Friday, March 18
Wiz of Oz
So the Wonderful Wizard of Oz: a discussion starts.
I read the book a few weeks back in under 24 hours, in a facsimile copy of L. Frank Baum's first edition with some sweet artwork by W.W. Denslow. If you only know the 1039 movie, which is a swell movie and one we watched nearly every day for a few months when my children were toddlers, read the book. If you only know the movie in the winning way of viewing it with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album playing as well, it's worth reading the book. If, like us, you just heard Bobby McFerrin do his compressed version, read the book. It's the first in a series of -- what, Paul? --12 or 13 -- 40? other Oz related books? And the movie covers only a small bit of what happens in the book. So that surprised me. (I also recall seeing some sort of business management thought leader type consultant-y seminar on leadership styles in the Wizard, and aligning yourself with the brain, the heart and/or the ____ (whatever organ it is that yields courage -- the spleen?) (And we can talk about Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow in The Wiz, too, or we can choose to move on.)
Moving on: I suppose there are all sort of theories about that the book is about, political or religious or philosophical, but I'll take at face value what Baum himself says (or I remember him saying) it is in the introduction: it's just a happy, positive new sort of fantastical fairy tale (or something like that).
(Later: What he actually says, and I now have fished the book from the shelf where it was propped in front of a half-dozen Neal Stephenson books, is this; "the time has come for a series of newer 'wonder tales' in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated" and "the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident" and therefore, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz is "written solely to pleasure children of today... in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out.")(He wrote about the 'modern child', Nick, in Chicago in April, 1900.)
That said, it's definitely an American story: people on the move, seeking better fortunes of a heart, a brain or some courage while our hero Dorothy just wants to go home again. Is it the original road trip story? (Probably not: Huck Finn came first, right? Right. Plus who knows what other earlier American road-trip tomes I missed by majoring in phys ed in college). (We also won't get into the parallels between the Wizard himself hiding out making all his citizens wear an emerald version of rose-tinted glasses and our current president, at least not for starters... mainly because they don't go too deep. Do they?)
I like the characters, even if they're fairly one dimensional (as I suppose they should be in a fairy tale). I like that the story moves quickly (note to self: plot is good, plot is good, plot is good) and I like the weird Oz environment in which the story takes place. It seems quite positive, too, which is good for our younger readers.
So, fellow readers, what say you? [You can read more about modern reactions to it in coming days/weeks on blogs by Paul and Nick (my brother the writer and his son the singing English major).] And perhaps here in the comments...
I read the book a few weeks back in under 24 hours, in a facsimile copy of L. Frank Baum's first edition with some sweet artwork by W.W. Denslow. If you only know the 1039 movie, which is a swell movie and one we watched nearly every day for a few months when my children were toddlers, read the book. If you only know the movie in the winning way of viewing it with Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album playing as well, it's worth reading the book. If, like us, you just heard Bobby McFerrin do his compressed version, read the book. It's the first in a series of -- what, Paul? --12 or 13 -- 40? other Oz related books? And the movie covers only a small bit of what happens in the book. So that surprised me. (I also recall seeing some sort of business management thought leader type consultant-y seminar on leadership styles in the Wizard, and aligning yourself with the brain, the heart and/or the ____ (whatever organ it is that yields courage -- the spleen?) (And we can talk about Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow in The Wiz, too, or we can choose to move on.)
Moving on: I suppose there are all sort of theories about that the book is about, political or religious or philosophical, but I'll take at face value what Baum himself says (or I remember him saying) it is in the introduction: it's just a happy, positive new sort of fantastical fairy tale (or something like that).
(Later: What he actually says, and I now have fished the book from the shelf where it was propped in front of a half-dozen Neal Stephenson books, is this; "the time has come for a series of newer 'wonder tales' in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated" and "the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident" and therefore, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz is "written solely to pleasure children of today... in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out.")(He wrote about the 'modern child', Nick, in Chicago in April, 1900.)
That said, it's definitely an American story: people on the move, seeking better fortunes of a heart, a brain or some courage while our hero Dorothy just wants to go home again. Is it the original road trip story? (Probably not: Huck Finn came first, right? Right. Plus who knows what other earlier American road-trip tomes I missed by majoring in phys ed in college). (We also won't get into the parallels between the Wizard himself hiding out making all his citizens wear an emerald version of rose-tinted glasses and our current president, at least not for starters... mainly because they don't go too deep. Do they?)
I like the characters, even if they're fairly one dimensional (as I suppose they should be in a fairy tale). I like that the story moves quickly (note to self: plot is good, plot is good, plot is good) and I like the weird Oz environment in which the story takes place. It seems quite positive, too, which is good for our younger readers.
So, fellow readers, what say you? [You can read more about modern reactions to it in coming days/weeks on blogs by Paul and Nick (my brother the writer and his son the singing English major).] And perhaps here in the comments...
