decision? How can you question this decision without appearing a simpleton?
-When a nude is art and when it isn't?
-What do you know about Chaïm Soutine, the real painter?
VOCABULARY
hedgehog, brooding, boozy, scowling, Kalmuck, peeking, jabs, impasto, collops, paw, flunkey, wings (of a nose), lacking
Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales; he was the son of a rich Norwegian family who had migrated to Great Britain. Roald was named after the poles’ explorer Roald Amundsen.
In his book Boy: Tales of Childhood, he narrates his childhood, his time in the school village and in a boarding school. According to him, it was an unhappy time.
As a teenager, he attended Repton School, near Derby. In the same book, he reports about the cruel and violent atmosphere of the place, with its hazings and its physical punishments.
When he was 18, he started working for the Shell Petroleum Company, and, after four years of training in Britain, he went to Kenya and other places in Africa as its employee. From his job in the Shell Co and his years in the RAF, another book resulted: Going Solo.
The second year he was staying in Africa, WWII started, and he had to join the British army there. He applied for flying in the RAF, and after a very short training, he piloted a plane and fought in different battles in Africa and in Greece. In one of his raids, he had a crash that left him some time blind and wounded; but once he had spent some months in hospital, he went flying and fighting again.
When the war was finished, he was given a post in the British Embassy in Washington, and later he worked for the British Intelligence. Here he met C. S. Forester (author of Captain Hornblower –in Spain, the film adaptation was called “El hidalgo de los mares”, with Gregory Peck as the star). Forester encouraged him to write his experiences as a pilot in the war, and from that moment, Roald Dahl became a writer.
After the success of narrating his RAF experiences, he started to write fiction, usually stories for children and short stories for adults. Who doesn't remember Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or The Witches?
His short stories were adapted for a television series under the name of Tales of the Unexpected, of which our story Skin is a famous one.
He also wrote a novel, My Uncle Osvald, and the scripts for James Bond’s You Only Live Twice, and for Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang.
He died at 74 of a rare cancer.
SUMMARY
This is one of the most typical stories by Roald Dahl: a tale of the unexpected. A bit of horror, a bit of thriller, sophisticated atmosphere and surprising ending.
A man called Drioli sees a picture in an art gallery and all of a sudden remembers its painter, Soutine, and the golden age in Paris where they had lived the bohemian life of the romantic artists. The painter was at that moment a young refugee from Russia and had a great talent, but he couldn’t sell any of his pictures: they were too modern. Drioli was a tattooer, and Soutine was in love with Drioli’s wife, his model.
One day, Drioli had a lucky strike (he tattooed a lot of drunken sailors) and got a lot of money from them. Now, the only thing he wanted to do with it at the moment was to celebrate this success, and the only thing he could imagine for a celebration was getting drunk. So the three of them had a party and got really boosted. In the middle of their intoxication, Drioli had a wonderful idea. He was so enthusiastic about Soutine paintings that he wanted to have something by him, and it came to his head to have a drawing tattooed in his skin made by Soutine. But Soutine didn’t know anything about the art of tattooing, and Drioli had to teach him how to use the needle. The motive had to be, of course, a portrait of Drioli’s wife, and the best part of his body where to do it was his back. The painting exhibited the Soutine's art to perfection. Once done, Soutine loved his work so much that he signed it with delight.
Then, a lot of things happened: there were two world wars and Drioli’s wife and Soutine died.
Now, we are just after WWII, when Europe was totally devastated, and Drioli, as almost everybody, was poor and hungry. Drioli was passing by a famous art gallery in Paris and saw Soutie’s picture in its window. Suddenly, he became aware that he was, at last, a renowned painter, and that his paintings were highly valued in the art market… and that he had a painting by him on his back!, in his skin! But he could get money from it! The thing was, how?
How could he sell the painting?
Someone from the gallery proposed him to be a sort of mobile picture, a live painting walking and exhibiting himself in a luxury tourist resort, bed and meals paid for life. Another art lover proposed to him that a surgeon stripped him of his back skin and replaced it with skin taken from other parts of his body; someone said that would kill Drioli, but the other assured he knew expert surgeons who could do the operation without any risk.
What did Drioli decide to do?
Sorry, but we aren’t going to give away spoilers.
QUESTIONS
-Do you have a tattoo? Are you pro, or against, tattoos? If you have a tattoo, or you know something about it, can you describe the process? Can a tattoo be art?
-And what about piercings? Do you have to be legally an adult (18 y-o) to have a piercing or a tattoo?
-Who decides if a painting is really a work of art? And how? Is there something really objective in the decision? How can you question this decision without appearing a simpleton?
-When a nude is art and when it isn't?
-What do you know about Chaïm Soutine, the real painter?
VOCABULARY
hedgehog, brooding, boozy, scowling, Kalmuck, peeking, jabs, impasto, collops, paw, flunkey, wings (of a nose), lacking
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