binder%dosadi.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (06/25/85)
From: binder%dosadi.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Wherever you go, there you are.) > ...credit is given to Baum, as it is declared that the movie "Return to Oz" > is based on /The Land of Oz/ and /Tik-Tok of Oz/. (At least it so declares > in the movie ads. I have not inspected the book.) Actually, the film credits say /The Land of Oz/ and /Ozma of Oz/ -- the plot of the film follows TLoO fairly closely, with only touches from OoO. If you are a Baum fan, GO SEE THE FILM. It's delightful; the Disney people did a very good job of capturing the feeling of Oz as envisaged by Baum, with the characters modelled after the drawings by John R. Neill, who did all the Baum books except the first one. Don't take VERY small children to see it - there are a couple of rather intense moments. Baum, who was called the Royal Historian of Oz, wrote 14 Oz books: 1. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (reissued as The Wizard of Oz) 2. The Marvelous Land of Oz (reissued as The Land of Oz) 3. Ozma of Oz 4. Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz 5. The Road to Oz 6. The Emerald City of Oz 7. The Patchwork Girl of Oz 8. Tik-Tok of Oz 9. The Scarecrow of Oz 10. Rinkitink in Oz 11. The Lost Princess of Oz 12. The Tin Woodman of Oz 13. The Magic of Oz 14. Glinda of Oz Ruth Plumly Thompson, who I believe was Baum's daughter, wrote 19 more: 15. The Royal Book of Oz 16. Kabumpo in Oz 17. The Cowardly Lion of Oz 18. Grampa in Oz 19. The Lost King of Oz 20. The Hungry Tiger of Oz 21. The Gnome King of Oz (Baum, never a scholar, spelled it 'Nome'!) 22. The Giant Horse of Oz 23. Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz 24. The Yellow Knight of Oz 25. Pirates in Oz 26. The Purple Prince of Oz 27. Ojo in Oz 28. Speedy in Oz 29. The Wishing Horse of Oz 30. Captain Salt in Oz 31. Handy Mandy in Oz 32. The Silver Princess in Oz 33. Ozoplaning with the Wizard of Oz John R. Neill, who had illustrated Baum's works, did three: 34. The Wonder City of Oz 35. Scalawagons of Oz 36. Lucky Bucky in Oz Jack Snow, about whom I know nothing, did two: 37. The Magical Mimics in Oz 38. The Shaggy Man of Oz Rachel R. Cosgrove did one: 39. The Hidden Valley of Oz Finally, Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren McGraw Wagner did one: 40. Merry Go Round in Oz The titles, naming various characters as they do, belie the fact that many of the characters, including Tik-Tok, Ozma, and Jack Pumpkinhead, were introduced in TLoO. The Oz canon, if it may be called such, is thus set at 40 books. Baum also wrote a stage play about Oz, which was produced to rave reviews, and several silent screenplays, which were filmed by his own production company. The Disney Studios bought the film rights to Baum's books, excepting only the first, which was already owned by MGM. Disney actually started production of a musical called "The Rainbow Land of Oz" in the '50s, but Walt himself stopped it when he realised that it wasn't even going to approach the appeal of the Judy Garland film. Cheers, Dick Binder (The Stainless Steel Rat) UUCP: { decvax, allegra, ucbvax... }!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-dosadi!binder ARPA: binder%dosadi.DEC@decwrl.ARPA Tue 25-Jun-1985 09:40 Eastern Daylight Time
jsweet@uci-icsa (06/27/85)
From: Jerry Sweet <jsweet@uci-icsa> Book 41: a few months ago, I saw a book named "A Barnstormer In Oz", by Philip Jose Farmer (I think--it sounds right, since he's the self-appointed chronicler/perpetuator of a number of "mythologies"). Anyone read it? -jns
binder%dosadi.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (06/27/85)
From: binder%dosadi.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Wherever you go, there you are.) Book 41: /A Barnstormer in Oz/ by PJ Farmer. It's good, it's real PJ Farmer, and I wouldn't give it to kids. It is quite well done, and the story certainly fits the Oz stories well, even "explaining" many things we only wondered about. But fairly intense sex (NOT explicit) disqualifies it, in my humble opinion, from membership in the canon, becaust a kid book it ain't. Cheers, Dick Binder (The Stainless Steel Rat)
chuqui@nsc.UUCP (Chuq Von Rospach) (06/29/85)
Phil Farmer has also written an Oz book that got left off the original list
#41 -- A Barnstormer in Oz.
This book doesn't really continue the Oz tradition, it assumes that the
REAL Oz (the Oz in Farmer's book) was severely watered down for the
children's books that Baum wrote. Like most of Farmer's work that I've
read, I was disappointed that he took a great idea and did a lackluster job
on it.
chuq
--
:From the misfiring synapses of: Chuq Von Rospach
{cbosgd,fortune,hplabs,ihnp4,seismo}!nsc!chuqui nsc!chuqui@decwrl.ARPA
The offices were very nice, and the clients were only raping the land, and
then, of course, there was the money...hutch@shark.UUCP (Stephen Hutchison) (07/03/85)
In article <2409@topaz.ARPA> jsweet@uci-icsa writes: >From: Jerry Sweet <jsweet@uci-icsa> > > >Book 41: a few months ago, I saw a book named "A Barnstormer In Oz", by >Philip Jose Farmer (I think--it sounds right, since he's the >self-appointed chronicler/perpetuator of a number of "mythologies"). >Anyone read it? > >-jns Yes, I read the thing. This is a spoiler, in case anyone cares. Farmer presents the story of a barnstormer (test pilot?) who disappears through a "dimensional gate" which is a few hundred feet above ground, open when certain wierd electrical conditions are met. His pilot has no particular personal charm. This individual discovers that Oz is a besieged place ruled by the iron hand of a sex-witch (Glinda) who uses her powers to hold off the influx of the energy creatures from the desert regions which surround the oasis of Oz. Every once in a while one of the less malevolent energy creatures inhabits some mechanism, like the tin statue, or the Barnstormer's airplane. Dorothy is postulated to be a young girl who was accidentally thrown into Oz by a tornado, and that Baum was a neighbor who got the story from her when she returned later, and adapted it into a series of children's fairy tales. The majority of the story concerns the interaction between the other-dimensional Oz and the American military. As usual, Farmer completely destroys the character of the stories, making something cheap, tawdry, and mildly pornographic out of the mileau of Oz. Hutch