I’ve recently been reading the original Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum and have been struck by a few things.
First off, it is a really good book. It is simply written to be sure, simpler even than the Chronicles of Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, but yet it is very good.
The second thing I notice is how vastly different it is than the movie version. Of course this can usually be said about books that have been made into films, but this one is different in so many ways that the movie is very much a telling of the same story from a different storyteller. Almost like 2 eye witness accounts telling their stories to the police.
For instance, there are many obstacles that Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodsman and the Cowardly Lion go through in the book that are never touched on in the movie. There are also many people they meet that are never mentioned in the film, and there are some characters in the film that are not in the book… the “lollipop guild” for one.
Another big difference between the book and the movie is the depiction of the Flying Monkeys. In the movie the monkeys are part of the Wicked Witch’s “gang.” They are her slaves, just as the Winkies, and are there to do her bidding. In the book the Witch can only call on the winged simians 3 times, and uses her last time to try and destroy Dorothy. Admittedly I like the depiction of the monkeys in the movie better… but, as I said, they are almost 2 different stories.
That does, however, bring me to the Wicked Witch. She is really only dealt with in one chapter of the book, but, as you probably know, she appears early on and often in the film. Obviously I see why the changes were made to film as they make it much more “exciting” and even help in converting it from a narrative to a musical. And now, almost finished with the book and having seen the film numerous times (as all other American children), I can say that I enjoy both a great deal! In fact I plan to read the other “OZ” books by Baum… and possibly other books and materials relating to the OZ world. That being said, one related item I have read, and now despise more than ever, is the Wicked book by Gregory Maguire.
If you’ve not read Wicked, don’t! It has got to be one of the worst, most blatantly disgusting books I’ve ever read in my life. It takes the beautiful world that Baum invented and twists it to a point of non-recognition. Have I seen the Broadway version? Yes! And I loved it!! I’m sorry that Maguire gets any credit whatsoever for the musical in fact. It is as different from his book as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat are from the Bible.
My main question to Macquire is, “Did you READ The Wizard of Oz?” His book’s sub-title is, “The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West,” but which west he’s speaking of I have no idea. There is little to nothing in Wicked that fits in with the story Baum sets up in the original book. It does, in fact, fit better with the 1939 movie version… but even with that it is severely flawed.
I didn’t like Macquire’s book when I first read it, and now that I’ve read the original “Wizard of Oz” I like it even less. How, or why, it became popular I have no idea… but I may just have to write a GOOD version of what happened before Dorothy arrived because Wicked is not it.
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