How about another story?

[vovat]

I've read two more of March Laumer's Oz books, Charmed Gardens of Oz and Uncle Henry and Aunt Em of Oz. The former is rather unusual, in that it's written in the second person. Are there very many fiction books other than those of the Choose Your Own Adventure variety that are written like that? It starts out as fairly awkward and nonsensical in terms of plot, characters, and dialogue. The whole thing is eventually explained, though, which makes it more excusable than it otherwise would be. It's possibly my least favorite of the Laumer books I've read so far, but it had some good parts. One of my favorites was the flight of Glod, the living comet. The return to the Garden of Meats (which had originally appeared in an excised and never found chapter of The Patchwork Girl of Oz) was also interesting.

Uncle Henry suffers from a problem that's all too common with stories that take place during the course of the original series, and that's the problem of characters being aware of things before they should. It is made clear that this adventure takes place before the events of The Giant Horse of Oz, yet Dorothy becomes aware of the wishing necklaces and the fate of the King of the Green Mountain, both of which she learns about in The Wishing Horse of Oz. Since Uncle Henry has to take place before Wishing Horse, Dorothy would presumably remember these things by the time of that book, yet she doesn't. So that's a little sloppy on Laumer's part, as is having some Ozian celebrities visit the Sapphire City during the time when Quiberon is supposed to be preventing travel to and from there. As a story, though, it's pretty good. The idea of the Wicked Witch of the East somehow coming back and haunting visitors to Dorothy's old house is one that's shown up in a lot of post-canonical Oz books. I'm not sure whether Laumer was the first to use it. The story of the King of the Green Mountain is better explored in Melody Grandy's later book The Disenchanted Princess of Oz, but I do like Laumer's identification of the "swift messenger" from the first Oz book.


I came up with some ideas for an Oz story of my own the other day. It was partially inspired by a dream I had about finding an Ozian book in an American bookstore. I've come up with some ideas for a plot where some people find such a book, as well as a back story for the guy who sold it in the first place. The problem is that I really haven't really developed personalities for the people who find it. I'm not sure if I want them to be young kids or somewhat older, or even what gender they should be (although I'm thinking one boy and one girl). I'm also not sure about the setting. Is it wrong to set part of a story in a real place that you've never actually been? If it's a place where I never conceivably WOULD go (like, say, Baghdad or Antarctica), that would be one thing. But what if it's a place where it's techncially possible to go, but you have no desire to do so? I guess it wouldn't necessarily be a problem. I mean, I think L. Frank Baum himself only saw Kansas once before setting the original Oz book there. From what I've read, most of his descriptions of Kansas were based more on the Dakota Territory, where he once lived. Still, would that kind of thing ruin the willing suspension of disbelief?

Speaking of which, bethje and I saw part of Kate & Leopold on TBS last night. (I think the late-night lineup of those sub-basic cable channels consists of about 50% crappy Meg Ryan movies.) Now THERE'S a movie that stretches believability. Not because of the time travel stuff. I can buy that. What I can't buy is that anyone would ever find Meg Ryan attractive. :P

We also watched Bamboozled, which I thought was good. I believe it's the first Spike Lee film I've ever seen.

Comments

[l8erngr8er.livejournal.com]

You and Beth really have it out for Meg Ryan, don't you?

Not that you shouldn't. :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I really can't understand her appeal. All I can figure is that women are supposed to see her movies and say, "Hey, if someone who looks and acts like THAT can find romance, there's hope for me, too!" Of course, chances are you'll have to date an unscrupulous capitalist who put you out of business and has a dad played by Dabney Coleman, or a sexist nobleman who takes you back to a time when you weren't allowed to vote, but hey, love conquers all, right? :P

[alex-a-polukhin.livejournal.com]

"Kate & Leopold "
Nice movie, nice actress.
What's wrong with Meg Ryan?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Aside from the fact that she always looks like she just got out of bed?

:)

[alex-a-polukhin.livejournal.com]

...like she just got out of bed...
That's not a fatal problem.

Re: :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Not TOTALLY fatal, but the chances of the treatment working are only 50%.

:) IMHO

[alex-a-polukhin.livejournal.com]

chances ... working are only 50%
50%, that's quite enough!
An ample percentage, I should say.

[travspence.livejournal.com]

This has nothing to do with Meg Ryan or Oz but would be interested in seeing this job posting I just got? It's a metadata/cataloging job at Penn State. Or is that too far outside your range?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Penn State Main Campus, or one of the branches? I guess I'd like to see it, but it might well end up being too far away.

[travspence.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Applications are to be sent to this address: Libraries Human Resources, Box MDL-GLIB, The Pennsylvania State University, 511 Paterno Library, University Park, PA 16802

Do you want me to forward the email or just post the description in a comment here?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

You can forward the e-mail.

[travspence.livejournal.com]

I don't know your email address. :-)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

DinnerBell@tmbg.org

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

I have to say, although I don't know anything about Oz books beyond the first, that story sounds really cool, and you should definitely develop it. Ironically, characters are one of the things I'm GOOD at developing in stories. If you have a plot but no characters, first of all I envy you, but beyond that, I would look at the ideas you have for plot and think about what real-life things they put you in mind of, and develop characters whose personal growth meshes with the plot somehow-- someone dealing with a smaller, real-life situation similar to a situation he or she will encounter in the plot of the book (classic example, someone dealing with bullies then going off and facing a monster or something-- but it can be less blatant than that, too. And is probably better less blatant). Try to find some of the inner thoughts and feelings of the characters, and then who they are on the outside -- age and gender and so forth-- might just OCCUR to you from that, all of a sudden. Ooo. I like having discussions like this!

As for settings you've never been to, I think it would depend more on how important setting is to the story, how well you know it. If you write about a real place and get details wrong, people who have been there would notice, but if the details aren't really noticible in the story, then who cares?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm all right with SOME characters. The thing is, while a lot of the original Oz books deal with American visitors to Oz, most of the stories I've written deal largely with Oz natives. You'd think "real" people would be EASIER to write, but I think there's also more concern with their coming across as realistic than their might be with characters from imaginary lands. I am thinking of one of the characters being more into fantasy (although not having read many of the Oz books), and the other not so much so, but that's kind of similar to the two main characters in The Emerald Wand of Oz (except that those characters are sisters, and distant relatives of Dorothy's, which mine wouldn't be).

I doubt the our-world settings are going to be of much consequence in the story, so I'm probably going to just do some minimal research to avoid something really out-of-place.