I am inspired to write this entry thanks to scubadiver's question, to the community, in my previous blog entry, about our favorite authors. While I have quite a few, one lifelong one who sticks out is Roald Dahl, of children's novel fame, particularly Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach. He also wrote some titillating adult novels.

As we all know the "big lie," a term coined by Hitler in his autobiography, roughly goes: The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it. As a corollary, it should also be noted that the bigger the lie, or the more monstrous the crime, the less likely people will want to know about it, or at least know the real truth.

My introduction to this concept came via Roald Dahl's children's novel Matilda. The story centers around a child genius who bears the book's title as her name. She's roughly first grade age, and it is her first year at school. Her school's name is "Crunchem Hall." The principal, or headmistress, is named "Miss Trunchbull." She is the textbook example of a gigantic holy terror (even parents and teachers are frightened of her) as exemplified by this illustration: