Land of the Giants
This guide opens with the author explaining why it was a difficult undertaking for him before launching into a prefatory essay on the fundamental divide that exists between adults and children. That divide can be boiled down to one simple description: on one side exists those who tell those on the other side what to do and what not to do. It is with this guide that Dahl sees himself firmly established as a writer on the side of adults more than he ever was before. Despite the fact his guide is very much in the tradition of every piece of child’s writing he previously published, Dahl reluctantly confesses that its publication has also had the effect of making him one of the giants who tells kids what to do; a member of the Enemy.
What NOT to Do Around Trains
In view of his prefatory essay which situates the adults as the giant enemy of kids always telling them what they can do and what they cannot do, it is somewhat interesting that the firmly established theme of this book is what not to do. Every lesson and directive to kids about railway safety is established in capital letters through the negative. What kids are told with each flip of the page is advice such as do not ride a bike on the platform, do not put anything on the railway and—in the most iconic of Dahl-esque grotesqueries, do not stick your head out the window of a moving train. Perhaps in an effort to be one of the giants of smaller stature, Dahl seems to have made the decision to limit his literary dabbling in the world of being grown-up to simply telling kids what they shouldn’t do and leave to others the job of telling them what they should do.
