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3.6 AVERAGE
3.6 AVERAGE
This has never been one of my favourites, it’s a good story just not for me. Reading it though makes you realise what a long way the world has come since the sexism of 1904
AT first I was very tempted to only give this a 3/5, however in retrospect, while not as good as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz it was still a really good book filled with humour and quirky characters that mirrors all the better qualities of book 1 in the series!
Like the first book in the series, this story is an entertaining piece of nonsense, reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, but for some reason I like Baum's writing a lot more.
The main character, Tip, is a young boy who goes on several adventures throughout OZ with the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. He has as much practical gumption as Dorothy does, and, by the end of the tale it turns out he was turned into a boy by Mombi, the witch.
What I especially appreciate in the OZ books is Baum's flexibility with gender-specific traits and activities for his characters - the girls are never truly simpering fools that need to be saved, and the boys are not he-men who go out to rescue damsels or refuse to listen to advice. Ozma, once restored to her original state, takes her rightful place, and men and women live in a balanced state, respectful of each others' skills and traits. Given when this was written (1904), Baum was a very forward thinking guy.
Like the first book in the series, this story is an entertaining piece of nonsense, reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland, but for some reason I like Baum's writing a lot more.
The main character, Tip, is a young boy who goes on several adventures throughout OZ with the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. He has as much practical gumption as Dorothy does, and, by the end of the tale it turns out he was turned into a boy by Mombi, the witch.
What I especially appreciate in the OZ books is Baum's flexibility with gender-specific traits and activities for his characters - the girls are never truly simpering fools that need to be saved, and the boys are not he-men who go out to rescue damsels or refuse to listen to advice. Ozma, once restored to her original state, takes her rightful place, and men and women live in a balanced state, respectful of each others' skills and traits. Given when this was written (1904), Baum was a very forward thinking guy.
This one kind of comes across as if the author was drunk and hurriedly writing on the train with no clear cut direction to it. The worst part was the way General Jinjur was portrayed as a spoilt, slothful, gluttonos, shallow, selfish little girl. Their feminist concerns are dismissed in this way - men get "oppressed" by having to do women's work and the happy ending at the end is the women get to take it over again which they are portrayed as relieved at because the men were so bad at it.
Why am I wasting so much time on that? Because apart from that there was not much plot to the book. Ugly old woman bad, beautiful women good- a selection of assemblages that we are supposed to see as characters, low level bullying of Jack constantly because he is unintelligent and terrible puns from the Wobblebug which were actually probablythe highlight of a pretty lame book. Also a twist at the end that could be seen as liberative except is used to reinforce some stereotypes.
The only thing I liked was the constant hinting that the Scarecrow and Woodman were an item. I'm all for that though I would guess that gets gradually written out of later stories.
Why am I wasting so much time on that? Because apart from that there was not much plot to the book. Ugly old woman bad, beautiful women good- a selection of assemblages that we are supposed to see as characters, low level bullying of Jack constantly because he is unintelligent and terrible puns from the Wobblebug which were actually probablythe highlight of a pretty lame book. Also a twist at the end that could be seen as liberative except is used to reinforce some stereotypes.
The only thing I liked was the constant hinting that the Scarecrow and Woodman were an item. I'm all for that though I would guess that gets gradually written out of later stories.
Seemingly having been driven insane by the routing of the Wizard and the death of the wicked one, Glinda has re-enslaved the flying monkeys, banned all witchcraft other than her own and installed madmen as regents of the Emerald City and the Vinkus. Eventually her obsession with the one stray practicioner of sorcery, Mombi, will lead her to face down a feminist revolution in the Emerald City, play havock with identity politics and forcibly re-gender an innocent.
And from on high, the Wizard must be laughing.
A grim book.
"'The rest of you are not human and therefore it would not be wicked to demolish you.'...
This program of extermination was so terrible that the prisoners looked upon one another in a panic of fear." - The Marvellous Land of Oz
And from on high, the Wizard must be laughing.
A grim book.
"'The rest of you are not human and therefore it would not be wicked to demolish you.'...
This program of extermination was so terrible that the prisoners looked upon one another in a panic of fear." - The Marvellous Land of Oz
Loveable characters:
No
You know a book is from another era when your main antagonists of the book are an army of girls using knitting needles as weapons and and one point get scared our of the castle they've conquered by the appearance of a mouse. In no way an I condemning the book for this, far from it! Indeed I believe there is some profeminism going on here, it's just that it's being written in an era where feminism was still in its infancy, (Indeed, having done some research. The Suffrage Movement began the same year this book was published, in Germany.) and by a man aged 48. So while there are more progressive images of women's liberation, it can easily be forgiven for good intentions.
Putting this to one side. I is the book any good? The answer is yes. It is not as good as it's predecessor, but then that is the iconic entry in the series, I hadn't actually heard of this one before starting it. I had assumed Ozma of Oz (Book 3) was the follow up to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I believe this was because Ozma was when Baum decided it was going to intentionally be an on going series, and not random books set in the same world. This definitely make sense. The Marvelous Land of Oz feels far more like side note, and like the Character of the Gump, hobbled together from random ideas (though there is an aspect of that in Wizard, it feels it more here.) but the wit and charm Baum brings to his prose glosses over those issues. Not quite as good as it's precursor, but still remarkably good.
Putting this to one side. I is the book any good? The answer is yes. It is not as good as it's predecessor, but then that is the iconic entry in the series, I hadn't actually heard of this one before starting it. I had assumed Ozma of Oz (Book 3) was the follow up to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I believe this was because Ozma was when Baum decided it was going to intentionally be an on going series, and not random books set in the same world. This definitely make sense. The Marvelous Land of Oz feels far more like side note, and like the Character of the Gump, hobbled together from random ideas (though there is an aspect of that in Wizard, it feels it more here.) but the wit and charm Baum brings to his prose glosses over those issues. Not quite as good as it's precursor, but still remarkably good.
I think I actually enjoyed this more than the first book. Tip was an interesting character and it was nice to see how the original characters had changed since Dorthy left. A few things annoyed me but for the most I really enjoyed reading this.