My Time In Oz
I've been rather bored at work. So bored, in fact, that I decided to make better use of my down time and read a book. I had been quite a fan of L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, so I decided to read its sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz. In the last two months I have read eleven out of fourteen Oz L Frank Baum ever wrote, including those that released posthumously. The Oz fan community considers the canon of Oz to go on for another 30-odd books past Baum's 14, and there are a few dozen more after that.
So, for the time being, and seeing as they're all old enough to be released in the public domain, I've just stuck with the books by the original author. I've met Dorothy and the Scarecrow, yes, but I've also met Ozma, the sawhorse, Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, Cap'n Bill and Trot, Betsy Bobbins, The Shaggy Man, the Woozy, the Patchwork Girl, King Rinkitink, Hank the Mule, the Hungry Tiger, the Wheelers and Nomes and people of Yip. I've also met the donkey people, fox people, rabbit people, vegetable people, cutlery people, pastry people, different pastry people, pocralein people, stuffed bear people, real bear people, paper doll people, and so many more that I can't recall off the top of my head.
Oh, the jack in the box people and the gargoyles and the radium dwellers and the wooden flying folk! Forgot them.
As I'm quite sure you can imagine, there's a lot of insane stuff that happens in the land of Oz, and so many characters and places and even more places outside Oz that it's no wonder Baum called himself historian, not author. There are several ex-machinas in the form of 'well i'll just do a gesture and our magical friend will save us,' plot points get rewritten (I'm convinced Roquats name being changed to Ruggalo was pure accident,) and even more nutty stuff. But also there's a continuity, minor characters come back just about as often as new ones get added to the pantheon of queer creatures. Let me try and summarize the Oz lore best I can, and I stress that this is all from memory, though you'll just have to take my word from it.
The Emerald City is in the center of the land of Oz. To the east there is the Munchkin country, to the north the Gillikins, to the south the Quadlings and to the west the Winkies. Each land has it's own favorite color, so houses in Munchkin country will all be blue, and Winkie country yellow I think. Around this land is the deadly desert, and theres more countries outside of it. Nobody can cross the deadly desert, except for all the times people do. past the deadly desert is not the land of Oz, but rather other lands. Ix, Ev, Rinkitink, etc. past those lands is the sea, with lots of islands just sort of wherever, and past the sea somewhere far off is the real world.
Ozma is the ruler of Oz, though she was once a boy because she was cursed by an evil witch named Mombi who helped the king before the wizard ascend to the throne. Every rightful member of the royal family is called Ozma for a girl and Oz for a king. royal history goes Ozmas family, then evil guy, then the Wizard who landed in a balloon and tricked everyone into thinking he was a real wizard and not a humbug (until later he learns real magic from Glinda the Good,) The Scarecrow, Ozma. There have been several attempts to overthrow Ozma by shoemakers and the Nome king, but it never happens. Everyone in the land of Oz reports to Ozma, except for the baffling amount of people who live in obscured places inside the kingdom and have never heard of Ozma but she still rules them.
Ozmas best friend is Dorothy, they became fast friends after Dorothy started coming back to Oz in book #3, then moved there permanently with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in book 6, the Emerald City of Oz. Dorothy and Ozma kiss a lot, on the lips. Most of the girl heroines kiss Ozma, as do most girls. Dorothys best friends are Betsy Bobbin, an earth girl, and Trot, another earth girl. I say earth girl and not Oz girl because it's important to note that the people from outside the fairy land of Oz (Dorothy, Betsy, The Wizard, Shaggy Man, etc.) Can die. Nobody else can die, because fairy people don't die in fairy countries, but the earth people can very much die. The fairy people can get stuck somewhere forever, though, like a king who was put under a rock and left there to suffer while his throne was taken and his son was forced into hard labor.
There are meant to be no magic users in Oz outside of Ozma, Glinda the Good, and the Wizard of Oz. Except there are many, many of whom are wicked, that Ozma and co. don't know about even though Glinda has a book of every thing that's ever happened ever, updating constantly. There's the previously mentioned Mombi, the Crooked Magician, Ugu, the one who turns a princesses heart to ice in Scarecrow of Oz, and many more. Also the Nome king knew magic but Dorothy took his magic belt and it lets her do magic and also protects her from any bodily harm conveniently. And then the Nome King drank from the age regression fountain and forgot everything he ever knew. There are no more capital W Wicked Witches, but still lots of wicked witches in the outskirts and hollers of Oz
Then of course there are the animals of Oz, who all talk. Even animals brought from Earth, like Hank the mule and a horse whose name I've forgotten, talk. Toto, funnily enough, hardly utters a word until book 11, despite coming along on Dorothy's adventures. Inanimate objects like the Tin Woodsman and Tik-Tok don't need to eat or sleep, and all of the books make a point to mention them all chatting through the night as the flesh folk sleep.
My favorite characters in the series so far are probably the Shaggy Man and Ozma, I like Ozma because she's a tgirl like me, and the Shaggy Man has a sort of wandering vagabond mindset that's most similar to a character like Snufkin, even when he goes to the Emerald City and gets nice new clothes they're still shaggy, but designed that way. A trendsetter, certainly. Button-bright also deserves a mention since he's so obstinate, he's sort of the straight man in the world of queer folk. I mean queer folk in the early 20th century way, mind you, as the book uses the term lots. But also, the scarecrow and Tin Woodsman definetly have a thing and Ozma does kiss many girls (see above.)
Baum wrote for the Oz series until he passed away, with two books of his being published posthumously. The series continued on past him, to the delight of children everywhere. Baum makes a point of mentioning the children who write in with suggestions for characters in every books foreward. One is even accredited to Baum and Associates, the associates being the children who wanted one thing or another and wrote in letters. By book 12 he's asking for kids to also include a 3 cent return postage stamp which I thought was funny. If you can only read one, read the first or second, there is an order and things make more sense when it's followed but every book is its own self contained adventure that will fill you in on characters and such. Have fun!
And now, a few more ilustrations I like.
