I have spent a lot of time on this blog picking apart the things I loved as a kid to see what makes them tick. Usually that means an episode of Smallville or a movie I can't stand. This time it means something a little older and a little stranger: the actual belief system quietly … Continue reading Yellow Brick Road to Enlightenment: How Much of Oz Is Actually Theosophy?
Wizard of Oz
Dorothy, Ozma, and the Feminist Blueprint Hiding in Oz
There's a moment in most people's childhoods, usually around the third or fourth viewing of the 1939 film, when it hits you that something about The Wizard of Oz is a little different. Dorothy doesn't need a prince. Nobody is waiting for a man to fix things. The most powerful people in the entire story, … Continue reading Dorothy, Ozma, and the Feminist Blueprint Hiding in Oz
Good Bye Yellow Brick Road
When L. Frank Baum published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1900, he could hardly have imagined that his "modernized fairy tale" would become one of the most analyzed works of American literature. While Baum consistently maintained that he wrote simply "to please children," the rich tapestry of symbolism and allegory woven throughout his narrative … Continue reading Good Bye Yellow Brick Road
