Shelly 's Reviews > The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
by L. Frank Baum
by L. Frank Baum
There's this kickass iphone app called 'Stanza' where you can upload a bunch of books to your phone...for free! When I first downloaded the app I didn't realize how it worked and only found two free titles: Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Goodreads David had recently (and marvelously) reviewed Oz, thus inspiring me to choo-choo-choose It. (I've since found an assload of other free books available for download to your phone, including (notably) Darwin's Origin of Species, Melville's Moby Dick, Paine's Common Sense and USA's (!!) Constitution.)
Anyyellowbrickroad- I thoroughly enjoyed touching my way through the tiny text. It was nearly impossible for me to read w/o picturing Judy Garland and all the other characters from the movie, but that only made me realize how well the movie was done (way back before CGI!). The other theme running through my mind was how this book was, supposedly, an allegory for the Gold Standard , the Populism movement, and the ills associated with the Industrial Revolution. I had also read that Baum was pro-women's rights, and was vocal about how they should be given the right to vote. This made me wonder if he was hot and imagine what it would have been like to have dated him.
Whether any of the theories about Baum and this story being about his political ideals/tendencies is true or not I have no idea. But once the seed is planted, that theme was all that sprouted up as I read. Honestly, though, I think it made me enjoy it more. I love subversion!
After I read it I saw something on the interwebs about this being the 70th anniversary of the movie. In honor of this fact, the Empire State Building had planned a day to light up the top building green. Around that same time, there was a request from a political group suggesting the building be lit up green as a sign of solidarity with the Iranian people. They were told "Oh, yeah, no. We already have plans to light it up that day for Wizard of Oz anniversary." And when the political group found out it was going to be green ANYWAY they were like "Oh, that's cool." THEN... then, the people in charge of determining when that shit gets lit up and what color it's going to be thought "Fuck. What if some maniacs see our green lights and think it's some kind of political statement against Iran and then decide the fly a plane into us or something ?!" So at the last minute they went with red, as in Dorothy's ruby red slippers. Which, you know, in the book are actually silver.
Anyyellowbrickroad- I thoroughly enjoyed touching my way through the tiny text. It was nearly impossible for me to read w/o picturing Judy Garland and all the other characters from the movie, but that only made me realize how well the movie was done (way back before CGI!). The other theme running through my mind was how this book was, supposedly, an allegory for the Gold Standard , the Populism movement, and the ills associated with the Industrial Revolution. I had also read that Baum was pro-women's rights, and was vocal about how they should be given the right to vote. This made me wonder if he was hot and imagine what it would have been like to have dated him.
Whether any of the theories about Baum and this story being about his political ideals/tendencies is true or not I have no idea. But once the seed is planted, that theme was all that sprouted up as I read. Honestly, though, I think it made me enjoy it more. I love subversion!
After I read it I saw something on the interwebs about this being the 70th anniversary of the movie. In honor of this fact, the Empire State Building had planned a day to light up the top building green. Around that same time, there was a request from a political group suggesting the building be lit up green as a sign of solidarity with the Iranian people. They were told "Oh, yeah, no. We already have plans to light it up that day for Wizard of Oz anniversary." And when the political group found out it was going to be green ANYWAY they were like "Oh, that's cool." THEN... then, the people in charge of determining when that shit gets lit up and what color it's going to be thought "Fuck. What if some maniacs see our green lights and think it's some kind of political statement against Iran and then decide the fly a plane into us or something ?!" So at the last minute they went with red, as in Dorothy's ruby red slippers. Which, you know, in the book are actually silver.
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Kick-ass review, Shelly! It made me want to learn more about Baum and his views. I find that stuff fascinating.
And...At first glance I thought you posted a picture of multi-colored hypodermic needles. Nope.
I had also read that Baum was pro-women's rights, and was vocal about how they should be given the right to vote. This made me wonder if he was hot and imagine what it would have been like to have dated him.
Ha!
What about when the Cowardly Lion smashed that church with his tail? That was awesome.
Ha!
What about when the Cowardly Lion smashed that church with his tail? That was awesome.
He does!
Had you heard this before, David?
The universe of Wild at Heart is aggressively, unapologetically insane from frame one. But that has its own allure. The movie skitters along, stopping for a car accident here, a bank robbery there. Lynch also tosses in lots of people who aren't in the book: a stone-faced hit man who has been hired by Lula's mother to kill Sailor; a big-time gangster named Mr. Reindeer who does business over the phone while sitting on the john; a trio of wackos headed by David Patrick Kelly and Grace Zabriskie (both of Twin Peaks); a befuddled old space cadet (Lynch regular Jack Nance) who talks about his imaginary dog. There's also a great deal of homage to The Wizard of Oz -- Lynch apparently means this to be his R-rated version of L. Frank Baum's over-the-rainbow world, with its menagerie of creatures and misfits.
Wild at Heart does have some explicit allusions to Oz, especially the second to last scene with Sheryl Lee.
Though, Willem DaFoe as Bobby Peru ("...like the country!") is about 10 zillion times scarier/funnier/more surreal than any element of Oz. I'm imagining how creeped out I was by the flying monkeys when I was less than knee-high multiplied by infinity.
And Crispin Glover's small role in Wild at Heart is almost completely show-stealing in my opinion. It's just great:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlwlXf5Tn...
I haven't seen Wild At Heart since it came out in the theater, I'll have to Netflix it.The flying monkeys in Oz scared the shit out of me, too.
I mentioned to David earlier that my experience with Wild at Heart was much, much different upon a second viewing. I loved it the second time around. The first time was sort of forgettable somehow. A lot of it had to do with age and getting really into Lynch's work later on. Thinking about it the last few minutes I'd say it's probably his funniest movie in many ways. But it pulls you around so rapidly and violently as it shifts from hilariously fucked up and surreal to seriously dark shit in an instant. It's pretty amazing in that respect the more I think about it.
