oz: an excerpt (2)

[egypturnash]

[...] And now the incantation seemed complete, for the Witch stood upright and cried the one word "Yeowa!" in a loud voice.

[...]

At this exquisite vision Tip's old comrades stared in wonder for the space of a full minute, and then every head bent low in honest admiration of the lovely Princess Ozma. The girl herself cast one look into Glinda's bright face, which glowed with pleasure and satisfaction, and then turned upon the others. Speaking the words with sweet diffidence, she said:

"I hope none of you will care less for me than you did before. I'm just the same Tip, you know; only— only—"

"Only you're different!" said the Pumpkinhead; and everyone thought it was the wisest speech he had ever made.

—L. Frank Baum, The Land of Oz

I tend to say that I didn't see myself as female when I was a kid. But... stuff like this resonated, somewhere. I had a random assortment of the Oz books when I was young, which happened to include this one. I would not be surprised if it's the one with the most wear and tear. (The copy at hand is not that one; it's from the late seventies/early Eighties Del Rey reprint series, which let me finally read all of Baum's original fourteen books, in all their weird, awkward glory.)

I was digging through my boxes of books, in search of something to read on the plane tomorrow. There was a post-it note sticking from this one, and I knew exactly why. This passage. It's one that I was considering using as an epigraph for The Drowning City if I ever get off my ass and start drawing that.

Of course, Ozma turned out to be very different from scrappy, smart Tip. She got buried in the frills and passive prettiness of being a Fairy Princess in the early 1900s. Maybe, like so many MtF transsexuals, she just wanted to forget that she was ever a boy. She mostly just became a deus ex machina, a source of powerful fairy magic to wrap up a plot, or something to be kidnapped now and then. Not someone who could go out on an adventure and get in trouble. Or someone who could grow up, because nobody ever got any older in Oz.

Mombi's magic smoke is only the beginning of the change.

Comments

[jackfurlong.livejournal.com]

I spose I'm a little lazy; I picked up most of Eric Shandower's graphic novels (http://www.ericshanower.com/es/credits.shtml#graphics) and read those. The art's really good, btw.