Black Choose Day

[vovat]

For Black Friday, let's leave the hectic world of consumerism, and turn to a magical fairyland where they don't use money. Or do they? While money does show up in the first few Oz books, by the time of The Road to Oz, Baum seems to have considered the lack of money to be an important part of his fairyland (perhaps due at least in part to his own financial failures and extravagant vacations). In The Emerald City of Oz, we learn that Oz is basically a communist country that actually works, with all surplus goods being put into Ozma's storehouses, and redistributed to whomever needs them. Money is still used in Jinxland in The Scarecrow of Oz, but that's an out-of-the-way country where Ozma's influence hadn't yet permeated. Ruth Plumly Thompson, on the other hand, did have some parts of Oz still using money, although it was more common for inhabitants of Oz to do a sort of informal bartering. Gold and jewels seem to be valuable for trading, despite the fact that they're usually presented as quite common there. Then again, it's not like our money has any real intrinsic value; it's a way of keeping score. And hey, gold and jewels are pretty, right?

Turning to another author's Oz works, a pre-publication draft of Eloise Jarvis McGraw's The Forbidden Fountain of Oz included a footnote detailing the currency of Oz. This footnote was edited out of the finished book, but I think it's as good a guide as any to Ozian money. And even in this footnote, it's stated that merchants will generally give away anything that someone really wants or needs but can't afford, so the socialist system isn't totally abolished.

If you want to find out more about Ozian money, check out the books at the Public Library of Oz. Or if you don't have the good fortune to live within easy access of the Emerald City, Eric Gjovaag wrote a Baum Bugle article that covers the subject in great detail. I forget which issue it's in, and I believe my Bugle back issues are in storage right now, but I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to find.

Comments

Trivia

[(Anonymous)]

Name the Oz character entirely made out of money.

Re: Trivia

[vovat.livejournal.com]

That would be Fi Nance, Queen of Down Town. The Scarecrow was also briefly stuffed with paper money, but he wasn't made entirely of it.

Re: Trivia

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten about the Scarecrow being stuffed with money. What a rich character he was.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

How could it be heaven if money is in use?

I recall similar discussions about the World of Star Trek, where sometimes it's said humanity is "past" money, while other times it's very clearly in use. I think Oz has a much better claim to being a place without cash.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

How could it be heaven if money is in use?

But it's fine for heaven to contain man-eating plants, Kalidahs, and deadly poppy fields? :P

I recall similar discussions about the World of Star Trek, where sometimes it's said humanity is "past" money, while other times it's very clearly in use. I think Oz has a much better claim to being a place without cash.

Well, it's probably easier the abolish money in a country of half a million people than in an interstellar federation. Besides, Oz doesn't have any Ferengi, as far as I know.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Heh -- you already know the answer to that: A world in which there's no conflict would be way too boring to write stories about. Gotta have those man-eating plants.

I see no reason to believe there isn't some little band of Ferengi in some far-off corner of Oz! :-) It seems the country gets bigger with every story; it's gotta be at least the size of Europe, by now. Actually, that's something that bothers me: Writers are so busy trying to creat their own new wonders that they don't take advantage of story opportunities in Oz characters who already exist.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

A world in which there's no conflict would be way too boring to write stories about.

Maybe that's why there aren't that many stories about Heaven, and why Dante's Inferno is more interesting than his Paradiso.

It seems the country gets bigger with every story; it's gotta be at least the size of Europe, by now.

Chris Dulabone seems to like the idea that Oz is about as big as the United States, but I think that's overkill. I think it's more likely that some of the isolated communities might be enchanted so that they're bigger inside than outside. Even that might not be totally necessary, though. Most of the little communities are VERY little, after all.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Oz needs to be small enough that Dorothy and Ozma can get to all corners of it by little red wagon within a few days, in my mind. As you say, most of the odd little places are very small indeed, but I like the Doctor Who "bigger on the inside" idea, too. It's magical -- why not?

Maybe a good comparison would be to have Oz roughly France size, with the surrounding continent being about the size of Europe. Having said that, I have no idea how long it would take to cross France by wagon.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that David Hulan, who did a detailed study on travel times in Oz, has said that he doesn't think the entire "continent" is any bigger than Ireland.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Hm ... that would make Oz about the size of Indiana, give or take ... that sounds about right to me. Going from Indianapolis to northeast Indiana is about a 2 to 2 1/2 hour car trip.

Where the heck do people get the time to do detailed studies on Oz details?

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, I think David is retired, so that might give him more time for things like that.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Oh, if only I could retire -- I'd be working on my fiction ten hours a day, six days a week.