Who here loves L Frank Baum's Oz series (TG-Themes)?

[lady_ozma]

I'm a huge fan of L Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz books, so much so that I'm writing my own take on them foccusing on the character of Princess Ozma.



Princess Ozma (seen here in a cover to the Marvel Comics adaptation), was stolen as a baby and transformed into a boy to conceal her true identity. She grew up that way and was only transformed back years later. It's also easy to read her character in a sapphic way, though she was more likely intended to have "romantic friendships" with her female companions, particularly Dorothy.

I hope my own take will be of interest to my fellow Transwomen, and lesbians and everyone else, but I'm wondering who loves the original books?

[tekla]

The original book was written as a political allegory.  Though few people remember that anymore.

[lady_ozma]

The original book was written as a political allegory.  Though few people remember that anymore.

Yeah there is deffinitly a theory that the original book was meant as an allegory to bimercantilism. However people get to caught up on that, Baum's main goal as stated over and over was to entertain children, that's what he lived for.

There's a lot more political commentary in the 1902 musical.

I'm not saying it's not there and it does reappear throught the other books, as Oz moves towards a utopian matriarchy away from a captalist patriarchy but over all it was written to delight children.

[japple]

I read and loved all of the Baum through Ruth Plumly Thompson books as a kid and just read Baum's biography.  My mother was a collector and had many first editions from the early 1900s.  Oz was huge in our house and we took a trip to Vegas to see the MGM grand when it opened just for the Oz stuff.  I also identified with Tip/Ozma and imagined I was her when reading the books. 

[Debra]

never heard of it before but it sounds interesting

[Cris Zoe]

I was just wandering thru the site, checking out forums I don't normally go and came across the books section. I started reading the most recent post and it got me thinking about the Oz series. One of my first trans moments was when I was a little kid and reading the OZ series. I had the big old hardcover versions, pre-1960 with awesome illustrations and I loved them. And then I read the Marvelous Land of Oz, and the story of Tip, finding out that he was really Ozma, a female and a princess to boot, rocked me to my core. I remember thinking "why not me? That should be me!" But back then in the 60's, it just wasn't gonna happen.

But this section brought those memories back, and I just went an put in an order for a 1985 reproduction hardcover online. I can't wait for it to arrive.