Subject: Can I consider Charlie and the Chocolate factory science fiction?(NS4M)
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Posted on: 2020-03-28 16:04:55 UTC

I am still very confused about why the book is considered to be children's fantasy. In the book, there are multiple science fiction devices, or in this case sweets. Yes I know that the glass elevator exists, and the second book is full blown science fiction. Heck Charlie and Willy Wonka go to space! But I'll leave out the second book for this post, and just stick to the original.

One of the many sweets that Wonka has managed to create, is the never melting ice cream. According to Grandpa Joe, it can never melt even in the hottest sun. Even though that's a really cool food item and maybe it would have fixed our problem with ice cream, would you ever imagine eating solid room temperature ice cream?

Another food stuff mentioned in the book as a plot device, is the stick of gum. Yes, that is what it's refereed to in the book. Wonka develops this gum in his witch like food lab, and it apparently has the nutrients and the taste of a full course meal. According to Violet, the courses include tomato soup, steak, a baked potato and blueberry pie. It unfortunately has the side effect of making Violet inflate and turn purplish blue, resembling a blueberry( and now you know the reason why this was tagged as NS4M).

Now one of the more prominent plot devices that screams science fiction, is the glass elevator. It's this elevator that can fly anywhere, and it's indestructible. It's a Tardis, but made from glass and it can't time travel. In the second story, it's used as a spaceship, but I don't want to talk more. I really don't want to spoil Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator for anybody.

So why was the book marked as Children's fantasy? My guess is that it was a marketing gimmick, or it's because of the Oompa Loompa. I guess that they are kind of fantastical, I mean after all they are from the country of Loompaland. It is apparently a very terrible place, because there are predators such as the Whangdoodles, Hornswogglers, and yes how could I have forgotten, the Whangdoodles. It's so bad that the only source of food are green caterpillars and not much else. Heck, even the caterpillars taste terrible.

But the problem with this "theory" is that anything magical/fantastical about the Oompa Loompas just die after their chapter. The Whangdoodles or the crappy tasting green caterpillars are never brought up again. Their fantastical elements have been stripped away, and that kind of sucks. Because I would have liked to hear more Oompa Loompa folk tales, and maybe get a description of a Whangdoodle. So my conclusion is that child's fantasy label really was a marketing gimmick.

Pls reply, I spent quite a lot of time on this post and I am still angry that my computer decided to close the page when I was writing the post.

Sorry for posting this late, I was kind of busy and why are there threads popping up often? I guess that it's a coincidence really.

~SomeRandomPersonAccount

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