Obscure Oz

I've been noticing several posts I missed the first time around on some of my favorite blogs; The Captain, for example, recently watched Return to Oz (starring the adorable Fairuza Balk, of the Craft fame).

Return to Oz is a melding of two of the Oz books: the Land of Oz and Ozma of Oz. Okay, it's more like, "hey, we like certain aspects of these two stories -- MAKE THEM FIT, SCREENWRITER SLAVE!"

Land of Oz was the first Oz book I actually read as a child. Transgendered studies should really take a look at this story. I had real conceptual problems coming to terms with a boy who was really a girl -- as a kid that came totally out of left field for me. Maybe as an adult I would understand it better.

Lucky for us you can read all of these books online, download and print the .pdf's, etc. Go for it. I think you'll find Oz is a wee bit different, darker than you remember it:

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• The Marvelous Land of Oz
• Ozma of Oz
• Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
• The Road to Oz
• The Emerald City of Oz
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz
• Tik-Tok of Oz
• Scarecrow of Oz
• Rinkitink in Oz
• Lost Princess of Oz
• Tin Woodman of Oz
• Magic of Oz
• Glinda of Oz

There, now go read. If you have kids: make them read. These books scarred me for life when I was young; sure, they can be happy-sappy -- but mostly they are weird as high heck.