little woman

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum
Children’s Fantasy

This took about 10 minutes to read and I am so glad I finally got around to it. Such a great story… Only 13 more of his books to go. But before I read them, I will be reading Wicked… I plan to take it with me to the coast this weekend! I am also finishing up the Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy… So many good books my head is gonna explode…

Interesting bit about the Wonderful Wizard of Oz… this is all taken from, you guessed it, Wikipedia.

Some scholars have theorized that the images and characters used by Baum and Denslow closely resembled political images that were well known in the 1890s, specifically the debate of the day regarding monetary policy: the “Yellow Brick Road” represents the gold standard, the silver slippers (which were ruby slippers in the film version) represent the sixteen to one silver ratio (dancing down the road). Many other characters and story lines represent identifiable people or circumstances of the day. The wicked witches of the east and west represented the local banks and the railroad industry, respectively, both of which drove small farmers out of business. The scarecrow represents the farmers of the Populist party, who managed to get out of debt by making more silver coinage. The return to bimetalism would increase inflation, thus lowering the real value of their debts. The Tin Woodman represents the factory workers of the industrialized North, whom the Populists saw as being so hard-pressed to work grueling hours for little money that the workers had lost their human hearts and become mechanized themselves. (See Second Industrial Revolution) Toto was thought to be short for teetotaler, another word for a prohibitionist; it should be noted that William Jennings Bryan, the fiery popular candidate (possibly the Lion character) from the Populist Party, was a teetotaler himself. Bryan also fits the allegorical reference to the Cowardly Lion in that he retreated from his support of free silver after economic conditions improved in the late 1890s. However, it has also been suggested the cowardly Lion represented Wall Street investors, given the economic climate of the time. The Munchkins represented the common people (serfdom), while the emerald city represented Washington and its green-paper money delusion. The Wizard, a charlatan who tricks people into believing he wields immense power, would represent the President. The kiss from the Good Witch of the North is the electoral mandate; Dorothy must destroy the Wicked Witch of the West—the old West Coast “establishment” (money) with water (the US was suffering from drought). Moreover, “Oz” is the abbreviation for the measuring of these precious metals: ounces.

You can look further into this at this page specifically about the political interpretations of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz…

The SciFi channel did something not long ago that actually didnt suck that much called Tin Man. I saw some of the episodes but not all… making a mental note to download them soon…

I have, of course, seen the Wizard of Oz an ungodly number of times. Remember the munchkin suicide rumor? You can see him hanging himself at the end of the Tin Man’s scene? Turns out that is all untrue.

the object in question is actually a wild crane used to populate the forest scene.

The Giver
by Lois Lowry
Published 1993 by Bantam
Young Adult/Soft Science Fiction/Utopia & Dystopia Fiction

What an interesting concept… one single person in the community to remain “conscious” while the rest are drones. I was amazed to find myself considering that some of their educational tactics were fascinating. Until a certain age, you wear a jacket that buttons up the back so you learn to be interdependent on each other. When you come of a certain age, you get the button-up-the-front jacket. And talking about your feelings and dreams with your family at the table… not a bad idea!

However, there are worse things that definitely override any positives those kinds of things might have… the listening speakers in the homes, the suppressing of sexual feelings, not having actual families but family units, having birthmothers that are cranking out children to be placed in family units. All bad…

This is a great book for Young Adults to teach them to embrace individuality and feelings. I really enjoyed it… reminded me a lot of Farenheight 451… Supposedly this is the beginning book in a loose trilloy. Next comes Gathering Blue published in 2000 and Messenger in 2004. They are only loosely tied by having some recurring characters and dealing with some of the same issues… fitting into a society where one clearly doesnt belong.

Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
Published 1865 by Macmillan
Children’s Fiction/Literary Nonsense

Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found there
by Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
Published 1871 by Macmillan
Children’s Fiction/Literary Nonsense

Well everyone knows these stories so I just thought I would look into some history…

Alice was first published on 4 July 1865, exactly three years after the Reverend Lewis Carroll and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed in a boat up the River Thames with three little girls.[Wikipedia] He told the tale to the three girls, Alice Liddell being one of them, she loved it and asked him to write it down. When he finally got around to writing it, he sent her a copy and one to the publishers.

Alice in Wonderland was banned in China (1931) for the portrayal of Anthropomorphized animals acting on the same level as humans. [Wikipedia]

The first printing of 2,000 books got destroyed because the illustrator, John Tiennel, had objections over the quality of the printing. 23 copies survied and the Harry Ransom Center here in Austin has one of them! Exciting!

John Tenniel’s illustrations of Alice do not portray the real Alice Liddell, who had dark hair and a short fringe. Carroll sent Tenniel a photograph of Mary Hilton Babcock, another child-friend, but whether Tenniel actually used Babcock as his model is open to dispute. [Wikipedia] He is best known for his illustrations in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.  I have included some of them here.

In Through the Looking Glass Alice herself is a pawn on a huge chess board and the other characters are chess pieces as well. Some say the book does not follow the proper rules of chess based on when she meets some of the characters. Also, supposedly there is some hidden code by Carroll regarding his relationship with Alice that references the number 42. You can read more about that here.

I love the use of poetry in both of the books. I grabbed these list from Wikipedia:

Wonderland

• “All in the golden afternoon…” —the prefatory verse, an original poem by Carroll that recalls the rowing expedition on which he first told the story of Alice’s adventures underground
• “How Doth the Little Crocodile” — a parody of Isaac Watts’ nursery rhyme, “Against Idleness And Mischief”
• “The Mouse’s Tale” —an example of concrete poetry
• “You Are Old, Father William” — a parody of Robert Southey’s “The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them“
• The Duchess’ lullaby, “Speak roughly to your little boy…” — a parody of David Bates’ “Speak Gently“
• “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Bat” — a parody of “Twinkle twinkle little star“
• The Lobster Quadrille — a parody of Mary Botham Howitt‘s “The Spider and the Fly”
• “‘Tis the Voice of the Lobster” — a parody of “The Sluggard”
• Turtle Soup — a parody of James M. Sayles‘ “Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star”
• “The Queen of Hearts…” — an actual nursery rhyme
• “They told me you had been to her…” — the White Rabbit’s evidence

Looking Glass

• Prelude
• Jabberwocky (seen in the mirror-house)
• Tweedledum and Tweedledee
• The Lion and the Unicorn
• The Walrus and the Carpenter
• Humpty Dumpty
• “In Winter when the fields are white…”
• Haddocks’ Eyes / The Aged Aged Man / Ways and Means / A-sitting on a gate (see Haddocks eyes) The song is A sitting on a gate, but its other names and callings are placed above.
• To the Looking-Glass world it was Alice that said…
• White Queen’s riddle
• “A boat beneath a sunny sky”, the first line of a title-less poem at the end of the book that is an acrostic: the beginning letters of each line together spell Alice Pleasance Liddell.

Alice Liddell

As might be expected, there seems to be controversy over her relationship with Carroll. Pages of his diary are missing. When their relationship first began in 1862, Alice was 10 and he would have been 30. There is also said to be a rift between his family and the Liddell family. Who knows!?

Charles Lutwig Dodgson

Dodgson, or Lewis Carroll, attended the University of Oxford and attended the college Christ Church. His talent as a mathematician won him the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship, which he continued to hold for the next twenty-six years. The income was good, but the work bored him. Many of his pupils were older and richer than he was, and almost all of them were uninterested. However, despite early unhappiness, Dodgson was to remain at Christ Church, in various capacities, until his death. [Wikipedia] Apparently he had a rather nasty stammer but he was socialy outgoing. He was friends with George MacDonald and saw him as a mentor.

While some drug use has references to these two books and the author, there is no evidence that he ever did do drugs. Having attended the Christ Church college he was expected to enter the priesthood not long after graduation but he never did take this step. He was an avid photographer and, having taken several photos of nude or semi-nude young women, he is suspected of being a paedophile.  There are several authors out there that argue that it is all a part of the “Carroll myth”- that he is a misunderstood man.

In 1871 he wrote the Hunting of the Snark, his last work and another nonsense poem. He died in 1898 of pneumonia.

Last night, Paul and I watched the 1951 Disney version of Alice in Wonderland. Its Sunday movie and I get to pick the movie and we are going to watch the 1985 made-for-tv version of Alice in Wonderland… its my favorite version! UPDATE: We watched it this Sunday… I think most everyone enjoyed it. It was a little long… almost 3 hours! But it was good to see it again after so long…apparently I forgot but some of the music is a bit questionable…