Fantasy World
The Wizard of Oz is a grotesque predictor of Trump’s America.
It says so here, in the Guardian. Specifically,
Oz is first wondrous and revelatory, then sinister and suspect, a good trip that goes wrong… It’s this lurking inner wrongness, the darkness at its edges and the emptiness at its core, that speaks to me now.
The author of the above is Bidisha, a mono-named entity who may be familiar to long-term readers, and who describes herself, unironically, as a “non-white angry political female.” One who seems determined to find yet another staple of Christmas both ghastly and problematic:
It’s impossible to watch the newly crowned ‘most influential film ever’ without seeing the parallels to the sickly US of today.
Oh, ye doubters. Madame Bidisha has her reasons.
We can read the catastrophic effects of climate change into the tornado that sets the narrative off,
I didn’t say they would be convincing.
see the opioid crisis in the characters’ drugged sleep in Oz’s Powell and Pressburger-esque poppy field, and empathise with the mangy Lion, rusty Tin Man and under-stuffed Scarecrow’s search for organ donors and reliable medical support in an Oz without a solid welfare state.
If you think our Guardian columnist is perhaps overreaching a tad, I feel I should point out nothing that follows is likely to disabuse you.
The values of Oz are not much different from those of Kansas in 1900 or 1939 or 2018. Yes, the Wicked Witch of the West has all the best lines… but the film revels in the violent deaths of “ugly” women, who have houses dumped on them or drown in water that melts them like acid, while the greatest deceiver, the Wizard, simply shrugs and floats away at the end of the film.
At which point, The Lady Bidisha shifts gear from the merely implausible to the inscrutable and bewildering. Perhaps we’re to believe that the values of modern-day Kansas include revelling in the deaths of unglamorous women, specifically as a result of tornado-propelled houses. Or perhaps this is a tortured metaphor, in which, viewing the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency with insufficient enthusiasm is explicable only as near-homicidal misogyny. By all means read the original and have a go yourselves. Either way, it occurs to me that if you’re watching The Wizard of Oz and you instantly think of Donald Trump, and indeed find it “impossible” not to think of Donald Trump, a man you contrive to associate with women melting in acid, then… well, perhaps you should take a holiday somewhere quiet. Or at least lower the dose.
However, now swollen and triumphant, Ms Bidisha concludes,
I’m not saying we’re on the brink of a third world war, but why am I reading these messages into this film, at this moment?
Readers wishing to suggest answers can, of course, avail themselves of the comments.
Speaking of Baby, It’s Cold Outside . . .
Ah. Missed that one. Though I do read most of the comments here, time and stamina permitting.
My linked experience has been erased! My intellectual labor has been appropriated!
[faints]
Where’s my Guardian column?
if you’re watching The Wizard of Oz and you instantly think of Donald Trump, and indeed find it “impossible” not to think of Donald Trump, a man you contrive to associate with women melting in acid, then… well, perhaps you should take a holiday somewhere quiet. Or at least lower the dose.
What is it the scarecrow says? “Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking”.
My linked experience has been erased!
[ Slides Campari spritzer along bar, followed by small bag of nuts. ]
Isn’t there another Wizard of Oz character, a good witch or fairy called Glinda? She seems to be everything that Ms Bidisha is not – pretty, pure, optimistic, wise, far-sighted, sure that Dorothy can find her own way – and white.
Maybe we are seeing the real reason that Bidisha is in a huff about WoO.
WTP: Jackie Chan!
Everyone who matters knows Christ was a Person Of Color…
who insisted that The Wizard was a bad guy. Because charlatan
He is a bad guy. He’s a bad guy who is redeemed by the virtue of the hero.
Literary analysis isn’t hard, but it does require not getting lost in the weeds of post-modernism on the way to the bloody obvious answer.
Jesus. H. Derrida. Bidisha could do us all a favour and loiter under a flying house.
Well at least it isn’t Harry Potter this time.
I reject her premises, reject her reasons, and reject her conclusions.
I reject them in toto.
in toto
*sigh* that’s beautiful
“To think of Donald Trump, a man you contrive to associate with women melting in acid, then… well, perhaps you should take a holiday somewhere quiet.”
If you are going to take a holiday away from women melting in acid, I would suggest staying away from London. Apparently there has been a six fold rise in acid attacks in the last six years to 2017: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/01/26/europe/london-acid-attacks-2017-intl/index.html
As far as I remember from the movie, plain water is adequate to melt witches, but mere women probably do require acid to melt them. Neither should be melted though.
“Somewhere, deep in the Guardian
O Angst, O Strife
Hey there, creeps in the Guardian
Why don’t you get a life?”
Elsewhere in the same Guardian comment section, Zoe Williams airs her belief that five-year-olds who aren’t yet potty-trained and who are still in nappies are not a sign of developmental problems or negligent parenting, but instead are due to the “austerity agenda” of our wicked conservative government.
her belief that five-year-olds who aren’t yet potty-trained… are due to the “austerity agenda” of our wicked conservative government.
We have a conservative government?
…her belief that five-year-olds who aren’t yet potty-trained… are due to the “austerity agenda” of our wicked conservative government.
One wonders who our ancestors manage to train children not to poop in their pants before the welfare state? Quite the mystery.
Quite the mystery.
Ms Williams gets reliably annoyed by any suggestion that people might actually take responsibility for their own behaviour, and for the wellbeing of their own children. She seems to find it offensive and exasperating. As if it were like asking people to walk on water or inflate to the size of a moon. Like so many of her Guardian colleagues, Zoe likes to side with the latest, most contrived victim group, in this case negligent parents, albeit from a safe distance.
He is a bad guy. He’s a bad guy who is redeemed by the virtue of the hero.
OK…deep breaths…in…out…in…out…
Sorry, not getting it that way. How is the Wiz redemed? I never saw WoO as a story of redemption (perhaps my distaste for Christ-like figures in literature blinds me here). There are many ways to slice any story but the main thing I got out of it was that the Wicked Witch had all kinds of magic powers and whatever those E-O-E-O guys were and flying monkeys and such on her side. Dorothy, having no such magic, is afraid of her, running away from that fear seaking the help of the Wiz. At any time, the Wiz could have taken advantage of her if he was evil. But the Wiz doesn’t even directly help her. What he does do is through some slight deception show her that she has the power, the brains, the courage, the heart to solve her problems, to face the world herself. Though I do suppose the whole thing could be about the Franco-Prussian war as well. What do I know?
The Wiz isn’t a “bad guy.” Recall his Kansas counterpart uses his “magic” to convince Dorothy to return home to her aunt and uncle immediately before the (shudder) tornado. He’s simply a MacGuffin to push the story along. The Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion are aspects of Dorothy’s personality which she discovers as the story progresses.
The “bad” character is Glinda, the “good witch.” She puts the powerful ruby slippers on Dorothy’s feet then waits until Dorothy has vanquished the Wicked Witch to say, “Oh, yeah. You had the power to leave all along; I just forgot to tell you that.” Even when I was a little kid, I said at the end of the movie, “Hey, wait a minute . . .”
The Wiz isn’t a “bad guy.”
Nope, you know who are the bad guys ? Munchkins.
Bad haircuts, small hands, “Munch” rhymes with “Drumpf”, that is certainly no coincidence.
They are literal nazis.
Zoe likes to side with the latest, most contrived victim group, in this case negligent parents, albeit from a safe distance.
They always do.
@Farnsworth
Yeah. With their “wee beedy eyes” and German clog dancing. Part of The Pentaverate, for sure.
They always do.
Like so many of her Guardian colleagues, she’s eager to wave aside the kinds of behaviour that she will never have to endure, and to excuse the kinds of people she will never have to live next door to. The kinds of people who, as linked above, delight in making life hellish for anyone nearby and who, for amusement, torture and kill their pets. Her feigned compassion for such people, and her endless excuses, are revolting and degenerate.
But this is leftist piety.
Nope, you know who are the bad guys ? Munchkins.
Oh absolutely. Any feminist could tell you the “Lollipop Guild” is *clearly* a violent rape gang with “lollipop” a thinly veiled phallic reference.
They’re white, male and predatory–isn’t it obvious from that photo, people?
But this is leftist piety.
Many, many years ago when I was a young attorney, I had to pay my dues by being appointed to represent parents and children in family court in a variety of cases in which the state was alleging abuse or neglect. In doing this, I had to deal with an endless parade of 20-something, freshly minted social work graduates of a uniform progressive outlook on life.
I saw this time and time again. On one hand, personal responsibility and accountability were excused because of “systemic inequality.” On the other hand, parents whose fortunes had turned for the worse but who nevertheless were trying to regain a semblance of middle class life & independence were denounced for being insufficiently enamored with State interference and “help” in their lives.
Stated differently, if one embraced the State as “Father” and “Provider,” one was praised. If one worked two or three jobs to get out of poverty and dependence and refused state monetary beneifts, one was made anathema for not caring for one’s children.
I’ve seen it happen. I fought it on behalf of parents and children, to the point where I was no longer appointed in such cases. I made too big a stink. It was easier to appoint lawyers who were compliant than ones who cared about the law.
< / rant >
Part of The Pentaverate, for sure.
No doubt, again there is no coincidence the secret country mansion in Colorado is spelled The Meadoz.
They are literal nazis.
Speaking of Nazi wee folk…
If there’s ever a holocaust of Jewish snails, gypsy earthworms, leftist aphids, and socially degenerate toads, we can’t say we weren’t warned. On the bright side, they don’t require nearly as much lebensraum, so maybe the Russian butterflies have nothing to worry about.
In other news: Vermont Man Builds A $4,000 Middle Finger Sculpture Pointed Directly At The Town Government.
Vermont Man Builds A $4,000 Middle Finger Sculpture Pointed Directly At The Town Government.
Support the arts!
The writer must be a look-forward-to for her shrinks. Egging her on would be a blast: “And what did you make of the shoes?” … Times up. See you next week? Please.
but why am I reading these messages into this film, at this moment?
Because Trump lives rent-free in your head, just like all the personalities using HW Bush’s passing as an opportunity to jab at Trump?
So, I’ll readily admit to not reading the article, but is anyone else bothered by the Wicked Witch using as one of her tools to take control of Oz a horde of flying… MONKEYS? Did this just slip past Bidisha’s notice? Are we so far past the BLM heyday that its now fully eclipsed by Trump?
Are we so far past the BLM heyday that its now fully eclipsed by Trump?
Most assuredly.
Here’s even more Baby it’s cold outside plus gang rape, gang!
-Bad News
Sam makes some excellent observations, but I have always had a feeling that Oz was a warning about toxic masculinity and the emptiness of American culture. I am pleased to see my intuitions validated.
Five year olds not potty trained?
I suggest applying for a Dept of Education grant to write curriculum for potty training to be incorporated as a comprehensive K-12 program to ensure that our High School graduates are fully prepared for the demands of bodily elimination in a diverse, inclusive, global multicultural society of the 21st Century. Special issues facing women, differently abled peoples, POC and LGBTQ communities in patriarchal and racist sanitation systems are explored.
I never saw WoO as a story of redemption
It’s not. The story isn’t about the Wizard. When I say that the Wizard is a bad guy, I don’t mean that he’s the antagonist of the story. But he is a charlatan and a deceiver, and it’s Dorothy pulling back the curtain (literally) on his deception that convinces him of the futility of trying to maintain it. Redemption was perhaps a poor choice of words; it would be more accurate to say that Dorothy uncovers the truth behind the wizard’s deception.
I really don’t want to go down this particular rabbit hole, but yes, L. Frank Baum was an occultist, and Dorothy is the Fool of the Tarot on the Fool’s Journey of self-discovery. Hence the dog.
I reject her premises, reject her reasons, and reject her conclusions.
I reject them in toto.
One of my favorites is the story of the pair of test pilots who wind up having a definitely complicated day. The current test plane Has Issues, where they’re able to get it back to a runway, but during the landing one wing scrapes, and then tires blow, the other wing cartwheels as the fuselage pirouettes, the tail section breaks off, what’s left of a wing heads for a different runway, and finally the front fifth of the plane rotates to face back up the runway as it scrapes to a halt.
The pilots stare out at the field of debris for awhile, and then finally the lead pilot comments to his Midwestern co-pilot that Kansas? I really don’t think we’re in toto anymore.
They are literal nazis.
Speaking of Nazi wee folk…
Under the Rainbow, Warner Brothers, 1981
So let me get this straight, the Wizard was an oculist, and Dorothy pulled back the curtain and made a spectacle of him — and her wearing the Ruby Slippers, they were a pair of spectacles.
Thank you, I see it all clearly now,.
Thank you, I see it all clearly now
You know, after going through this a few times now I thought I might seek a woman’s opinion, given that the hero is more accurately a heroine. I asked my wife what SHE thought the story was about. She said it was about a girl who gets hit on the head during a tornado and dreams some wild fantastic story about a witch and a wizard a bunch of little people called munchkins and her attempts to just go home, who eventually wakes up and discovers that it was all just a dream. It’s not much but it is a pretty novel perspective.
I thought the Merry Old Land of Oz’s working hours sounded more European than American —
We get up at twelve, and start to work at one,
Take an hour for lunch, and then at two we’re done…
“My linked experience has been erased!
[ Slides Campari spritzer along bar, followed by small bag of nuts. ]
Posted by: David | December 05, 2018 at 21:37”
Pro-tip for the barkeep: Anyone actively wanting a Grauniad column doesn’t need more nuts……
Really? What a pathetic post. You couldn’t be more wrong.
Wizard of Oz is a *Christmas movie*?!? WTF?
This woman is nutso, though – you’re right on that.