#tik tokking

[theworldofbaum]

Somewhere On A Map

Something that I feel is partly lost in modern interpretations of L. Frank Baum’s works is how his fictional countries and kingdoms were meant to be a part of the real world, but cut off, instead of in a parallel world like it is now suggested.

Baum set out to write “American” fairy tales, and drew on older traditions from Europe. Countries like Oz, Ix, and Noland are very reminiscent of how older fairy tales would have lands said to be “East of the Sun and West of the Moon,” or in the “thrice-nine land in the thrice-nine kingdom.” In stories such as those, travel to the fairyland is done by magical means, such as riding on the back of the wind. 

(The North Wind by Kay Nielsen.) 

In fact, the idea of traveling on the wind to a magical realm is repeated in how Dorothy travels by cyclone to Oz on her first adventure.

(Art by W.W. Denslow.)

Of course, with how mapped out the world has become, it’s a lot easier to locate magical lands in separate worlds. Not that fictional countries on Earth have ever really gone out of style (Wakanda, anyone?). 

[theworldofbaum]

The lefthand image is concept art by Kriss Sison for the Wicked Witch of the West, featured at the end of Seven Seas Entertainment’s illustrated edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Marvelous Land of Oz. The illustration on the right is the Witch as she appears in the final version of the book (also by Sison, found here).

Personally, I would have liked it if they had gone with the concept art on the left, as it’s clearly inspired by W.W. Denslow’s illustration.

But alas, we ended up with a design more in-line with the MGM film. That being said, the final design looks pretty neat in its own way.

[theworldofbaum]

Looking back, I feel like Glinda being a young woman instead of a more crone-like witch was meant to be something of a surprise in the original Oz book.

The 1939 film has Glinda tell Dorothy that only wicked witches are old and ugly, but that line of thought doesn’t exist in the 1900 novel. The Witch of the North simply tells Dorothy that there are both good and wicked witches, with no mention of physical appearance. Moreover, the Good Witch of the North who greets Dorothy is described by Baum as having a face “covered with wrinkles,” and hair that is “nearly white,” clearly giving off a more grandmotherly appearance. Glinda, by contrast, is described as being both “beautiful and young.” (And bear in mind, Glinda and Dorothy don’t meet in the book until the second-to-last chapter, meaning that up to that point, both witches that Dorothy met were elderly-looking women.)

People have commented how the original Oz film reinforces the idea that older women are inherently uglier/less beautiful than younger women, and yes, that is a horrible attitude to have towards women. But I think it’s worth pointing out how Baum didn’t make the distinction of “old=wicked witch” that the 1939 film did. However, this line of thought of “young=good/better and old=wicked/outdated” does appear to have informed how the 1939 film switches out the original, grandmotherly Witch of the North for the younger, prettier Glinda (and as a result leaves the South without its own Witch).

[theworldofbaum]

A common element in Baum’s Oz books is that he got all of his information from talking to Dorothy. So, in the world of Oz, Baum exists as a character, writing down Dorothy’s adventures and publishing them as works of fiction.

This type of metafictional element was explored in the comic book series Abadazad. To put it simply, Abadazad posits that the titular fantasy world (basically a stand-in for Oz) truly existed, and the author of those books got his intel from a young girl who was the daughter of a man that worked for him.

However, the twist in Abadazad is that the girl, Martha - a stand-in for Dorothy - was actually African-American, but the publisher for the Abadazad books wouldn’t allow an African-American girl to be the protagonist (because it was the early 1900s and the publisher thought mainstream/white audiences wouldn’t like it), so they had her portrayed as a red-haired, white girl. The in-story books also altered the characters to make them more whimsical/less childhood-scarring. 

I’ll be doing something similar on here in regards to Baum’s insistence that the Oz books are his recordings of Dorothy’s adventures. Lots of writers already play around with the implications of Oz (Gregory Maguire being one of the most notorious examples), so it won’t be that out of place.

[theworldofbaum]

L. Frank Baum writes in The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus that Necile, the wood nymph who adopted Claus, was a “nymph of some importance” because she was closely-related to Zurline, the Queen of the wood nymphs, and also because Necile was the one who held the Golden Chalice of Ak for the Queen to drink on Budding Day (when the trees put forth their new buds.

There’s no other explanation given for why Necile is favored among the nymphs, and her origin is explained only so far as to say that she sprouted fully-formed when the world was new and needed the nymphs to care for the forest, but I think there’s enough wiggle room for someone creative to come up with something. 

[theworldofbaum]

According to The Road To Oz, no one can die of natural causes in Oz; however, someone can be condemned to death for committing a heinous crime.

[theworldofbaum]

There’s a story by L. Frank Baum called “Nelebel’s Fairyland” (scroll down a bit on the linked page) that says that the San Diego Bay in California was created when a fairy princess was exiled from the Forest of Burzee and the other fair folk who were her servants terraformed the land, after which said princess decided it was pretty enough for her to not miss the old forest too much, at least until she was forgiven and returned to Burzee.