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witchesoz · 1 year

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What we know of Oz: Book 5, An Emerald City party

Let’s continue now that we arrived in the Emerald City.

# As it turns out the Lion and Tiger were also sent by Ozma to help our weary travelers reach the city faster: they pull with ropes around their body a splendid golden chariot (the cords are also golden), with a body decorated on the outside with designs in clusters of sparkling emeralds, while the inside is lined with green and gold satin, with seat cushions of green plush embroidered in gold with a crown over an Oz monogram. This chariot is none other than Ozma’s personal royal chariot. And there is a brief callback of Dorothy actually belonging to the Ozite nobility since Ozma made her a Princess.

# We get a new description of the wonders and beauties of the Emerald City, described with graceful and handsome buildings covered in plate of golds and set with emeralds ; with sidewalks of superb marble slabs polished as smooth as glass, and curbs separating the walks from the broad streets set thick with clustered emeralds. [Every time the city gets described, it seems to get a bit wealthier, as we started out with the plain white city, then a regular city with lots of emeralds, and now a city made entirely of the most precious materials]. The citizens of the City itself are also described as all wearing “handsome garnments of silk or satin or velvet with beautiful jewels, all happy and smiling, all free from care, with music and laughter everywhere. (Comparing this sight to the one of the farmer in their little farms by the side of the road… Yeah, sure Nick, there’s “no poor and no rich” in Oz, sure…)

# In fact we get again a new comment about the society of Oz by Nick Chopper, who explains that unlike the appearances, the citizens of the Emerald City do work, because after all a city needs to be kept and fruit and vegetables need to be provided – but no one in the city works “more than half his time”, and the people of Oz in general are said to “enjoy their labors as much as they do their play”. People have commented that Oz seemed a lot like a socialist utopia – if not downright a communist utopia at times. And it is true that you have this very bizarre mix of communist ideals (a society where the common people is happy and has decent live conditions, while everyone works and everyone shares and the community provides for each other) and monarchic structures (there’s a nobility and hereditary rulers, there’s different social classes with still low and upper people, there’s a whole climbing the social ladder thing going on…).

# We meet again Jellia Jamb (because apparently she is the ONLY maid in the friggin’ castle was never see or hear from any other) – she is this time described as having “dark hair and eyes”, and her green clothes are embroidered with silver. It is also said that Jellia Jamb is actually Ozma’s favorite attendant. Jellia also mentions that the Scarecrow went to the Munchkin Country to get fresh straw for his body (implying the best straw comes from the East ; or that all the straw of Oz comes from the East). [Correction: latter the Scarecrow mentions his body has the “loveliest oat-straw of all Oz”, so indeed it is a case of Munchkin straw being the best – he also mentions he got his face freshly painted by the Munchkin farmer that first made him because his colors were dulling into grey]

# We are given a detailed description of the room the Shaggy Man is invited to sleep in. A handsome apartment where the furniture is upholstered in cloth of gold, with the royal crown embroidered upon it in scarlet ; a rug so thick and soft on the marble floor you can’t hear your footsteps ; the walls covered in splendid tapestries woven with scenes from the Land of Oz ; books and ornaments scattered in profusion ; in a corner a tinkling fountain of perfumed water ; in another a table bearing a golden tray loaded with freshly gathered fruits. But this is just the living room! There is also a bedroom with a bedstead of gold set with brilliant diamonds, and a coverlet with designs of pearls and rubies. There’s also a dainty dressing-room with closets filled of fresh clothing ; and a larg bathroom with a marble pool big enough to swim in, and edges set with rows of fine emeralds as large as door-knobs. There is also a special mother-of-pearl chest decorated with silver vines and flowers of rubies, specifically offered for him, with engraved the words “The Shaggy Man: His box of ornaments” and inside things such as a fine golden watch, handsome finger-rings, and ornaments of rubies to pin on the chest.

He also finds clothes fitting him perfectly (a regular thing to have when you are guest of the palace), though due to him being the Shaggy Man, everything he wears looks shaggy too: a coat of rose-colored velvet, trimmed with shagged and bobtails, with buttons of blood-red rubies and golden shags around the edges ; a vest of shaggy satin of a delicate cream color ; knee-breeches of rose velvet trimmed like the coat ; shaggy creamy stockings of silk, and shaggy slippers of rose leather with ruby buckles.

Dorothy and Button-Bright also have an outfit change, her in a “pretty gown of soft grey embroidered with silver”, him in a “blue-and-gold suit of satin”. Even Toto gets a green ribbon around his neck.

# Instead of giving us a description of Ozma, Baum prefers to say that the royal historians of Oz, despite being fine writers with a big lexicon, always failed to describe the “rare beauty” of Ozma and her bewitching face, because words are not “good enough”, but it is enough to say that her loveliness “puts to shame all the sparkling jewels and magnificent luxury” surrounding her, and everything beautiful or dainty falls to dullness when compared to her ; plus anyone seen her can only feel love and affection due to her being so sweet and attractive.

As it turns out, the bizarre event that kickstarted the book, Dorothy and Toto getting lost on mysterious roads that weren’t here a minute before, and her wandering in a magically changing landscape until she arrived in fairy-lands, was actually Ozma’s doing: it was her way to send an “invitation” to Dorothy for her birthday. I would like to personally point out that 1, we never know HOW she did that, given Ozma is not a magical person herself, though she might have used the Magic Belt, but she never actually says anything of the sort, and 2, this is a very dubious and dangerous way to invite someone to Oz, especially since she forced Dorothy to go through a lot of dangerous territories. Ozma herself admits that, monitoring her friends’ progress through the Magic Picture, she almost used twice the Magic Belt to rescue her, once with the cannibalistic tribe of Scoodlers (see another post), the second time when they tried to cross the Deadly Desert.

# The Wizard is still here, as a “dried-up, little old man, clothed all in black” with a cheery face and twinkling eyes – but still known as the “most famous humbug wizard”. The Shaggy Man is then presented to Ozma and we learn something very interesting about the Pond of Truth: the side-effect of bathing in its waters is that you are then forced to forever tell the truth, and you can’t say anymore lies. As a result when Ozma asks him about how he got ownership of the Love Magnet, he has to reveal the truth, that he stole the magical item because he wanted to be loved. Ozma notes that in Oz it is not correct or a custom to have someone being loved by magic, as she says “in Oz we are loved for ourselves alone, and for our kindness to one another, and for our good deeds” – subtly forcing the Shaggy Man to abandon the Love Magnet, which she promptly takes ownership of to place over the gates of the Emerald City, so that “whoever shall enter or leave the gates may be loved and loving”. [Note: given the actual powers of the Love Magnet, this… seems quite a bit dubious, but more when I’ll actually tackle the Magnet].

# And then we come to the celebration with all the guests. The Scarecrow riding on the Sawhorse, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger ; Jack Pumpkinhead (who brings as a gift a necklace of pumpkin-seeds with in each seed a “sparkling carolite”, the “rarest and most beautiful gem that exists”). Follows Glinda the Good, an “important Sorceress” described as a “tall, beautiful woman clothed in a splendid trailing gown, trimmed with exquisite lace as fine as cobweb”. Then the Woggle-Bug (of his full title Mr. H. M. Woggle-Bug, T. E. (who just composed a new Ode in honor of Ozma’s birthday) ; then Billina the Yellow Hen with her numerous little chicks, her wearing a pearl necklace, and each chick having a tiny gold chain on their neck with the letter D (because Billina named all of her children “Dorothy”) ; then Tik-Tok.

And then is the whole crossover procession I talked to you about, all of the characters from the other fairy-countries around Oz : King Dough ruler of Hiland and Noland, with Chick the Cherub and Para Bruin ; Ryls from the Happy Valley ; Knooks from the Forest of Burzee ; Santa Claus who leads the Ryls and Knooks ; the Queen of Merryland with her Candy Man ; then the Braided Man (from Dorothy’s underground adventures in Book 4) ; then the Queen of Ev, with King Evardo and the other Princes and Princesses of Ev ; then King Renard of Foxville ; the queen Zixi of Ix, King Bud of Noland with his Princess Fluff… And other guests are mentioned by name but not seen arriving (because already these arrivals took two entire chapters): King Kika-bray of Dunkiton, Johnny Dooit, and the Good Witch of the North.

# The great feast has two tables, one for human (or humanoid) entities, and one for animals ; and there is also a third for other creatures such as the Ryls, Knooks, wooden soldiers, etc… There is an orchestra of five-hundred pieces from a balcony overlooking the banquet room ; and everyone is served in crystal goblets a “nectar famous in Oz and nicer than soda-water or lemonade” called “lacasa”. The Woggle-Bug reads his “Ode to Ozma”, the Wizard does some magic tricks such as having a big pie appearing, and when opening it his eight little piglets come out dancing.

# The following day, is organized a grand procession through the city (now that the communist comparison was drawn, I can’t help but think of the military parades of Russia, China, North Korea, etc…). The procession begins with a thousand young girls (only the prettiest in the land) dressed in white muslin with green sashes, green hair ribbons, and bearing great baskets of red roses that they scatter around them. Then comes the “Rulers of the Four Kingdoms of Oz” : we find back what Dorothy described as the “four Kings” in Book 4, though here we see each of these sub-rulers have a different title. The Winkie ruler is an “Emperor”, the Munchkin ruler is a “Monarch”, the Quadlings ruler is a “King” and the Gillikin ruler is a “Sovereign”, and each of them is said to wear a long chain of emeralds around their neck to show that they are vassals of the Ruler of the Emerald City (hum… a chain makes a bit this whole thing slave-like, no?). Follows the Emerald City Cornet Band (a NEW band again? That’s three if we count the other bands present in the previous books), dressed in green-and-gold uniforms, playing the “Ozma Two-Step”. Follows the Royal Army of Oz, the twenty-seven officers ; then Princess Ozma herself, with the Blue Bear Rug of Old Dyna (as it turns out somehow he became one of Ozma’s favorite subjects behind the scenes…) ; follows the Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger ; and then follows the foreign guests of the party. After that comes Dorothy and the Scarecrow, Polychrome and Button-Bright, the Shaggy Man, Tik-Tok, the Wizard of Oz, the Woggle-Bug and Jack Pumpkinhead, then Glinda and the Good Witch of the North, and finally Billina with her chicken.

BUT IT IS NOT OVER! There’s still the Tin Band of the Emperor of the Winkies, playing the march “There’s no Plate like Tin” (Haha, Oz joke), then all the servants of the Royal Palace. And behind them all the people of the city are invited to join. AND NOW IT IS OVER.

# The rest of the celebration is a show to delight the guests, in a pavilion of green silk and cloth of gold erected outside of the Emerald City. The Wizard, now a Master of Ceremonies, performs juggling tricks with balls and lighted candles. The Scarecrow does a sword-swallowing act, and the Tin Woodman has a “Swinging the Axe” act where he makes his axe whirl around him to rapidly the eye can’t follow the blade. Glinda the Sorceress also takes part in the show, as she uses her magic to make a big tree grow in the middle of the pavillon, with blossoms appearing on the tree and becoming delicious fruits “called tamornas”, so many of them that everyone in the crowd can eat its fill. And after Glinda, it is the turn of the Good Witch of the North to perform a magic act. And here is something very interesting…

You see, her magic trick is one of transformation. She transforms ten stones into birds, then into lambs, then into little girls, who “give a pretty dance”, and then she turns them back into stones. Why is this interesting? Well if you are an Oz fan you remember Book 2, where Glinda was quite strict and clear on transformative magic – as she explains, she herself would never dabble in transformations because it is a dishonest and deceitful magic that is only practiced by wicked witches… such as Mombi. As a result, it is very bizarre to see that the Good Witch of the North uses transformation as if it was some usual fun. Of course, it is very possible that Baum simply forgot that, as we know he was never quite strict and consistent in his magic system – and we will never knew more because it is the second and last time the Good Witch of the North actually appears in the Oz books written by Baum.

The show ends with Johnny Dooit building a flying machine on stage and using it to leave the party, thanking everyone for the invitation. This marks the time of departure for the guests – and while we never learn how they actually arrived in Oz, we see that to leave they use a wonderful invention of the Wizard: a machine able to make human-sized soap bubbles, strong enough to actually carry people in them through the air (apparently he just needs to put a super-glue that dries when in contact with air to solidify the bubbles). And so with these giant bubbles of iridescent hues, he provides a transportation for all the guests to return home. Everyone goes home with those bubbles, except Dorothy and Toto who are a bit too afraid of this flying technique and prefer to be sent home by the Magic Belt.

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Yep, as it turns out, the "flying in a bubble" idea wasn't invented by the MGM movie : it was already written by Baum in his Oz books. That's not something many people know.

#oz #land of oz #what we know of oz #the emerald city #emerald city

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