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38) "The Emerald City of Oz" - Baum
This really hung together much better as a story than "Ozma of-" and "Dorothy and the Wizard in-", and didn't degenerate into fifteen days of feasting and merrymaking described in loving detail like "The Road to-". Feels like Baum was hitting his stride, here. Which makes if all the more poignent to me at the end of it where the last page says he's gotten a letter from Dorothy saying he won't be hearing from her anymore because Oz has been permanently cut off from the rest of the world.
This book has a proper Quest of Three, although it's the evil guy who completes it (General Guff the Nome collects three allies to the Nomes, each more evil than the last), interspersed with the random meetings with odd people which Baum likes so much. And he included some fun, if heavy-handed, social satire with the "Defensive Settlements" of Oz, where they send the Rigamaroles and the Flutterbudgets. Also, Dorothy gets to act in her best capacity as someone who can let people know when they're actually well off.
SPOILERS HERE!
The Nome's tunnel comes up beneath the fountain of the Water of Oblivion apparently completely by accident. This may be just to allow some suspense. I think really Ozma made that happen and just didn't want to tell her friends, especially once the Scarecrow came up with his great idea for her to add a dust into the tunnel to make them thirsty. Ozma is revealed in this story as someone who expects and demands that things be done her way. She won't hear anything of Dorothy saying she'd prefer Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to be put at ease by being brought to Oz in a setting they might feel comfortable in - nope, it has to be the grandest setting, and them completely not expecting it, so they're in their most regular clothing. I was worried Aunt Em would be in the tub for goodness sakes! Dorothy, why didn't you object a little more strenuously!?
END SPOILERS
His continuity errors (because I must bring this up) -
Apparently along with there being no horses in Oz (which we learned in "Dorothy and the Wizard in-") there were never any dogs before Toto nor chickens before Billina. Yet as you recall they had a word for "horse" and the concept - I mean, you have to in order to call something a Sawhorse. Similarly, the rabbits know that they don't like dogs, even though Toto is supposedly the first one they've ever seen. They won't even let him into their town. Something about him screams "I like to chase rabbits"? I don't know.
And, Glinda has apparently house-swapped with the Good Witch of the North and suddenly SHE is the Good Witch of the North. Whatever happened to that sweet little old woman in white who gave Dorothy the shining kiss on the forehead which protected her in the first book? She just disappeared, never heard from again, never even given a name.
This really hung together much better as a story than "Ozma of-" and "Dorothy and the Wizard in-", and didn't degenerate into fifteen days of feasting and merrymaking described in loving detail like "The Road to-". Feels like Baum was hitting his stride, here. Which makes if all the more poignent to me at the end of it where the last page says he's gotten a letter from Dorothy saying he won't be hearing from her anymore because Oz has been permanently cut off from the rest of the world.
This book has a proper Quest of Three, although it's the evil guy who completes it (General Guff the Nome collects three allies to the Nomes, each more evil than the last), interspersed with the random meetings with odd people which Baum likes so much. And he included some fun, if heavy-handed, social satire with the "Defensive Settlements" of Oz, where they send the Rigamaroles and the Flutterbudgets. Also, Dorothy gets to act in her best capacity as someone who can let people know when they're actually well off.
SPOILERS HERE!
The Nome's tunnel comes up beneath the fountain of the Water of Oblivion apparently completely by accident. This may be just to allow some suspense. I think really Ozma made that happen and just didn't want to tell her friends, especially once the Scarecrow came up with his great idea for her to add a dust into the tunnel to make them thirsty. Ozma is revealed in this story as someone who expects and demands that things be done her way. She won't hear anything of Dorothy saying she'd prefer Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to be put at ease by being brought to Oz in a setting they might feel comfortable in - nope, it has to be the grandest setting, and them completely not expecting it, so they're in their most regular clothing. I was worried Aunt Em would be in the tub for goodness sakes! Dorothy, why didn't you object a little more strenuously!?
END SPOILERS
His continuity errors (because I must bring this up) -
Apparently along with there being no horses in Oz (which we learned in "Dorothy and the Wizard in-") there were never any dogs before Toto nor chickens before Billina. Yet as you recall they had a word for "horse" and the concept - I mean, you have to in order to call something a Sawhorse. Similarly, the rabbits know that they don't like dogs, even though Toto is supposedly the first one they've ever seen. They won't even let him into their town. Something about him screams "I like to chase rabbits"? I don't know.
And, Glinda has apparently house-swapped with the Good Witch of the North and suddenly SHE is the Good Witch of the North. Whatever happened to that sweet little old woman in white who gave Dorothy the shining kiss on the forehead which protected her in the first book? She just disappeared, never heard from again, never even given a name.