Who's in Ozma's Cabinet?

[vovat]

Ozma's style of government seems to be pretty informal. There is a noble class in the Emerald City, but it might well be a remnant of earlier times. Wizard refers to "many ladies and gentlemen of the court, all dressed in rich costumes. These people had nothing to do but talk to each other, but they always came to wait outside the Throne Room every morning, although they were never permitted to see Oz." Ojo's trial in Patchwork Girl is attended by "many of the nobility of the Emerald City, lords and ladies in beautiful costumes, and officials of the kingdom in the royal uniforms of Oz." And Rundelstone reports that Ozma routinely has breakfast with her ladies-in-waiting. Ozma has actually promoted some people to the nobility herself, having made Dorothy a princess, Jenny Jump a duchess, and Captain Samuel Salt a knight. One office Ozma apparently didn't retain was that of Prime Minister; her father had one, but there's no indication that she does.

What the fairy queen DOES have is a council of trusted friends who advise her. Glinda lists the members of her council as the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Patchwork Girl, the Shaggy Man, Tik-Tok, Jack Pumpkinhead, Cap'n Bill, Professor Wogglebug, the Frogman, Uncle Henry, and the Wizard of Oz. The Scarecrow is identified as Chief Counselor in Ruth Plumly Thompson's unfinished short story "The Enchanted Tree of Oz," and that makes sense to me. Some of the others also have official titles: Shaggy is the Keeper of the Royal Storehouses, the Wogglebug is Public Educator, and the Wizard is mostly known by his title. The fact that Henry is mentioned as "[t]he best farmer in all Oz" suggests that he might be sort of an unofficial Minister/Secretary of Agriculture. I also think it's likely that some newcomers to Ozma's court in the post-Baum books have joined the council. Herby the Medicine Man, for instance, probably has some say in medical matters in his position as Court Physician. And maybe the Doubtful Dromedary is the Royal Devil's Advocate, or something like that.

Comments

[auronsgirl.livejournal.com]

Your tune of choice is now stuck in my head, thank you. Seeing them live to promote the album was fantastic, but I do wish I'd gotten closer to my nerdy-crush boy Flansy. I've seen TMBG live twice now, and never been close enough to them to wave.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I've been pretty close to the stage at some TMBG concerts, but I've since gotten to the point where I usually want to sit down, and you can't generally do that near the stage. Well, except the one time bethje and I got seats right in the front at Town Hall, but that was kind of ruined by the drunken frat boys coming up and trying to step on our toes.

[graycardinal]

It's mildly interesting that the above-named council is composed in significant part of adult humans not native to Oz (Shaggy Man, Cap'n Bill, Uncle Henry, the Wizard); by contrast, none of the native Ozites on the council are human (Nick Chopper started out that way, but never gained status till he was converted).

[vovat.livejournal.com]

It doesn't seem like too many native Ozian adult humans made their way into Ozma's inner circle. I guess Unc Nunkie could have been there, although I'm sure he wouldn't have said much. {g}

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

that's something I've wondered about many times; you'd think some Ozite nobility, happy that they might be of life in general, are jealous now and then of being left out.

[billiedoll.livejournal.com]

I think most of them are happy being nobility. All the royal balls and petty intrigues suit them fine. Considering Baum's portrayal of the military in Oz, I wouldn't be surprised if his nobles would be shocked if asked to actually make an important decision.

To quote President Skrewb: "I can't make decisions! I'm the President!"

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

That makes sense ... I was going to say that Ozma wouldn't put up with people like that, but I suppose rulers of the time had to learn to live with it. Besides, after dealing with Scraps, the Glass Cat, and similar personalities for so long, she must have the patience of a saint!

[speciesof1.livejournal.com]

Ozma hates Meat People.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

But she'd like me if she only KNEW me! ;-)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, in the Thompson books, she appoints flesh-and-blood human rulers for the Munchkins and Gillikins.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Token meat people.

;-)

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

There must be some serious criminal issues with flesh-and-blood adults from Oz that Baum didn't want us to know about. So few of them are protagonists in the Oz books, and even then most are women.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think it's a general rule in writing stories with child protagonists that competent adults have to be somehow out of the way, so the adults who do feature are often childlike themselves, or at least of a sort to consider children their equals. Thompson did give us a fair number of adolescent characters (mostly princes), who were old enough to be interested in marriage and romance, but young enough that child readers could still identify with them.

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Very true. Also, Baum was a widely traveled man around a still kind of wild mid-west, and it could be he'd seen enough rotten male adults and made the decision to keep them out of his universe. There are exceptions, but his males in general tended to be less than complete, in one way or another: one legged, or humbugs, or getting lost all the time. Paging Doctor Freud ...