tkoppel@isis.UUCP ( News Guest) (02/26/86)
Someone out there must have a copy of the L Frank Baum text
of the Wizard of Oz..
My question: What is the time duration between when Dorothy is
knocked on the head during the tornado and when she comes to
(after the 'return' from the land of Oz)? The time frame in Oz
is several days ( I think), but does anyone have any idea (or did
Baum even say) how long she was unconscious?
There's no place like home....
--
Ted Koppel : Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries : 303-750-9142
: hao!nbires!isis!tkoppelkeesan@bbncc5.UUCP (Morris M. Keesan) (02/28/86)
In article <356@isis.UUCP> tkoppel@isis.UUCP (Ted Koppel - News Guest) writes: >My question: What is the time duration between when Dorothy is knocked on the >head during the tornado and when she comes to (after the 'return' from the land >of Oz)? The time frame in Oz is several days ( I think), but does anyone have >any idea (or did Baum even say) how long she was unconscious? AARGH!! This is what comes of watching television, I guess. In the REAL "Wizard of Oz" (i.e. the book), Dorothy was NOT knocked on the head during the tornado, she was NOT unconscious and dreaming, and she did NOT 'return' (quotes his) from Oz by "coming to" (quotes mine). She got carried by the tornado to Oz, had adventures lasting many days, including several not shown in the movie, and eventually returned to Kansas by flying over the Deadly Desert using her magical silver shoes (note: NOT ruby slippers), arriving home much to the surprise of her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, who thought that she had been lost/carried away/killed by the tornado, and never expected to see her again. The real Dorothy Gale was also much younger during her first trip to Oz than Judy Garland was in the movie, she was about the same height as the Munchkins (who were short, but not midgets, and not notably shorter than the inhabitants of the rest of Oz), and she was greeted in Munchkin land by the good witch of the North, who was NOT Glinda (Glinda was the good witch of the South). Summary: read the book. It will be a revelation to you. -- Morris M. Keesan keesan@bbn-unix.ARPA {decvax,ihnp4,etc.}!bbncca!keesan
mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz) (03/03/86)
In article <1979@bbncc5.UUCP> keesan@bbncc5.UUCP (Morris M. Keesan) writes: > > Summary: read the book. It will be a revelation to you. Correction: read the books. They will be a revellation to you. Frank Baum wrote 14 OZ books, all excellent, as well as several other fine fantasies. All of his OZ books (and a few of the others) are available in paperback reprints with the original fine illustrations. There are also a great number of OZ books written by other authors, 20 or 30 or so. A few of them have come out as large paperbacks recently. -- Mike Huybensz ...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh
jtk@ihlpl.UUCP (Kitteredge) (03/04/86)
> Someone out there must have a copy of the L Frank Baum text > of the Wizard of Oz.. > > My question: What is the time duration between when Dorothy is > knocked on the head during the tornado and when she comes to > (after the 'return' from the land of Oz)? The time frame in Oz > is several days ( I think), but does anyone have any idea (or did > Baum even say) how long she was unconscious? > > There's no place like home.... > -- > Ted Koppel : Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries : 303-750-9142 > : hao!nbires!isis!tkoppel It's been several years since I read "The Wizard of Oz", but you must understand the book is quite different from the movie. Baum definitely DID not imply that the adventure in Oz had all been a dream. Dorothy leaps back to Kansas with three steps of her Ruby Slippers and Aunt Em is there on the prairie to meet her. Dorothy and other people return to Oz in various ways: down a whirlpool, in an earthquake, on a giant bird, et cetera.
manderso@sdcsvax.UUCP (Mark Anderson) (03/05/86)
The Wizard of Oz is thought by some to be a parable about conversion to the gold standard and Populism. I can't find my copy of the paper right now but I have the reference here. Henry M. Littlefield's "The Wizard of Oz, Parable on Populism," (American Quarterly, Spr 64) (lc# Ap 2 A3985) I don't remember the specifics so I won't embarass my self by spreading misinformation. If I have time I'll go to the library myself and post a followup.
barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan) (03/08/86)
Since someone brought up the subject of the Wizard of Oz, I thought
I'd share the following article from "The Artist's Life" section of
"The Artist's Magazine" (March 1986). [Books aren't *all* words, you
know.]
TO OZ AND BACK -- Stan Barker
W.W. Denslow once wrote: "The world is . . . built upon the joke
principle and as usual the joke is on me. It always has been and
I suspect it always will. . . ."
Cynical, but prophetic. In 1900, Denslow was one of this
country's leading illustrators -- the first American artist to create
picture books in color for children, and a pioneer of the newspaper
comic strip. His collaboration with author L. Frank Baum produced
America's best-loved children's classic, *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*.
Yet, for years, W.W. Denslow has been a forgotten man.
A newspaper artist in the 1880s, Denslow resisted the realism
his job called for, preferring the comic cartoon. His work took him
west, to Chicago, Denver, and finally San Francisco, where that
city's Chinatown opened his eyes to Oriental art. From then-popular
Japanese prints, he adapted the style of the "floating world" --
shallow space, bold black lines, large areas of color -- and fused
it with his comic touch.
The World's Fair of 1893 brought him back to Chicago, where
his career flourished. Art nouveau had given rise to an international
poster craze, and Denslow produced many (signing them with a seahorse,
which earned him the nickname "Hippocampus Den"). One poster -- a
skull wearing a laurel wreath, titled *What's the Use?* -- appealed
to the fashionable cynicism of the *fin de siecle*, and stayed in
print for thirty years.
While in Chicago, Denslow met L. Frank Baum, as sunny an optimist
as Denslow was a misanthrope. The opposites attracted, and the two
collaborated on *Father Goose: His Book*. Basically a collection of
posters illustrating Baum's nursery rhymes, it was the best-selling
juvenile title of 1899 and ushered in the use of color in U.S.
children's books.
The success of *Father Goose* led the pair to collaborate again
-- on *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*. Baum's story was an classic, but
Denslow's work was masterful as well. Nearly every page had a color
illustration, many overlapping the text as part of the total design.
The now familiar Scarecrow and Tin Woodman were given definitive form
by Denslow's hand. "I made twenty-five sketches of those two monkeys
before I was satisfied," he later said.
*The Wizard* went from bestseller to Broadway extravaganza,
but fame and fortune caused a rift between Denslow and Baum. The
artist went his own way, doing a beautiful series of picture books,
and creating probably the first narrative comic strip ("Billy Bounce")
for the McClure Syndicate. Prosperity enabled Denslow to collect
rare books, and even purchase an island off Bermuda, where he titled
himself King (his Japanese cook was the "Prime Minister"; his native
boatman was the "Admiral" in charge of his royal yacht, which flew
a pennant with the motto, "After this, the patrol wagon").
But the Broadway success of *The Wizard* haunted Denslow;
trying to repeat it, he wrote and illustrated inferior books that
were little more than vaudeville scripts. Commissions fell off, and
he started drinking heavily. He was forced to sell his island and
rare books, and fell to working with ad agencies for $25 a week.
When he died in 1915, broke and obscure, he was buried in
an unmarked grave. Yet, in the years since, Oz has become a part of
American folklore, and the formation of an International Wizard of
Oz Club has revived interest in Denslow's work. Last year, the
seventieth anniversary of his death, his grave was finally marked,
by the Club . . . with a stone featuring the Scarecrow and Tin
Woodman he gave shape to for all time.
If the world *is* built on the joke principle, W.W. Denslow
is having the last laugh.west@sdics.UUCP (Larry West) (03/09/86)
In article <535@oliven.UUCP> barb@oliven.UUCP (Barbara Jernigan) writes: > TO OZ AND BACK -- Stan Barker > > W.W. Denslow once wrote: "The world is . . . built upon the joke > principle and as usual the joke is on me. It always has been and > I suspect it always will. . . ." . . . > When he died in 1915, broke and obscure, he was buried in > an unmarked grave. Yet, in the years since, Oz has become a part of > American folklore, and the formation of an International Wizard of > Oz Club has revived interest in Denslow's work. Last year, the > seventieth anniversary of his death, his grave was finally marked, > by the Club . . . with a stone featuring the Scarecrow and Tin > Woodman he gave shape to for all time. > If the world *is* built on the joke principle, W.W. Denslow > is having the last laugh. This is triumph? This is crowning glory? Why can't hack [e.g., Time, Newsweek] writers ever tell a story without trying to come up with some bogus "moral" at the end? --- But apart from that, thanks for posting an interesting article. -- Larry West USA+619-452-6771 Institute for Cognitive Science non-business hrs: 452-2256 UC San Diego (mailcode C-015) La Jolla, CA 92093 USA UUCP: {ucbvax,ihnp4,sdcrdcf,decvax,gatech}!sdcsvax!sdics!west ARPA: <west@nprdc.ARPA> or <west@ucsd.ARPA> DOMAIN: <west@nprdc.mil> or <west@csl.ucsd.edu>
mdr@bentley.UUCP (M. Rossner) (03/12/86)
To the poser of the question: "How long was Dorothy unconcious in
L. Frank Baum's book, originally titled "The Wonderful Wizard of
Oz" --- are you serious?
Have you read the book?
Dorothy did not dream that she went to Oz, SHE ACTUALLY WENT THERE for
chrissakes. All this dream nonsense was invented just for the MUSICAL.
Get a clue.
Marc D. Rossner
AT&T Bell Labs, Liberty Corner, NJ