does anyone here still think that OZ started and ended with Judy?

[Samhain]

if so have a look at this!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oz_books

[TARABELLE]

I have read many of the books.

When I was at church and bored in my youth.

hahahahahaha!

[daisymae]

I have never read any of the books. I probably should.

You know, they almost had Shirley Temple play Dorothy...I don't think it would have had the same effect. I mean, I like Shirley Temple movies, but they tend to be a bit on the cheese side.

Which reminds me, when I was 9, my grandma gave me a horrible home-perm, and to this day my uncle calls me Tammy Temple...

[Piney]

In reality, its a heavy story with roots in an American economic depression
Each charachter has a symbolic meaning

[Samhain]

In reality, its a heavy story with roots in an American economic depression
Each charachter has a symbolic meaning
well do share!
S

[Piney]

The Scarecrow represents the agricultural sector, which was a disaster due to unsustainable farming practices resulting in The Dust Bowl. Think the movie Grapes of Wrath Scarecrow has no brain (stupidity) representing environmentaly abusive farming & soils managemt in the US high plains states.

OZ as everybody here knows means an ounce its an ounce of gold which
the Eastern Establishment used to anchor the value of the dollar.
In the 1898 depression, strong dollar appreciation bankrupted small farmers, shopkeepers and plain folk. The Emrald City made out the streets were paved with gold.

Tin Man represents the industrial sector. Subustute a hammer for the axe.
He was rusted because of lock-outs in industries for the workers who wanted to organise for collective bargaining. He had no heart.

The Cowardly Lion is the financial sector, banking, Wall Street. They didn't have the courage to lend and invest in hard economic times.

[TARABELLE]

Interesting interpertations, but the first book was written in 1900 long before the dust bowl happened. Though I grant you the agricultural practices resulting in the dust bowl I'm sure were in effect in 1900.

[themnax]

Interesting interpertations, but the first book was written in 1900 long before the dust bowl happened. Though I grant you the agricultural practices resulting in the dust bowl I'm sure were in effect in 1900.

wow, i didn't know it went back THAT far. in that case my guessing the 1930s is a bit off. that does shed a whole new light for me on the cultural context of the times it's author lived in. before even WWI, or even 1910, when the were railroads and interurbans still being built everywhere. hmmm telephones or household electricity would not yet have been common, although telegraph key and newspapers were.

of course i'm sure a span of years went by during the course of his writting them. i think i may have heard or read somewhere he was still working on one when he died. so i'm wondering if that would have been in the 20s or 30s.

=^^=
.../\...

[TARABELLE]

wow, i didn't know it went back THAT far. in that case my guessing the 1930s is a bit off. that does shed a whole new light for me on the cultural context of the times it's author lived in. before even WWI, or even 1910, when the were railroads and interurbans still being built everywhere. hmmm telephones or household electricity would not yet have been common, although telegraph key and newspapers were.

of course i'm sure a span of years went by during the course of his writting them. i think i may have heard or read somewhere he was still working on one when he died. so i'm wondering if that would have been in the 20s or 30s.

=^^=
.../\...
I think he worked on them until 1929, but the three characters, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion were all introduced in the 1900 book.

[Samhain]

I guess you can read all sorts of menaings into childrens fables, the only way we'd know for sure is if the author siad it was so, like the Narnia stories being based on the bible
S

[TARABELLE]

Narnia stories being based on the bible
S
That was fairly obvious, huh?

[Piney]

The Movie is dated 1939 the themes are easily updated.


The populism of William Jenings Bryan of 1898 was now updated to Franklin Rosevelt's New Deal. In the film, The Wizard spells President Rosevelt.


When we see The Wicked Witch send off a flock of flying monkeys to capture Dorothy, the skies are blackened with menancing flying monkeys. For the first time humans could experience war death delivered from the skies. The monkeys speak to airel bombing campagains conducted in Abbynisia and Spain just prior to WWII. Modern people are blase' but in the 30's it was gripping.

When our heros are first approaching The Wizzard they do so through a Long Room that echoes Benito Mussiloni's Long Room.

[TARABELLE]

Oh, wow! the things people read into movies. And I always thought it was a nice children's story. hhahhahahahahha!


BUT, I could say the same about Alice in Wonderland - not a children's book in my mind.

[themnax]

Oh, wow! the things people read into movies. And I always thought it was a nice children's story. hhahhahahahahha!


BUT, I could say the same about Alice in Wonderland - not a children's book in my mind.

these authors lived in a time when you had to say almost everything 'between the lines'; and what better way to communicate your political feelings to future generations under those conditions, then in the form of innocuous seeming 'fairy tails' for children?

of course the messages don't always come through very well that way, but at least its one way of attempting to express them.

remember the serendipity books of the 70s? long past my own childhood but among my favorites of the kinds of stories i would want to read to children if i'd ever had any children of my own to read them to.

(my own father read me aesop's fables, along with emerson, therau, the poetry of edward a guest, and something called the pogo stories, which weren't about pogo the possum who was also in the funny papers at that time, and which we read too)

=^^=
.../\...

[Piney]

In The Movie; When the four heroes initially petition The Wizzard for

relief of their individual handicaps; The Wizzard says No.

Remember this is 1939.

The Wizzard demands the broom of The Wicked Witch as a tribute
for undertaking the wishes of the petitioners.

This can be seen as a heavy symbolic propoganda to make war against
the evil axis powers. At the time we were at peace, but the dye had been cast.
The movie subtly communicated this reality to the viewers.

Defeat evil and your dreams will come true.

[Piney]

On March 14th, 1900 Congress ratified the gold standard for American Curerncy.

thus The Yellow Brick Road, and the name OZ

http://todayspictures.slate.com/20070314/

[EvilEdna]

What adds so much more to that theory, is Floyds Dark Side of the Moon as soundtrack for the movie.

[pseudohippie]

I have never heard the thing about Oz representing the Depression. Interesting.

[pseudohippie]

Part of me has the same response--we can read what we hear or see into things. Is that the original intent? Or are we isogeting (inserting our interpretation) into it?

[TARABELLE]

Part of me has the same response--we can read what we hear or see into things. Is that the original intent? Or are we isogeting (inserting our interpretation) into it?
Part of me believes that.

But I do believe that Pink Floyd knew what they were doing with The Dark Side of the Moon. There is just too many coindendences for it to be random. Even for stoner.