The Marvelous Land of Oz

My Christmas present from my sister this year was this beautiful, first-edition copy of The Marvelous Land of Oz.

This first sequel to The Wizard of Oz was written because so many children wanted to hear about more adventures from their favorite characters. From the author's note: "I promised one little girl...and she is a "Dorothy," by the way-that when a thousand little girls had written me a thousand little letters asking for another story of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, I would write the book. Either little Dorothy was a fairy in disguise, and waved her magic wand, or the success of the stage production of "The Wizard of Oz" made new friends for the story. For the thousand letters reached their destination long since--and many more followed them."

Dude. Jack Pumpkinhead is totally Jack Skellington from Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas.

Fan art from here.

It's a really fun story. I don't even want to think about possible implied gender messages meant by General Jinjur and the girls' army (although he can't be too anti-female because the ultimate ruler of Oz is Ozma). I will say that the twist at the end, which I won't give away, was REALLY disturbing to me when I read it as a child.

My favorite thing about secondhand books-aside from the smell-is finding notes from the former owners.

Fun facts about Oz:

-L. Frank Baum got the name "Oz" from an O-Z filing cabinet.

-Gregory Maguire got the name "Elphaba" for Wicked's Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum's initials: L. F. B

Alice in Burtonland

The Chicago Tribune had a pretty good review of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. I'm kind of a purist when it comes to books I like being made into movies, so though I love Tim Burton, I'm almost afraid to see the movie. The fact that it's a sequel to the original story could be an opportunity for some really interesting creative ideas, but also could be a reason to separate from the heart of the original story even more than a typical remake would. Apparantly there's a big battle between the Red and White Queens. As much as I love a big epic fantasy with action and excitement, that's not the point of Wonderland. Wonderland is a place of nonsense and absurdity, more like a dream than our world. Good and evil, or enough consistency in plot to carry through an entire battle, seem out of place in Wonderland (which is apparantly called "Underland," an interesting choic, makes it seem more sinister. Not that I mind sinister). In fact, the fact that Alice can go there as an adult seems like that shouldn't be; as if, like Neverland, Wonderland should be reserved for children.

But these are my own personal reservations, I can't really say until I've seen the movie. I'm too cheap to see movies in theaters much so it will probably be a while before it's available on Netflix, but I'd love to hear other people's opinions as they see the film.

Oh and this gives me an excuse to show off my teapot.