I read the first chapter, and decided life was too short & my reading list too long.
I love Oz, and am very familiar with the original book and the MGM film. I also read Wicked long before it became a musical - but I have not seen the musical, nor have I seen The Wiz or Tin Man so already I fall short. In a scholarly work such as this it really helps to be completely familiar with the material. Since I am not, it felt like a slog.

Received my copy from Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. ( )

I actually finished this book back in July, but was reluctant to write a review since I felt like I was being overly critical in my reviews. After all, I have a lot of opinions, particularly about pop culture works, but I haven't taken the time or energy to actually try to publish them and make them available for public scorn.

But I can avoid the task no longer.

This is the second McFarland press book I have received and reviewed, and while this one certainly is not the slog that The Tell-Tale Art was, I felt like I was reading another contrived term paper. The author sets out in Chapter One with her thesis -- specifically on Page 5: "In the century since its first publication, the Wizard of Oz tale has been adapted, revised, and reinvented countless times, repeatedly negotiating and recasting both narrative and characterization, with specific focus on the key themes of gender, race, home and magic within the story." She then states that she will illustrate this thesis by looking at the original novel, the film version of The Wiz, both the novel and stage musical version of Wicked, and a television miniseries titled Tin Man.

Now if you have missed her plan of attack, don't worry. These same statements will be repeated again (almost verbatim) on pages 6, 10, 11, 12, 17, 28, and 29 (I'm sure I missed a couple), and that's all in the course of the first chapter. In fact, once you read the first chaper, you have essentially read the entire book -- all the bases are covered here and will be repeated with expansion of details in the following chapters. But by the end of the book, you really haven't learned anything since Chapter One, and I'm fairly certain you'll be exhausted, even though it's only 195 pages long. (And note -- the Bibliograhy itself runs 10 pages after that -- 10 pages of works cited for a less than a 200 page book!) Many many times in reading this book, I found myself thinking that the continued use of fully listing the complete title and author(s) of each of the cited works was a trick to pad out of the length even more.

In fact, I found the nearly 20 pages of Chapter Notes at the end of the book more interesting, in giving some previously unknown (to me) facts about the works.

But maybe I'm just a grouch. I am certain there's an audience out there who wants to overanalyze every work of pop culture, looking and reaching for reasons to discuss mythic discourse, and subjugation of women, and latent and overt racism. I could go on (and on), but it's just so disheartening. ( )

L. Frank Baum's the Wonderful Wizard of Oz has influenced generations of readers, writers, filmmakers, and other creative types. In The Wizard of Oz as American Myth, Alissa Burger discusses some of these talented individuals without becoming one herself. Talented, that is.

Burger has taken an inspirational thing like Oz and has eviscerated it and some of its descendents to study some dead, dissected thing. The book itself reads like a dissertation, but one written for a particularly dense audience, as she often repeats herself, and often repeats herself.

Being relatively familiar with all the works she addressed, I felt that her analysis, proving points of gender, race, home and magic (four words you'll never forget if you read this book, as they're repeated quite frequently). Ultimately, mixing a set of Oz-themed magnetic poetry with a set of pretentious jargon magnetic poetry would probably result in this book, especially accounting for the liberal reuse of words and phrases.

I used to consider myself a fan of All things Oz. Now, I realize, it's Most things Oz. Just about everything else, aside from this book. ( )

Why did I request a review copy of The Wizard of Oz as American Myth? Because The Wizard of Oz was one of the books that shaped my reading tastes. I met Dorothy Gale and Nancy Drew when I was seven or eight years old. What heroines! This book taught me things I hadn't known about the six versions of the story it covers (the original book, the classic MGM movie with Judy Garland, the movie version of The Wiz, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Wicked: a New Musical, and the TV mini-series Tin Man). I would like to publicly thank the author for prompting me to reread the first three books in Baum's series, read Wicked, and watch The Wiz. At times I found myself disagreeing with Prof. Burger's observations and conclusions. There were times I growled, let my jaw drop, ranted, or whimpered. There were times I wanted to bounce the book off the nearest wall. Still, it make me think.

VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS:

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't read The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, [More] English Fairy Tales collected by Joseph Jacobs, Ghosts and Goblins selected by Wilhemina Harper, Folk Tales of Brittany by Elsie Masson, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, The [Marvelous] Land of Oz, Ozma of Oz, Jane Eyre, or the Fall of the House of Usher, you might wish to skip my observations.

The same is true if you've never watched the 1939 MGM Wizard of Oz movie, The Wiz, or Dumbo.

INTRODUCTION:

The chapter note about the Sci Fi Channel changing its name to 'Syfy' doesn't mention this, but 'sci-fi' was not a geek abbreviation for 'science fiction'. 'Sci-fi' was what the Mundanes [persons who weren't science fiction fans] called it. We fans used 'sf' or 'SF', an abbreviation that leaves room for two more characters in one's texts. [p. 197]

If, like myself, you find academic jargon boring, the bad news is that the first two chapters are really bogged down with it. The good news is that gets better by chapter three.

CHAPTER ONE:

While L. Frank Baum's creation may qualify as American myth today, isn't it worthwhile to remember that it hasn't always been accepted? The 1978 Nelson Doubleday, Inc. edition of The Wizard of Oz, with photographs from the 1939 movie, has an introduction by Ray Bolger, the actor who played the Scarecrow in that movie. According to Mr. Bolger, there were critics and educators who were detractors of The Wizard of Oz. They complained it was '...a ponderous sentimental journey that had little or no value'. [p. viii] Further, Mr. Bolger partially quotes remarks a Ralph Ulveling, then the Director of Detroit Public Librarians, said about the Oz books at a state conference on April 3, 1957. Mr. Ulveling thought they displayed 'negativism,' 'a cowardly approach to life,' and contained 'nothing uplifting'. Mr. Ulveling considered the series to have 'no value' and not to 'compare in quality' with the books by Grimm, Anderson, etc. [pp. viii-ix, the latter page containing statements defending the series]. I think I've read before that the Oz books had been banned at some time, but Mr. Bolger's statement about some states burning the Oz books was an unwelcome surprise. [p.ix] (Aside from wondering if Mr. Ulveling and those other detractors read the same book I have, I note that my copy of Hans Christian Anderson's stories has taught me that some of them would make good segments for a horror movie anthology, particularly The Red Shoes and The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf. http://www.hca.gilead.org.il/ )

PAGE 14: The description of Ms. Kolodny's argument about the land and the settlers wouldn't have jarred me so much if I hadn't grown up under the belief that it is woman, not man, who civilizes.,

STARTING WITH PAGE 19: Please, just go ahead and use 'hero' and 'heroine' instead of 'male hero' and 'female hero'. [starting with p.19] Do we women really need to describe ourselves or other females with masculine versions of nouns in order to feel worthwhile?

PAGE 22: The comments about the versions of Dorothy in the original book, the MGM movie, and The Wiz leave out the fact that they were forcibly removed from the land they called home, which could influence one's desire to return or not.

PAGE 23: Can't argue that a lot of fairy tales don't have empowering roles for their female characters. However, in 'A Pottle o' Brains' the male character is a fool who can't even figure out the wise woman's advice for himself. He finally gets the brains he needs when he marries. (As for the heroine's remark about folks saying that fools make good husbands, I suppose that might well be true in a patriarchal society since the fool's wife could be expected to rule the roost.) http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/meft/meft28.htm Another from the same collection of English fairy tales, 'Gobborn Seer' features a heroine who is smarter than the hero. I hope their children will take after her. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/meft/meft12.htm In 'Nix Nought Nothing', the hero would have been the giant's supper if not for the giant's daughter. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/eft/eft08.htmhttp://www.sacred-texts.com/neu... My old favorite, Ghosts and Goblins selected by Wilhemina Harper, introduced me to 'The Witch of Lok Island' from Folk Tales of Brittany by Elsie Masson, another story in which the heroine does the rescuing. True, she has some help and advice from the witch's spell-imprisoned husband, but he hails her as the fair maid who has come to rescue him when they meet. http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ftb/ftb07.htm Those examples are from only two books in my personal collection. If one of my old foot injuries hadn't been troubling me for weeks, I'd have looked in more of them.

The Practical Princess and Other Liberating Fairy Tales by Jay Williams was a 1978 collection of stories that had previously appeared (most as picture books), from 1966 -1974, well before James Finn Garner's first satirical look at the old stories. [p. 25] Besides Angela Carter's 1979 collection, Tanith Lee gave a dark twist to some fairy tales in her 1983 Red as Blood or Tales From the Sisters Grimmer.

CHAPTER TWO:

Returning to Ray Bolger's introduction to a 1978 edition of the original novel, I hadn't known there was a successful 1903 musical comedy version by Mr. Baum and composer Paul Tietjens that toured the country for nearly 10 years. According to Mr. Bolger, it wasn't until MGM '...made the technicolor version closely following this selfsame 1903 version edition that a new dimension gave the work classic proportions.' [pp.vii-viii]

PAGE 33: After comparing later paperback reprints of the classic Nero Wolfe mysteries with earlier hardcover (or even earlier paperback) editions and all the mistakes I've found in the reprints, I wouldn't be so quick to declare that the actual words of all the editions of any story are identical. I feel this is particularly true in these days of computers checking the spelling.

PAGE 37: The story about the gay community taking Judy Garland's Dorothy and the song 'Over the Rainbow' to heart made the expression 'a friend of Dorothy' explicable to me.

PAGES 48-49: The Baum, MGM film, and The Wiz Dorothys are relatively flat characters? She's a girl/woman who doesn't want to kill, isn't looking for domination at someone else's expense, shows kindness and gives help to total strangers, and who inspires kindness and loyalty in others. How is her desire to get home 'singular'? It's not her sole desire because she also wants those poor strangers to get what they desire. What's unusual about a desire to return home, especially to a home where one's beloved kin reside? In chapter 2 of the book we are told that Dorothy had never killed anything in all her life.

CHAPTER THREE:

PAGE 58:

Why describe Baum's Dorothy's loss of temper with the Wicked Witch of the West as a tantrum? Years ago I had some money stolen from my purse at work. I felt violated before I became furious. I never found out who did it and it wasn't even an item as dear to me as those silver shoes were to Dorothy. I didn't have the further provocation of having my stolen property flaunted in front of me while the thief let me know it would happen again. Throwing water on the witch seems a fairly mild response to me. I would suggest interviewing victims of theft, big and small, before calling Dorothy's reaction a tantrum. That's a word that conjures up visions of spoiled brats unable to stand being thwarted in any desire, no matter how foolish it is.

'Dorothy is becoming independent and self-sufficient, and she has arguably seen her own ambition reflected in the face of the Wicked Witch. Seeing her own desire as monstrous and aberrant, Dorothy must now affect its destruction.... Therefore, in attacking everything culturally unacceptable in the form of the witch, Dorothy reestablishes herself as a self-sacrificing and 'good' girl.' Huh? Baum's Dorothy didn't throw the water on the Wicked Witch for anything other than stealing from her. How can the act be considered a tantrum and an attack that reestablishes her good girl status? She's a little girl who wants to go home to her family. She's back in the beautiful Emerald City when, as stated early in chapter 17, she longs to get back to Kansas more than ever. What's self-sacrificing about that? Dorothy wants to go home so much that we're told, at the end of chapter 15, that she's willing to forgive the Wizard for everything if he can send her back to Kansas.

As for chapter note 8 on p.204, aren't the readers supposed to see the three heroes as foolish for believing in the Wizard's gifts?

Until I read this book, I never put 1939 Glinda and the Munchkins wondering if Dorothy is a good witch or a bad witch together with Glinda's assurance that only bad witches are ugly. How insulting to 1939 Dorothy's appearance that they're willing to think she might be a bad witch.

Two things we learn about Baum's Witch of the East is that she '...held all the Munchkins in bondage for many years, making them slave for her night and day' [chapter 2] and that she was willing to maim a man for pay. [chapter 5]. I'm willing to call her wicked for those actions.

The Wicked Witch of the West is equally deserving of her adjective. In chapter 12 of Baum's book the Witch sends her 40 wolves to tear Dorothy and friends to pieces. When the wolves' leader asks if she's not going to enslave them, the Witch dismisses the intruders as unfit to work. After the Tin Woodsman kills the wolves, she sends her crows to peck out their eyes and tear them to pieces. Luckily, the crows are stupid enough to attack the Scarecrow one at a time so he wrings their 40 necks. The Witch loses her swarm of black bees to the Woodsman's tin body. Then the Witch arms a dozen of her slaves, the Winkies, to kill our heroes. The Winkies aren't brave and run away from the Lion's roar. They get beaten with a strap for their failure. The only reason the winged monkeys didn't destroy Dorothy was the mark of the Good Witch of the North's kiss on her forehead. The Cowardly Lion isn't destroyed because the witch decided to have a use for him. Caging the Lion and trying to starve him into submission was hardly nice. If not for the fact that they both had artificial bodies, the Scarecrow and Tin Man would have been killed! Dorothy is enslaved, just as the Guardian of the Gates to the Emerald City warned that she and the others would be if the Wicked Witch of the West knew they were in the Country of the Winkies. (That conversation is at the beginning of chapter 12. The subject isn't funny, but the style made me chuckle.)

Yes, MGM changed the response to the death of the Wicked Witch of the East from Baum's with an open and enthusiastic celebration. In chapter 13, however, Baum wrote: 'There was great rejoicing among the yellow Winkies, for they had been made to work hard during many years for the Wicked Witch, who had always treated them with great cruelty. They kept this day as a holiday, then and ever after, and spent the time in feasting and dancing.'

There's a reason the wicked aren't mourned, that their deaths are celebrated. They cause pain, misery, fear, death, loss of freedom, etc. to others. When a particularly nasty supervisor of mine (the one who called to me as I passed his door so he could point out the gun in his open briefcase as he told me he wanted me to know he had it), was forced to retire, I danced and sang 'Ding Dong the Witch is Dead'. Are not the deaths of wicked and tyrannical men often celebrated with as great rejoicing as that celebration of the Munchkins?

As for excusing the violence of killing the witch in fairy tales, don't fairy tales equally excuse the killing of giants, wizards, and other powerful, evil men? Isn't the violence usually carried out in self-defense? In the example given, Hansel and Gretel, the witch ate children. She was trying to trick Gretel into getting in the oven to be cooked when the tables were turned. http://www.mordent.com/folktales/grimms/hng/hng.html

On the other hand, it's the children's mother who is willing to have the children die so she and her husband may have more food. As so often happens in fairy tales, the father is ineffectual, unable to protect his children from the woman who is the threat to them. Aren't so many of them fools whose second wives become wicked stepmothers to their children?

PAGE 60.

While I agree that the MGM movie sanitized the killing of the Wicked Witch of the West by changing the circumstances from Dorothy deliberately splashing the witch to accidentally splashing the witch while trying to save the Scarecrow, that killing cannot be called murder. It was manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter at that. The only person trying to commit murder in that movie scene is the witch. If not for the witch's own body, the water wouldn't have killed her. Strangely, that same act is described as 'altogether accidental' 18 lines down the page.

Had to snicker at the quotation from Ms. Friedman about Dorothy being the well-behaved and dutiful niece of Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Back then, a well-behaved girl Dorothy's age would not be walking along the top of the pig sty or interrupting Aunt Em. A dutiful niece would have found some chore she could help out with instead of singing. She most certainly would not have run away even to save her dog. When I was a girl in the 1960s, my mother kept telling me that ladies do not wear shorts in public, they don't make scenes in public, and they don't sit on the sidewalk, etc. I'm sure if we'd had one, I would have been told that ladies don't walk along the top of pig sties.

What's so selfless about MGM Dorothy expecting '...little in return other than to be sent back to her proper place in Kansas' when going home is her greatest desire? What more should she be expecting? Also, Dorothy may not have expected it of them, but wasn't her kindness to the lonely Scarecrow, Tin Woodsman, and the Cowardly Lion repaid when they risked their lives to rescue her from the Wicked Witch of the West? The males could have decided that they didn't want brains, a heart, or courage that much and scampered off to save themselves.

PAGE 61:

I don't think a passive good girl would have gone to the Emerald City, let alone go to get the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West, even with male companions.

The Wiz did not depart from Baum in having Dorothy respond with horror at the order to kill the Witch. In chapter 11 Dorothy tells the Wizard she cannot [kill the Witch]. When he insists that he won't send her back to Kansas if she doesn't, she sobs as she tells him she's never willingly killed anything and even if she wanted to, how could she kill the Wicked Witch? When she returns to her companions, Dorothy tells them there's no hope for her because the Wiz won't send her home unless she kills the witch and she could never do that. (The Wizard does tell Baum's Dorothy to remember that the Witch is Wicked, tremendously Wicked, and ought to be killed.) It's the Lion who says that destroying the Witch is the only thing they can do. After some more dialog and tears, the little girl supposes they must try it, but she's sure she doesn't want to kill anybody, even to see Aunt Em again.

I enjoyed Tyler Perry's Don't Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings, so I find it significant that Dorothy removes her earrings as she's planning to give in to the Wiz's demand that they kill the Wicked Witch of the West. (Emerald City Motel room scene). The guys are ready to make a new life in the Emerald City, but Dorothy declares she couldn't be happy there.

PAGE 62:

In the MGM movie, once they realize the wizard is a humbug, the men don't ask him for what he promised, the wizard just fast talks them into accepting the objects he has to offer. The diploma, medal, and heart with a clock in it seem to have the same effect on their belief in themselves as the crow feather that made Dumbo believe he could fly. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033563/synopsis

If one insists on the 'in public' part of the definition for 'denounce,' Dorothy of the The Wiz doesn't actually denounce the Wiz. When she brands him a 'phony,' it's the same thing as branding him a 'humbug,' as the Scarecrow does in chapter 15 of Baum's book as well as in the MGM movie.

PAGE 63:

Dorothy of the The Wiz does not murder Evillene. As in the MGM movie, she gives in to the Witch because of the threat to kill Toto. The killing of Evillene is another accident, with a switch from the Scarecrow to the pet as the one endangered by fire.

Dorothy was crying and upset about her friends and her dog. Once Evillene is dead, she's not terrified or shrieking. Dorothy is happily singing and dancing -- twice she dances on the lid of Evillene's throne, which is like dancing on her coffin. Even the Baum and MGM's versions of Dorothy didn't go that far.

PAGE.64: Comic book/graphic novel fandom already has a term for filling in the untold parts of a story: 'retcon' (short for 'retroactive continuity'). After reading Macguire's Wicked, I wouldn't call the book a retcon. There are too many differences between it and Baum/MGM, which qualifies it as an alternate or parallel universe version http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Retcon http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Parallel_universe

PAGE 65: Sarima doesn't want to hear Elphaba's confession, which is the widow's right. Does Sarima need to know that her husband got killed because he was cheating on her? On p.337 of Wicked , Elphaba still thinks about Sarima withholding from her forgiveness for Fiyero's death. That's not an obligation, that's Elphaba wanting something for herself even if she has to emotionally hurt her hostess to get it. What is Elphaba's reaction to being told (by the Wizard) that he believes Sarima and her sisters are all dead on p.351? 'The Witch's breath caught in her chest. The last hopes of forgiveness gone!' Isn't that a pretty selfish reaction?

Except for her mercy killing of a member of the Gale Force, Maguire seems careful to keep Elphaba from deliberately killing other humans. She won't assassinate Madame Morrible because there are children in the way. It is not by any conscious effort of her will that a cook and Fiyero's nasty son, Manek, are killed. Morrible is already dead by the time a middle-aged Elphaba comes to murder her.

PAGE 67: I like the idea of the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked: a New Musical. The happy ending doesn't surprise me. It's a musical, not an opera.

PAGE 69: Aside from my annoyance at not allowing D.G. of Tin Man to be a normal young woman, I question using 'prodigal daughter' to describe the character. http://www.answers.com/topic/prodigal

PAGE 70: I didn't bother to watch the Tin Man mini-series, but I regret that now. D.G. and Azkadellia being sisters is definitely different. So is the temporarily successful murder of D.G. I'm glad I found this detailed synopsis of the series because it helped me with questions I had after reading The Wizard of Oz as American Myth:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1251291/synopsis
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1251292/synopsis
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1251293/synopsis

PAGE 71:

Well, if D.G.'s native land is the O.Z. and both sets of parents are there, Kansas is no longer where home and family are for our heroine. Why should D.G. want to go back?

Regarding D.G. needing Glitch to remember the details of the sunseeder, accepting a friend's comfort boundaries and allowing that friend to retreat into her/his own lack or shortcoming isn't necessarily a good thing. Shouldn't a friend make sure that it's something that can't be helped before accepting it? After all, acceptance can become enabling unhealthful behavior or conditions that can be changed. If D.G.'s quest is to keep Azkadellia from destroying the O.Z., and those details are needed to prevent that destruction, doesn't that mean people are likely to be killed or suffer worse than minor injuries if Glitch never remembers? As for the gentle cajoling alternative to having Raw read Glitch's mind, is there time for that? There's a big difference between gently cajoling a terrified friend into climbing up or down a ladder if all that's at stake is missing out on some pleasure, and if the friend is going to DIE in some emergency if s/he doesn't use that ladder right now. How would Glitch feel if he later learned that even one person died or was maimed, disfigured, or crippled because D.G. didn't coerce him into having his mind read?

PAGE 72:

According to that IMDB synopsis, D.G.'s current age is 20. If Lavender Eyes came to Father Vue 15 years ago, then D.G. was only five years old when Azkedellia was possessed. According to part two of that same synopsis, little D.G. was lured into releasing the evil witch. The witch focused on D.G.'s fear so the girl broke away from holding hands and ran. For heaven's sake, D.G. was five years old. How much responsibility can a child that young have for not being able to withstand the power of an evil witch?

There's still a bad girl/good girl dichotomy in Tin Man. There are two good girls, D.G. and Azkedellia, and one bad one: the evil witch possessing Azkedellia.

PAGE 73: Azkedellia did not imprison her mother or torture or marginalize anyone. The evil witch did all that. Azkedellia herself bears no responsibility for what the evil witch does while in control of her body. She didn't even invite the witch to take her over. D.G. is never pitted against her sister, she's pitted against an evil witch using her sister's body. When Azkedellia is freed, both sisters can stand against the witch.

PAGE 75: According to p.63 of Down the Yellow Brick Road: the Making of the Wizard of Oz by Doug McCelland (which is listed on p.222 of Prof. Burger's bibliography), MGM was considering having a glamorous evil witch, casting Gale Sondergaard for the role and even creating costumes -- but didn't go through with that idea. http://17.media.tumblr.com/kxZNGYHINr10mf5kncN7fvifo1_500.jpg

From reading pp. 78 & 80 of McClellan, I suspected that the midget Munchkins were a response to Disney's 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. While the AMC filmsite review of The Wizard of Oz doesn't state its references, it does confirm my guess. http://www.filmsite.org/wiza.html (See this page: http://www.filmsite.org/wiza2.html ) In that case, making the Munchkins so much smaller than Dorothy was just a commercial decision.

PAGE 76: MGM's green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West may not even embody 'Otherness and feminine monstrosity'. I borrowed and watched the 50th anniversary videotape of The Wizard of Oz on 9/09/2012. I had forgotten that the Winkie soldiers also have green skin and long noses like the Witch's. Their skin (which is a darker shade of green than hers in the death scene) doesn't change after she dies, as one might expect if she'd put them under a spell to resemble herself. It's a pity we never got to see her sister's face. If the Wicked Witch of the East also has green skin and a long nose, could it be that Margaret Hamilton's looks were normal for Winkies? If so, wouldn't her wickedness (and magic?) be what made her different from a normal Winkie woman?

PAGE 77: Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West appears to lose all interest in the death of her sister once Glinda reminds her of the ruby slippers. Certainly Glinda seems to have no fear of the Wicked Witch of the West. As for Glinda's dress, a woman wearing clothes that make her appear utterly harmless, possibly silly, might be not unlike a soldier wearing camouflage in enemy territory. Sometimes it pays to make sure one will be underestimated.

PAGE 78:

Given the description of Evillene here, I expected the character to be at least twice as fat as she was in the film. For the period she probably did seem monstrously fat. For today, Evillene just needs to trim her eyebrows, medicate all those zits on her cheeks, and develop better dress sense to be a 'Big, Beautiful Woman'. Similarly, the mystery series starring the fictional detective, Nero Wolfe, describes him in ways that make it sound as if he's 500 pounds or more, but in most of the books his weight is 1/7th of a ton, which is only 285.71 pounds. Considering photos I saw of super obese patients in nursing articles about surgical weight loss back when I was a medical librarian, neither Evillene nor Wolfe seem very fat to me.

Is the body of Evillene '...visibly coded in conjunction with bodily waste, the epitome of the abject which must be expelled and flushed away'? The sign next to the sign for Evillene's Sweat Shop proclaims that they're Manufacturers and Exporters of Sweat. The signs in front of the public library command "DON'T EASE" until our heroes are ready to move on again with the lion, then they say 'EASE". Why couldn't Evillene's throne being a toilet just be a double visual pun from toilets being called porcelain thrones and the phrase about one's life going down the toilet?

PAGE 80. Nessarose may lack arms, but she's otherwise beautiful.

PAGE 88-89: My guess would be that the evil witch controlling Azkedellia wears a corset to help ensure that the heterosexual male portion of the audience won't change the channel.

CHAPTER FOUR:

Yes, L. Frank Baum wanting the genocide of the Native Americans in the Dakota Territory was disgusting!

PAGE 93: How segregated can the population of Baum's Oz be if a Munchkin has traveled to Quadling country, as we learn in chapter 2? Shouldn't we keep in mind the lack of planes, trains, and automobiles in Oz? Wasn't it more common for people to live their entire lives in the place where they were born before modern transportation was invented? The people made of china in chapter 20 do have a high wall surrounding their country, but they are very fragile people with very fragile animals and buildings. In the short time Dorothy and friends are in there a cow breaks its leg and shatters a pail while the maid milking her gets a nick in her elbow. The Lion accidentally smashes a china church while going over the wall at the other end.

PAGE 98: If I remember correctly, in library school I was taught that Baum made the colors of the North, South, East, West, and central Oz separate because it made for less expensive color illustrations. (I studied to be a children's librarian.) Even if Mr. Baum apparently forgot that later in the second book, that may be why he had Tip tell Jack Pumpkinhead that the grass, trees, houses, fences, and even the mud of Gillikin country was purple in The Land of Oz, just as everything was blue in the land of the Munchkins, red in the land of the Quadlings, and yellow in the land of the Winkies. (See the 'Flight of the Fugitives' chapter.) I say apparently forgot that later in the book because in the 'The Scarecrow Appeals to Glinda' chapter, the gump comes to rest on a green lawn within Glinda's gardens.

PAGE 102: The Wiz's Scarecrow removes bits of paper from the front of his armpits and the opening in his chest as well as his head.

PAGE 104: Why doesn't Teenie (Teensie?), the fourth wife of the Tin Man, come to life if only to protest the loss of her husband as seat cushion? The three ladies on one of the amusement park's walls sing, the artificial band plays, and the row of painted heads in a booth have musical sounds coming from their big round mouths.

PAGE 106: The Wiz's Dorothy's clothes are pretty, but her lilac blouse and off-white skirt practically whisper 'take no notice of me'. Dorothy is braver about talking to the giant Wiz head than the guys are. When our heroes are moving down a hall with their backs sliding across the wall on their way to the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy is in the lead. Even though it didn't work out, she's the one who found a hiding place.

PAGE 109:

Again, MGM's Wicked Witch of the West is not the only green-skinned person in her land.

As for the unquestioning obedience of the Winkies... Let's see -- the witch can spy through her crystal ball, has winged monkeys with which to attack her enemies, can create poppies so deadly that breathing among them puts one to sleep -- and she can do it from a long distance away -- is willing to execute enemies, and was going to make Dorothy watch the death of her friends before killing her. I think the Winkies' obedience -- especially not verbalizing any questions they might have -- is very explicable. I almost wish that Ms. Hamilton told her young son that the Winkies obeyed because the Witch would have killed them if they hadn't instead of excusing them with that being under a spell explanation.

PAGE 110: Although Elphaba's green skin is never really explained, after reading about Elphaba's dream after drinking the miracle elixir on p.383 of Wicked, I wondered if the Wizard had been an Irishman who had come to the USA. Was that the significance of that 'NO IRISH NEED APPLY' sign in the dream? Is Elphaba's emerald skin an outward sign of the fact that her biological father came from the Emerald Isle? Could that be one of the reasons why he lives in the Emerald City?

PAGE 113: Poor Elpaba's question about upholding the Banns on Animal mobility if it can be scientifically proven that there's no inherent difference between humans and Animals is sad. Scientifically proving that women are not inferior to men nor other races inferior to whites hasn't stopped sexism or racism.

PAGES 114-115: Where Elphaba's behavior is definitely evil can be found on p.334. As Elphaba's experiments on snow monkeys are described, they're horrible. That's especially true in the line about years of botched and hideous failures, when mercy killing seeming the only fair thing to do to the suffering subject.

PAGE 116: As for Cote's argument that the plight of the sentient animals in Wicked gives Oz a thought-provoking and gritty new dimension -- what, slavery isn't gritty enough??? In chapter two of the original novel the Witch of the North tells Dorothy that the Wicked Witch of the East has held all the Munchkins in bondage for many years, making them slave for her night and day. (The Witch of the North says she's not as powerful as the Witch of the East. Interesting, then, that in chapter 12 the winged monkeys fear the Witch of the North's mark as protecting Dorothy with the power of good, which is stronger than the power of evil.)

PAGE 117-118: The effect of Elphaba on girl fans sounds pretty normal for a strong and sympathetic female character on female fandom. The writing of fanfic [fan fiction] and creating fan art goes back decades. I've done both, as well as writing filk songs [songs based on fictional worlds, be they from book, movie, comic book, TV, etc.].

PAGE 119-120: When I read the description of Tin Man's version of Henry and Emily, I thought they sounded more like androids. I don't care what they look like, if they aren't flesh as well as machine, I am not willing to call them cyborgs. You can still get the Otherness and considering them as persons (or not) by calling them androids.

PAGE 122-123: Making Toto a shape-shifter may be new for versions of OZ, but the concept of shape-shifters isn't at all new. Given the magic as well as technology in the O.Z., the context includes old fantasy as well as science fiction elements.

PAGE 124: However, the Otherness of the male green Winkies in the classic MGM film doesn't make them worthy of destruction. Once the Wicked Witch of the West is dead, they seem like pretty nice guys. Glinda is also the Other because she is a witch, but she's not subordinate or worthy of destruction. I'm sure she could be quite dangerous to someone who attacked her, but good characters are allowed to defend themselves and the helpless. Well, evil characters are allowed to defend the helpless, too, but usually don't want to bother.

CHAPTER FIVE:

PAGE 127: In chapter 11 of Baum's The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy tells the Wizard, 'I don't like your country, although it is so beautiful.' No surprise, then, that she wants to go home to her loving family. (That Aunt Em loves her is obvious in the last chapter of the book. How much Uncle Henry loves Dorothy is obvious at the end of Ozma of Oz.)

PAGE 129: Baum not only chose to have a heroine as the main character of his first (and third) Oz books, the hero of his second Oz book, Tip, is revealed to be the missing Princess Ozma. (It's probably just as well that the princess was returned to her original sex before she reached puberty.) In the real world, a child Dorothy or Tip's age away from home would have been likely snatched for back-breaking work or child prostitution if s/he didn't just starve or freeze to death. Shall I mention the dangers of disease while I'm at it?

PAGE 133: The longer Kansas introduction in the MGM film allows the groundwork for the 'it was all a dream' revelation at the end. Hunk mentions brains, Zeke is scared when he rescues Dorothy from the pig sty. Dorothy calls Miss Gulch a wicked old witch. Perhaps Dorothy's subconscious realizes that Professor Marvel is a fake. Her desire for a place where there isn't any trouble may be only a temporary feeling because she's so unhappy about the threat to her beloved dog and no one around her is listening. I live near beautiful mountains that I love to look at, but I recall a time when I was so dissatisfied with other aspects of my life that I couldn't stand seeing those same mountains. I wanted to get away.

The MGM movie even plays a little of 'Home Sweet Home' as Dorothy is regaining consciousness.

PAGE 134: The quotation from 'Relinquishing Oz: Every Girl's Anti-Adventure Story' by Ms. Bonnie Friedman bothered me so I checked the original texts. In Jane Eyre, Mrs. Rochester wasn't the caged woman in the attic, she was locked in a windowless secret room reachable only through a third floor bedroom of Mr. Rochester's house. She had a nurse in attendance. Bertha Antoinetta Mason Rochester was imprisoned because she was a homicidal maniac and fire-setter. Yes, Mr. Rochester did wrong when he kept her existence secret, but he did try to rescue her when the maniac set Thornfield Hall on fire. See chapters 26, 27, & 36. There's a copy of the novel here. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1260/1260-h/1260-h.htm

As for Miss Madeline Usher, she was not chained, nor did she burn down her ancestral mansion. If you don't have a copy of 'The Fall of the House of Usher' handy, you may read/reread it here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/932/932-h/932-h.htm I'm glad I chose my copy of The Annotated Tales of Edgar Allan Poe from which to reread the story because editor Mr. Stephen Peithman's introduction to that tale mentions that the house was burned in the 1960 Roger Corman film version. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Usher_(film)

According to a private e-mail exchange with Professor Burger, Ms. Friedman doesn't make it clear as to which versions of Jane Eyre and 'The Fall of the House of Usher' she is referring. At least I remembered the book and story well enough to suspect Ms. Friedman was incorrect about the original texts. What about readers who don't know any better? Plenty of persons claim that the Bible says pride goes before a fall, but according to Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 18, pride goes before destruction/disaster (depending upon the translation). It's a haughty spirit that goes before a fall.

Why describe MGM's Dorothy's desire to return home as sacrificing herself? I'm quite sure there are plenty of American farm women and girls who would bristle at the notion that there's anything wrong with Dorothy wanting to stay on the farm. Some persons love farm life. They shouldn't be looked down upon for that.

PAGE 135: There's good reason for the other characters to believe that MGM Dorothy's adventures were just a dream and for Dorothy to give up insisting that Oz is a real place. In the movie, Dorothy left the house behind in Oz, yet wakes up in her own bed in that same house in Kansas. That means that we and Dorothy have objective evidence that her adventure wasn't real. At least in the original book Dorothy came home to a new house. (I note the greater prosperity Uncle Henry and Aunt Em have in the third book, Ozma of Oz. Not only can they afford hired hands, they can afford for Uncle Henry and Dorothy to take a ship to Australia to visit relatives. See chapter one.)

PAGE 140:

I can't blame Elphaba for rejecting her ancestral home if the price of admission is returning to playing second fiddle to Nessarose.

Only Elphaba knows that she's the 'Other Woman' because Sarima refuses to hear her confession. The home and family there may never have been hers, but Liir has some claim to them (even if only Maguire and the readers know it).

Would Nanny and Liir have sided with Dorothy and companions against Elphaba if Elphaba had retained her originally hospitable intentions (before the tragic misunderstanding that deprives her of dogs, crows, and bees)?

PAGE 142:

I object to the idea that Wicked: a New Musical provides its Elphaba with a more viable chance for happiness and individuality than Baum or MGM's versions of Dorothy. There's no reason they couldn't be happy individuals on a farm.

Shouldn't D.G.'s home be described as no longer being a place of safety or solace for her after the evil witch possessed her sister? As for being sent away after witch-in-sister murdered her, would one describe the English children evacuated to the countryside during World War II as being expelled from London?

PAGE 144: The witch's words to Azkadellia about knowing and leaving her for dead cannot be trusted. It is in the witch's self-interest to keep Azkadellia from struggling to regain control of her body. The villainess inhabiting their elder daughter murdered their younger daughter, so why shouldn't the parents be afraid to have Azkadellia around? How are they supposed to know that Azkadellia in temporary control of her body isn't a trick? They aren't telepaths. The murderer of D.G. is too dangerous for them to take a chance that it's no trick.

Of course Lavender Eyes would tell 'Azkadellia' she isn't her daughter. She knows that evil personality isn't her daughter's. It's understandable that both parents would not consider D.G. responsible or guilty for something she did when she was five years old. I'm a former victim of child sexual abuse from ages eight to twelve. One of the things I learned in therapy was that what happened was the responsibility of the adult perpetrator. The guilt and responsibility I felt for what happened wasn't mine because I was just a child at the time, too young to understand. D.G. should let that guilt go, too.

PAGE 145: Yet those wicked stepmothers tend to be nurturing toward their biological offspring, if they have any. Isn't the unspoken premise of so many fairy tales that the young hero or heroine would not have to suffer or endure danger if their biological mothers were alive to protect them?

PAGE 146: It's not true that the witch in fairy tales is always a lethal threat to the heroine or that they are '...invariably characterized by their out-of-control appetites and unnatural desires'. In the English fairy tale 'The Old Witch,' the witch hires girls as servants but we're not told that she does anything unnatural to them such as eating them. She warns only that something bad will happen to the girls if they look up the chimney. The sisters who become her servants are not ill-treated. They steal from her. The first sister escapes with her ill-gotten gains because she was kind to some loaves of bread, a cow, and an apple tree and they hide her. The baker even shuts the poor victim of theft in his oven. We're told she's kept there for a very long time. Both sisters slander the witch by claiming she'll pick their bones and bury her under the marble stones when they ask to be hidden. All that happens to the unhelpful sister when the witch catches her is that she loses the stolen money, gets beaten, and is sent home instead of jail. If the employer had been said to be an old woman instead of an old witch, would there be any sympathy for the thieving sisters? http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/meft/meft22.htm I think this is a better case of the heroine's actions not being justified by the witch's behavior than the versions of Dorothy and the Wicked Witch of the West prior to Wicked.

PAGE 147: Fleming's Aunt Em didn't just call for Dorothy during the storm. Uncle Henry had to push Aunt Em toward the storm cellar and his hand is on her arm as he makes sure she goes in. Really, what mother or maternal figure's ability to protect her child is infallible, no matter how good she is? In contrast, Uncle Henry played obtuse when Miss Gulch started to complain, although he apparently made sure the fence gate hit her as she walked in. You can see him grin after his wife started to tell Miss Gulch off.

PAGE 148: Must the Wicked Witch's personality be described as a 'vision of monstrous motherhood'? Isn't she just a wicked person who happens to be female?

PAGE 149:

Fleming's Dorothy must decide between giving in to the Witch's demand for the shoes or having her dog drowned. (The Wicked Witch of the West has no better luck keeping Toto in a basket than Miss Gulch did, another way in which the Oz adventure echoes Dorothy's life in Kansas.)

Does the Witch's face replacing Aunt Em's in the crystal ball need to be anything other than a wicked character's twisting of an emotional knife in her captive's heart?

How does either Baum or Fleming's Aunt Em demand the sacrifice of Dorothy's self-reliance as the price for letting her back into the family unit?????? Baum's Aunt Em just hugs and kisses her. As I explained in my observation for page 135, there's a good reason to reject MGM Dorothy's adventures as real. If either aunt were shown as curbing her Dorothy's attempts at self-reliant behavior after the homecoming, I could see making that claim. As is, I don't think it's justified.

Is it significant that in the scene between The Wiz version of Aunt Em and Dorothy described here, Dorothy is sitting in front of a framed piece of embroidery with words that I think are: Let me live in a small house / By the side of the road / And be a friend to man?

PAGE 150: The last shadowy person seen behind Dorothy before she goes home is dear large-and-in-charge Aunt Em.

The two earlier versions of Dorothy are likely to be the sole heirs to the farm, so what need do they have to work away from home? It wasn't so unusual to have several generations living under the same roof back then.

PAGE 153: This was the point where I decided I had to read Wicked to make sense of Elphaba not knowing whether or not she is Liir's mother. Was Liir green or not? Prof. Burger doesn't say. (She also doesn't mention that Liir is fat, as I learned from p. 246 of the novel. Being fat is another way of being 'Othered' in our size-conscious society.) Even after reading the novel I'm left wondering why Elphaba didn't check her breasts and abdomen for physical signs she'd been pregnant. Nor did Nanny ask her if she did. Our heroine couldn't have checked into a modern hospital to have her cervix examined to see if she'd given birth, but wouldn't stretch marks have given her a clue? (Yes, I know, no DNA tests either.)

Regarding note 63 on p. 216, it's another reason for reading the novel. Without sufficient evidence or a statement that Elphaba was Liir's mother, that line in Maguire's novel proved only that Fiyero was the boy's father because Fiyero could have been cheating on Elphaba as well as his wife. Now that I've read the novel, I believe Fiyero wasn't having sex with anyone but Elphaba at the time Liir was conceived.

PAGE 155:

Unless some cursing or blaspheming was involved, what android Em said is not an imprecation. I've already rejected the idea that either Baum or MGM's Aunt Em is an example of constrictive maternalism. (There's plenty of work to do on a farm and MGM's Dorothy is old enough to be pulling her weight.)

PAGE 156: Again, the mother is imprisoned by an evil witch, not a bad daughter. Lavender Eyes doesn't have a bad daughter. She has no reason to believe the creature looking at her through her daughter's eyes during that plea for love and trust.

No, Lavender Eyes asking if it's her Azkadellia, if it's really her, refers to the real personality of her daughter, not that evil stranger who invaded her daughter's mind. This sort of reaction is normal when a fictional character is freed from some form of mind control.

PAGE 158: If MGM's Glinda knows but allows Dorothy to find out what she needed to know for herself, how can she be an overprotective (coddling) mother?

I really wish that we got to find out the names of some of those heroines being contrasted with heroes in Pearson and Pope's The Female Hero in American and British Literature, assuming any names were given.

CHAPTER SIX:

PAGE 160:

I'd like to add the original Dark Shadows soap opera to the popular culture list. That show had Angelique, a beautiful TV witch introduced in 1967, only four years after the start of Bewitched. My favorite Dark Shadows character was Dr. Julia Hoffman, however, because she was a doctor and the head of a sanitarium even though she was a woman -- heady stuff for a female teen viewer in the late 1960s. You've got to hand it to a woman who could create the rough equivalent of a 1970 hospital lab using what materials were available to her when she traveled back to 1840. If I remember correctly (IIRC), she did it in one night. During an even earlier storyline that was apparently influenced by H. P. Lovecraft, Julia was naturally immune to the inhuman Leviathans' mind control, so she led the resistance. After all, hero Barnabas Collins was the first victim. Alas, Julia and Angelique shared the same weakness: they both loved Barnabas. I do remember a storyline where these strong female characters worked together against a common enemy instead of opposing each other. I liked that.

I cannot stress enough how much Julia meant to me back then. Angelique was the supernatural villainess. Julia was a normal human endangering her life against foes with magical powers. Her character became so important to the series that the show found ways to bring her into the second and third storylines set in the past and even the one set in modern parallel time. I guess Julia Hoffman would be an adult equivalent to Dorothy in that supernaturally-menaced version of Maine. She was originally intended to be a male character, by the way. IIRC, there was a typo in the script that made 'Dr. Julian Hoffman' 'Julia' and someone -- the producer? -- thought, why not?

Here's a photo of Angelique during one of the storylines set in the past: http://www.cyndi.com/items/3443.jpg Here's Julia in one of her better hairdos: http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080627003432/darkshadows/images/thumb/2/...

Another novel about witches is Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber. The premise that all women are witches didn't bother me because I'm a woman and I'm not a witch, I can imagine that it would be frightening to a male reader, though. http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/fritz-leiber/conjure-wife.htm

PAGE 162: I remember thinking that Darren was becoming increasingly unreasonable about Samantha's use of magic back when 'Bewitched' first aired.

PAGE 169: I wouldn't call The Wiz's Glinda '...ephemeral, if inspiring'. Glinda sent the twister that brings Dorothy to Oz (was it in response to Dorothy's song's line about if she took a chance would someone lead her?). I got the definite impression that Glinda brought both Dorothy and the Wiz to Oz for them to learn lessons. Dorothy learns and gets to leave. The timid Wiz refuses to change and remains imprisoned in his loneliness and terror.

PAGES 170-171:

Evillene displays magical power in the scene where she declares there will be no lunch breaks. When one of the workers protests they haven't had a lunch break for six months, she retorts that suffering is food for the soul and orders him to suffer as she gestures. Sparks appear in front of him and he disappears when some bolts of fabric move to reveal a square hole that vanishes as the bolts move back.

The four crows, some of the Poppy Love Perfume ladies, and the Subway Peddler are brought to Evillene in two chain gangs. The sweat shop workers are ugly and many appear to have steotopygia. http://www.lexic.us/definition-of/steatopygia When I stared at the workers during my second viewing of the film, I noticed a big zipper on top of one conical bald head and another's face has what appears to be a diagonal crevice through it. Unlike the green Winkie soldiers in the MGM movie, the former slaves of Evillene shed their skin -- but not right away, which suggests that they weren't just forced to wear ugly costumes. It appears that Evillene's death makes it possible for them to pull the zippers and let their beautiful real selves (in brief yellow panties -- with yellow halter tops for the ladies) emerge. The discarded skins spontaneously combust. Even if the slaves didn't have to fear Evillene doing something else to them, looking hideous could be a reason for not trying to escape.

PAGE 171: The silver slippers in The Wiz seem to display a power also not overtly spelled out by the ruby slippers: neither pair is flat heeled, but while they wear them, both Dorothys can dance and run for extended periods without feeling as if their feet are killing them.

PAGE 172:

In pages 124-5 of Wicked, Boq finds a scroll with an illustration of a Kumbric Witch. She's wearing silver shoes.

My impression of the Clock of the Time Dragon was not that it depicted real scenes (except for the ones the dwarf showed Elphaba privately). I thought they were fact mixed with fiction in order to incite people to carry out some wickedness that Yackle wanted done. Frex escaped death, Turtle Heart didn't.

PAGE 176: In p.314 of Wicked, Nessarose, supposedly holy and righteous, still enchants the woodcutter's axe to maim him. That's definitely evil.

PAGE 181: D.G., again, was too young to be responsible enough to be considered the betrayer of her sister when Azkadellia became possessed.

PAGE 183: To state that the evil witches in the Baum, MGM, and Lumet versions are '...destroyed without a second thought; after all, given their wickedness, they deserve destruction' is unfair. The Witches of the East and West in Maguire and those three earlier versions were ALL destroyed by ACCIDENT. Those four Witches of the West each brought about her own destruction. Except for Baum's witch, they were killed because Dorothy was trying to save a life. Maguire's version has the irony that it was the Witch's life Dorothy was trying to save. Baum's witch had enslaved Dorothy as well as the Winkies, so it's hard for me to feel sorry for her.

The sign in the MGM movie's haunted forest says 'witches castle'. Did the plural form of 'witch' on the sign mean that both sisters once lived in the castle? The Wicked Witch of the West claims she'll be the most powerful in the land once she gets the slippers. Does that mean that her sister, who possessed the slippers, and ruled the east, decided to leave their castle and its not particularly fertile lands to take over better land? Glinda apparently didn't know the full power of the shoes (unless she was pretending, as her last appearance in the film suggests), when talking to Dorothy during their first meeting. Were the ruby slippers a Winkie product?

A few things I noted about Wicked:

p.199 What Fiyero calls conscience Elphaba prefers to call instinct. Would either one have converted the other had Fiyero lived?

p.293 The drawing of Yakal snarling reminds Elphaba of Mother Yackle from the mauntery. It's Honking Big Hint time!

p.352 The book comes from the Wizard's world. The Wizard tells Elphaba 'What I did, what I do, cannot be murder. For, coming from another world, I cannot be held accountable to the silly conventions of a naive civilization. I am beyond that lisping childish recital of wrongs and rights.' Also, 'His eyes did not burn as he spoke; they were sunk behind veils of cold blue detachment.' That scared me. May we conclude that Macguire's Wizard is a sociopath?

p.367 In Elphaba's conversation with Avaric, she learns about Yackle the hag and a dwarf who were at the Philosophy Club. Here we get another hint of Yackle's power behind the scenes.

p.373 The dwarf, who says he has no name in this world, claims to be the guardian of the book, the Grimmerie. He says he interferes only to keep the book safe. He also says that his world has guardian angels, but so far as he can work out, Yackle is an opposite number and her concern is Elphaba. So Elphaba's life (and Nessarose's armlessness) has been shaped by a she-devil?

p.374 The dwarf tells Elphaba she's neither this nor that or both this and that. She's both of Oz and the other world. She was never a punishment for Frex's crimes. 'You are a half-breed, you are a new breed, you are a grafted limb, you are a dangerous anomaly. Always you were drawn to the composite creatures, the broken and reassembled, for that is what you are.' That does explain why Elphaba, contrary to the Wizard's belief, can read the Grimmerie, if with difficulty.

Could Elphaba's craving for forgiveness from Sarima come from p.382, where we learn that Frex wanted forgiveness for Turtle Heart's death and the matriarch refused to give it? Elphaba was a witness.

On p.387 Elphaba wants a soul and Liir wants a father. I think Elphaba already has a soul. Liir does have a biological maternal grandfather living, but I wouldn't recommend trying to find a father in him.

A few things I noticed in The Wiz:

Interesting that One, the good witch of the North, appears to run a numbers game with the Munchkins. The people in the Emerald City might merely be having their clothes' colors changed by the light changes. Those people are as phony as their wizard, proclaiming the glory of whatever color the Wiz declares is the fashion. During the blather about wearing green there's a line about rather be dead than wear red. When red becomes the 'in' color, they sneer about green. They just want to be seen wearing the latest style whatever might be their true personal preferences. Dorothy and companions are ignored until the Wiz sends for the one wearing the silver shoes. (One person has been waiting two years to see the Wiz, another four.) Then the crowd starts sucking up to Dorothy.

Dorothy refuses to see the Wiz without her friends, whom the Wiz calls riff-raff.

The crow who is holding Toto and willing to put him in the fire seems quite gleeful about the task.

Nice that the sprinklers bring a rainbow to the sweat-shop room before they turn off.

The Wiz has lived alone and in terror for years, like Baum's Wizard.

THE NEVER-ENDING YELLOW BRICK ROAD:

A few more examples of The Wizard of Oz's effect on USA culture:

'The Wizard of Odd' episode of Disney's Phineas and Ferb http://phineasandferb.wikia.com/wiki/Wizard_of_Odd/Transcript

Miss Gulch's ominous music is sometimes used in Phineas and Ferb.

I forget in which episode it happened, but in the Stargate SG1 TV series, team leader Col. Jack O'Neill's reaction to a big save by team member Maj. Sam[antha] Carter was, Hail to Dorothy.

From p.296, chapter 31 of Too Big To Miss by Sue Ann Jaffarian: 'Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz was right, there's no place like home. Didn't matter how humble, or where, or even if it was a farm in the middle of twister country, home was home, period.' (No kidding. Some persons keep rebuilding in earthquake or flood-prone places.)

In conclusion, I think The Wizard of Oz as American Myth would be a useful text for prompting students to think about what it says (after reading/viewing as many of the originals as possible). Do they consider its descriptions accurate? Do its claims present enough evidence to justify them? If they disagree with its conclusions, why? Does the book display a crying need to learn about the social and cultural context of the older versions before making pronouncements about the characters? Could the author's attitude toward Elphaba be compared to those of some fans who refuse to admit their favorite character has any flaws and denigrate characters who are their favorite's opponents?

I'd like to see a second edition clarifying some of the points that had me puzzled. Certainly this book inspired strong feelings in me while I read it, but how can we learn if we read only books with which we agree?

I wish these essays had been better edited before publication. They should have sent back with notations pointing out the errors that could have been avoided by reviewing the source material before describing it. Also, the editor should have pointed out the obvious lack of consideration for the historical, social, and cultural context of the various versions instead of trying to make them fit preconceived ideas. If not for those problems, this book might have been more than an excellent example of how NOT to write a critical essay. ( )

The Wizard of Oz as American Myth, by Alissa Burger, is definitely not for the casual Oz fan, or even for the casual fan of any type of mythology. Burger goes deep into seven of the incantations of the Oz story, covering L. Frank Baum’s novel, the movie classic, The Whiz, Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, the Broadway version of Wicked, and the SyFy Channel miniseries Tin Man.

While Burger does a nice job of capturing different aspects of the six works, including women of Oz, Race, Magic & Witchcraft, and the reinventing of American myth through the stories, I quickly came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t be able to get through this in just a few sittings. There are many footnotes, and while they do add to the context of each chapter, they take a lot of time to look up. So in essence, this book is not at all a light read.

One thing I learned from this book, and from a previous book that had an essay about Wicked, is that I am not at all interested in reading or seeing this retelling of what is already a classic tale. While I’m sure that millions of fans would disagree with me, I’ve read nothing about it that interests me. I do like the original movie, and loved the original book. I’m also a big fan of the movie Return to Oz, which definitely gives off more of a feeling of the Oz universe of the books than the musical with Judy Garland did.

With these thoughts in mind, I advise that you proceed with caution before following this particular yellow brick road. ( )