Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
It's the book description in the first post that sells it for me. "[S]trange and imaginative postmodernist fable ... puckish humor and bracing pessimism in this fantastical meditation on good and evil, God and free will ... has both idealism and cynicism in its discussion of social, religious, educational, and political issues present in Oz, and, more pointedly, present in our day and time." Sounds interesting; a lot more so than straight out fantasy.
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And a fable based on an allegory, at that. The MGM movie has trumped the book in the public imagination, but
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was more than just a children's fantasy book, although obviously it works on that level. On a deeper level, it's a protracted allegory about populism and the political issues of the day. I've forgotten most of the symbolism, but the yellow brick road is a metaphor for the gold standard, and it's trampled by Dorothy's silver slippers; the populists were in favor of silver. The slippers were changed to ruby in the movie because it was so pretty in technicolor and it's worth remembering other significant changes in the movie, including the mandatory spectacles in the Emerald City and that it wasn't a dream.
I'd love a mini-discussion about
Wicked. Let's talk dates--sometime while it's still summer, I hope.