THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ Rather than being just a story, the "Wizard of Oz" might be allegory. It might speak to the incongruity of masquerading male minions being able to manipulate many credulous citizens, following an environmental upheaval that displaces all values, with puffery, quackery, technology, sapping courage, wisdom, vitality. I have not read the book, the novel, the purported "children's fairytale", THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ by L. Frank Baum (1900). But, of course, I have watched the movie with you, and was as thrilled by the wicked witch of the West's deeds and demons who sought to deter our determined pilgrimage to truth. "Dorothy," the lion, scarecrow, tin man, all played their parts cleverly. Only now in 2019, at age 68, does it occur to me of the metonymy of the story, a trope on the fall of the real, the truth, by cosmic force that seem to have destroyed goodness. But magic shoes are the foundation and , of course, a foundation is life! "Oh! We clearly see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz!" Fake!