Broomsticks at 20 Paces

[qos]

For kateri_thinks -- and anyone else interested in a spirited defense of the Wicked Witch of the West:

http://www.geocities.com/almira_g/Almira.html

http://www.geocities.com/almira_g/CompareA-G.html

Comments

[blessed-harlot.livejournal.com]

Well, you've definitely convinced me.

[oakmouse]

Baum was a magician and Theosophist. The Oz books are all full of theosophical material, and Western esotericism more generally. One of these days I need to sit down and work out some of the magical implications of the Wizard of Oz. I've done some work already on Ozma of Oz. (Actually, I need to reread the lot first.)

Anyway, it was nice to see that this woman has worked out some of the magical material. *g* Makes the books much less "kiddy lit", doesn't it?

[qos.livejournal.com]

Eek! I never saw the email notification of this comment when you first posted it.

I had no idea that Baum was a magician and a Theosophist!

I was a lifelong Oz fan, read all the series I could get my hands on from the public library when I was growing up and cherished them all. But when my daughter was about six or seven I tried to read them to her, and we were both bored. They seemed like a never-ending parade of odd creatures who existed simply for the sake of being odd. They weren't the charming adventures I remembered. Maybe we got our hands on the wrong book to return to the series with, but I was so disappointed. In fact, a couple of years later I gave my entire collection away to kateri_thinks and her daughter.

Wicked the musical is a powerful, wonderful story.