From: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com (edheads-digest) To: edheads-digest@smoe.org Subject: edheads-digest V2 #120 Reply-To: edheads@efohio.com Sender: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com Errors-To: owner-edheads-digest@efohio.com Precedence: bulk edheads-digest Sunday, July 11 1999 Volume 02 : Number 120 Today's Subjects: ----------------- OT: Wizard of Oz and Populism? (longish) ["Jennifer Schlosser" Subject: OT: Wizard of Oz and Populism? (longish) Okay, I've been biting my tongue on this subject for a while since it's mostly off-topic, but I thought I'd share another point of view of interpretations of The Wizard of Oz (EFO-content quota reached by end of email, I promise). It's a big area of debate whether or not Baum intended The Wizard of Oz to be political or not. Not trying to start arguments, just presenting another point of view. Here is info directly quoted from the Wizard of Oz FAQ at http://www.eskimo.com/~tiktok/faq04.html#ozq4.5 "Is it true that Baum wrote The Wizard of Oz as a political tract? Probably not. Baum was not very active in politics, and although his other books do contain some contemporary social commentary, none of them could be considered overtly political works. The connection was not even raised until 1963, when a summer school teacher named Henry Littlefield, while trying to teach the 1896 Presidential election and the turn-of-the-century Populist movement to bored history students, stumbled upon the idea of using The Wizard of Oz to teach the concepts. He and his students made a number of connections -- the Scarecrow was the farmers, the Tin Woodman the factory workers, the Wizard was the President, the Cowardly Lion was William Jennings Bryan, the silver shoes were the silver standard, the yellow brick road the gold standard, and so on -- and Littlefield eventually wrote an article, "The Wizard of Oz: A Parable on Populism," that was published in the magazine American Quarterly in 1964. That was it, until Gore Vidal, writing about Oz in The New York Review of Books in 1977, mentioned the article, and the idea took off. Unfortunately a number of other articles later came out that misunderstood or reinterpreted what Littlefield had said or meant, and other writers took the ideas even further, some not even aware of Littlefield's original essay. Some of these interpretations even contradict each other, and others invented political leanings for Baum (whose early newspaper columns show a stronger leaning towards the Republicans than the Populists). Littlefield makes pains to say, then and now, that he does not believe Baum had an overtly political agenda in writing The Wizard of Oz, and that his observations are more allegorical than theoretical. Like almost any literary work, one can find just about anything in The Wizard of Oz, if one looks for it hard enough. Other interpretations of the book that have been published include spiritual (Baum did have a minor interest in the Theosophist movement), mythic, psychological (Freudian, Jungian, and others), feminist, and socialist/Communist. The strongest evidence, however, points to Baum merely wanting to tell a good story, and not to add any hidden meaning. (For more information on this topic, click here < ftp://ftp.eskimo.com/u/t/tiktok/oz/parable.txt > or here < http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/dbj5/oz.html >.)" * * * I suppose one's view of this depends on one's definition of artist's intention vs. and interpretation and all that. If Baum didn't mean for the story to have political commentary, then are we mistaken to see such clear connections between the two? In Baum's case, I think it is a widespread misconception about the book and his intentions. It's strange to assume that Baum meant his stories to be political when the connection wasn't even *noticed* until the 60's, 60 years after Wizard of Oz was written. Also, Littlefield's article (mentioned above) states very clearly that he doesn't think Baum intended to write a political novel. He simply stated that there were obvious, but coincidental connections that could be used to teach students events in history. From there, people took Littlefield's essay to mean that Baum had consciously written a political commentary, and now it is commonly accepted that Baum wrote with these intentions. Okay, so if all of this is true, then what about Loitering in the Lobby? I dunno. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Jennifer. ps - yes, I did write a paper about this. blah. - -- "and that creaking you hear, it's increasingly clear, is my brain... OVERLOAD." - ------------- [ REKLAMA / ADVERTISEMENT ] -------------- Uwaga: POPkarta o wartosci 50 zl. GRATIS. Szczegoly: http://www.pop.centertel.pl/pop/promocja.html - -------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 22:44:57 EDT From: Geriberry2@aol.com Subject: Question Hi, I love EFO and this mailing list, but I need to be taken off of it. I just don't have time to read any of it, and the messages just go to waste. If someone could help me out and take me off of this, I would be very greatful! Thanks a bunch Geri ------------------------------ End of edheads-digest V2 #120 *****************************