Book: The Wizard of Oz
Feb. 2nd, 2008 08:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amediaI was looking for something else in the garage, which looks quite a lot like the attic of our old house only more so (we've never really finished unpacking) and I stumbled across a paperback copy of The Wizard of Oz. Having just seen and become hopelessly enamored of Tin Man, I thought it would be fun to reread.
Which it was! There's a lot in the book that's not in the 1939 movie (which I've seen more often and more recently than I had read the book before now), and a number of things that are different, and there was a lot that I had forgotten. I remembered, as I read, that Baum had a certain way of enumerating things and organizing them just so and color-coding things that for some reason I really liked as a child - I suppose it satisfied some latent craving for tidiness - and there it was again. I also liked the moment that took place on the way to Glinda's castle, in the place where everyone was made of china, where Dorothy wanted to take the pretty shepherdess home for her mantelpiece, but apologized when the girl said that if she ever left, she would stiffen up and just stand all the time, and she'd rather be alive in her own country - I thought it was a very striking lesson about wanting to objectify people and then learning not to.
I was also very touched by avery slashy and emo touching scene early on, when it appears that they've lost the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman wants to cry but he can't because he knows he will rust. *pets the Tin Woodman*
Which it was! There's a lot in the book that's not in the 1939 movie (which I've seen more often and more recently than I had read the book before now), and a number of things that are different, and there was a lot that I had forgotten. I remembered, as I read, that Baum had a certain way of enumerating things and organizing them just so and color-coding things that for some reason I really liked as a child - I suppose it satisfied some latent craving for tidiness - and there it was again. I also liked the moment that took place on the way to Glinda's castle, in the place where everyone was made of china, where Dorothy wanted to take the pretty shepherdess home for her mantelpiece, but apologized when the girl said that if she ever left, she would stiffen up and just stand all the time, and she'd rather be alive in her own country - I thought it was a very striking lesson about wanting to objectify people and then learning not to.
I was also very touched by a
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Date: 2008-02-03 03:53 am (UTC)Why is it....
Date: 2008-02-04 11:07 pm (UTC)Re: Why is it....
Date: 2008-02-05 03:43 am (UTC)See, that's really at least two questions, idinit? Is it a better book than the movie is a movie? 'Cause it is a really, really good movie, and I'm not sure how the book stacks up against other children's literature. And is the book itself better than the movie? (In which case, books as a whole seem to be a lot better than movies as a whole.)
I'm sure people who are way more knowledgeable than me have hashed out this issue more clearly. But at any rate, I now have an urge to reread more Oz books, so movies can lead to good results, anyway!