(Book Review--Land of Oz, Classics, Fantasy, Children's Books)
(Read from The Complete Stories of Oz)
Started: October 10, 2021
Finished: October 19, 2021
(This review is written using my new format for book reviews.)
My History With This Book
Does anyone remember the 1985 Disney movie Return to Oz? It bombed in the theaters, but it was shown a lot on the Disney Channel in the 1980s, which is where I saw it. I believe it has a cult following among people who grew up in the 1980s and watched a lot of Disney Channel--if you fit that demographic.
Return to Oz was based partly on The Marvelous Land of Oz. (And also partly on the next book, Ozma of Oz, but we'll talk about that book another day.) If you've seen Return to Oz, and you remember the characters of Jack Pumpkinhead and the Gump--well, this is the book that they come from.
This is the only book in the Land of Oz series that I actually read as a kid. It was one of my aunt's old books, and I discovered it when spending time at my grandparents' house. The cover art showed Jack Pumpkinhead and the Gump, both of whom I recognized from Return to Oz, so it got me interested, and I read the book. (The cover pictured on the top of this blogpost was the same cover I saw as a kid.) I hadn't read the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz as a kid, but that didn't really matter because like everyone else in the world I know that story from the movie.
I also read this book 5 years ago. (As I've mentioned before, 5 years ago I attempted to read through The Complete Stories of Oz as one giant book review project, before abandoning it and then re-starting it as a series of separate book reviews.) So this is now my 3rd time through this story.
Plot Summary (SPOILERS)
The plot of this book is really all over the place.
Our hero starts out in the countryside. He then journeys to the Emerald City to meet the Scarecrow. Then there's a rebellion in the Emerald City, and our hero and the Scarecrow have to escapes from the Emerald City, and go to meet the Tin Woodman. Then they go back to the Emerald City. Then they need to escape from the Emerald City again. Then they find the good witch Glinda, and go back to the Emerald City. So it's a lot of back and forth and back and forth. But the main story is story all the friends they meet and all the adventures they have along the way--which is typical of these Oz stories--go on a journey, and meet new friends and have adventures along the way, that seems to be the template.
The Reading Experience
As I started reading this book for the 3rd time, I thought to myself, "It's funny, I've read this book twice before now, and I still can't remember the plot." It came back to me as I read it, naturally, but I think the reason I have such a hard time remembering the plot is that the plot is all over the place. But then, that's part of the fun.
Like the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this book is very easy to read. And actually, it held my attention much better than The Wonderful Wizard of Oz--partly, I think it held my attention because of the wild plot, and also partly because the dialogue in this second book is a lot snappier. (L. Frank Baum was planning on turning this into a stage play when he wrote it, so he included a lot of vaudeville style humor in the dialogue.)
Evaluation
Characters will often do things in this book that make no logical sense whatsoever. For example, the witch Mombi tells Tip she will turn him into a statue in the morning, but then just goes to bed and doesn't attempt to prevent Tip from running away in the night. At first I thought it was just lazy writing, but then I decided these kind of things were all part of the joke--part of L. Frank Baum's satire of fairy tales.
But moving onto talk about the gender politics of this book.
The gender politics of this book are... a mixed bag. The main conflict in the story is created by an army of girls who take over the Emerald City because men have been ruling for long enough, (okay, fair enough I guess), and also because the Emerald City has lots of emeralds in it, and girls like shiny things (oh, this part hasn't aged well!).
On the one hand, there is some attempt to show that the girls are stronger than the men of the Emerald City think they are. But on the other hand, when portraying the girl army, L. Frank Baum indulges in so many dated stereotypes (the girls talk to much, they're afraid of mice, they like lazing about and eating sweets, etc.)
So, taken all together, that part about the girl army really hasn't aged well.
What is interesting, though, is the final reveal that the boy Tip has actually been a girl all along. And that reveal at the end seems to be ahead of its time in terms of the acknowledgement that gender identity isn't always purely biological.
External Links
* So, once again I'm going to link to the Tor.com review: Oz Revolts! – The Marvelous Land of Oz by Mari Ness. Mari Ness mentions that L. Frank Baum's mother-in-law was a suffragette, and speculates that the whole plot about girls wanting to control the Emerald City was mocking the suffragette movement. But Mari Ness also makes the point that in spite of all the problematic gender issues in this book, at the end we are left with two good women ruling Oz, and this will remain the status quo throughout the rest of the series.
There is a lot of interesting behind the scenes information about this book from Wikipedia.
You see, it turns out that after the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published in 1900, it became a successful stage musical in 1902. The stage musical was also written by L. Frank Baum, but was a different take on the same material, with several differences from the novel and the musical.
In the original novel, the Wizard of Oz is portrayed much the same as he was in the 1939 movie--a bit of a con artist, but not a bad person. But in the stage play, he was a usurper who dethroned the original King of the Emerald City-- Pastoria. So, in keeping with the stage play, that's why the Wizard of Oz is depicted as a villain in The Marvelous Land of Oz.
Also, in the stage play, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman were the breakout characters. Which is why both of them figure so prominently in the sequel (even though Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion do not.) L. Frank Baum also intended to turn The Marvelous Land of Oz into a stage play, which accounts for a lot of the features of the book. (A lot of the snappy dialogue was intended to be performed on the stage. Also, the army of girls was intended to be chorus girls. Also it was common to have women portraying boys on stage, which would aid with the gender reveal at the end.)
In order to promote this book, L. Frank Baum created a newspaper comic strip featuring the characters fromm this book called Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz. The breakout character ended up being the Woggle-Bug, who was spun off into his own book and then stage-play, according to Wikipedia:
Baum's Woggle-Bug was a popular character at the time; he "became something of a national fad and icon...."[4] There were Woggle-Bug postcards and buttons, a Woggle-Bug song, and a Woggle-Bug board game from Parker Brothers.[5] Baum and Morgan's picture book was published in January 1905, to help publicize a new musical play, The Woggle-Bug, that was being mounted that year. (The play flopped.)
I found all of this fascinating--first of all for the long forgotten memories of American fads. And secondly, because it shows that my collection of The Complete Stories of Oz isn't really complete at all. Even if we limited ourselves to the stories by the original author L. Frank Baum, there's a whole Land of Oz extended universe that goes well beyond the 15 books collected in this volume.
* I'm doing this series as a buddy read with Dane Reads on Booktube. See his video review HERE and his written review HERE.
Odds and Ends
* So, the fact that the boy Tip was really the girl Ozma all along seems like it's ahead of its time in terms of gender identity, but... I feel like once Tip turns into Ozma, it's not like he's the same person as before only now in a girl's body. As she's portrayed in the subsequent books, the wise and benevolent Ozma is essentially a different character from the childish and mischievous Tip, right? Or am I remember the subsequent books wrong?
* The Tin Woodman has a name now--Nick Chopper. This is apparently also a legacy from the stage play.
* The Wizard of Oz is portrayed as a bad guy in this book, but don't worry. He's going to come back again in book number 4, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. And then he'll be back to his original portrayal.
* I mentioned above the "Oz Extended Universe" which goes well beyond the 15 books collected in The Complete Stories of Oz. This will also be a theme in the future books, as there will be more crossovers with L. Frank Baum's other books coming up in the Oz series.
Extended Quotation
They soon discovered that the Saw-Horse limped, for his new leg was a trifle too long. So they were obliged to halt while the Tin Woodman chopped it down with his axe, after which the wooden steed paced along more comfortably. But the Saw-Horse was not entirely satisfied, even yet.
"It was a shame that I broke my other leg!" it growled.
"On the contrary," airily remarked the Woggle-Bug, who was walking alongside, "you should consider the accident most fortunate. For a horse is never of much use until he has been broken."
"I beg your pardon," said Tip, rather provoked, for he felt a warm interest in both the Saw-Horse and his man Jack; "but permit me to say that your joke is a poor one, and as old as it is poor."
"Still, it is a Joke," declared the Woggle-Bug; firmly, "and a Joke derived from a play upon words is considered among educated people to be eminently proper."
"What does that mean?" enquired the Pumpkinhead, stupidly.
"It means, my dear friend," explained the Woggle-Bug, "that our language contains many words having a double meaning; and that to pronounce a joke that allows both meanings of a certain word, proves the joker a person of culture and refinement, who has, moreover, a thorough command of the language."
"I don't believe that," said Tip, plainly; "anybody can make a pun."
"Not so," rejoined the Woggle-Bug, stiffly. "It requires education of a high order. Are you educated, young sir?"
"Not especially," admitted Tip.
"Then you cannot judge the matter. I myself am Thoroughly Educated, and I say that puns display genius. For instance, were I to ride upon this Saw-Horse, he would not only be an animal he would become an equipage. For he would then be a horse-and-buggy."
At this the Scarecrow gave a gasp and the Tin Woodman stopped short and looked reproachfully at the Woggle-Bug. At the same time the Saw-Horse loudly snorted his derision; and even the Pumpkinhead put up his hand to hide the smile which, because it was carved upon his face, he could not change to a frown.
But the Woggle-Bug strutted along as if he had made some brilliant remark, and the Scarecrow was obliged to say:
"I have heard, my dear friend, that a person can become over-educated; and although I have a high respect for brains, no matter how they may be arranged or classified, I begin to suspect that yours are slightly tangled. In any event, I must beg you to restrain your superior education while in our society."
"We are not very particular," added the Tin Woodman; "and we are exceedingly kind hearted. But if your superior culture gets leaky again—" He did not complete the sentence, but he twirled his gleaming axe so carelessly that the Woggle-Bug looked frightened, and shrank away to a safe distance.
The others marched on in silence, and the Highly Magnified one, after a period of deep thought, said in an humble voice:
"I will endeavor to restrain myself."
"That is all we can expect," returned the Scarecrow pleasantly; and good nature being thus happily restored to the party, they proceeded upon their way.
***********End Quote. The beginning of chapter 14, pages 150-151 in my edition *****
This quote does a good job of illustrating the back-and-forth verbal sparring that is in a lot of scenes in this book, apparently because L. Frank Baum was planning to do this as vaudeville on the stage.
6 out of 10 Stars. A bit more entertaining than its predecessor. But then, also a bit more problematic then its predecessor.
October 17, 2021 The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum p.98-134
October 24, 2021 The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum p.134-196
Video Review (Playlist HERE)
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