Ozma of Oz: 02/22/24

Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum and John R. Neill (1907) is the third book in the Oz series and the one where Dorothy makes her first return to Oz. It's also our first good look at Ozma as the Ruler of Oz.

Dorothy's first three trips to Oz involve brushes with death: death by cyclone, death by drowning, death by earthquake. Although later trips won't be so perilous for Dorothy, future travelers (in the Ruth Plumly Thompson Oz books) will face their own near death trips to Oz.

Every time I read the opening chapter I ponder the feasibility of a Kansas based farmer taking himself and his niece to Australia for health reasons. Was the Aus/Oz joke just too irresistible for Baum? Did Baum have ties to Sydney? Or was he just looking for a way for Dorothy and the little yellow hen to wash overboard?

I think the Oz / Aus joke would have worked better if Baum hadn't written himself into a corner with the Deadly Desert that surrounds Oz. It's impossible for Dorothy or anyone else to wash ashore on Oz.

Instead, the novel begins in Ev, a post apocalyptic ocean front kingdom. What remains of Ev is full of creatures and genetically engineered food that brings to mind novels like Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (2003). Despite the Wheelers, the Lunch Box and Dinner Pail trees, Tik-Tok and whatever other creations left behind by Smith and Tinkers, and the head swapping Langwidere, there is a community of people who seem relatively happy.

Although Dorothy is imprisoned by Langwidere, Ozma of Oz isn't about how Ozma vanquishes her. She, like the Wheelers, ends up being not the threat she first appears to be. She's vain, lazy, and a collector of heads (hello Futurama) but she's otherwise an adequate ruler. Instead, the bulk of the book is focused on rescuing the Queen of Ev and her ten children. They had been sold into slavery to the Nome King by the now dead King of Ev.

Ozma arrives with an army on a magic carpet (green, of course). She gives Langwidere an ultimatum: "I am the Ruler of the Land of Oz, and I am powerful enough to destroy all your kingdom, if I so wish," (p.110). It's our first glimpse of Ozma as omnipotent ruler, quite the contrary to the previous rulers we've seen: the Wizard, the Scarecrow, and Jinjur. Ozmas is also different in that she goes in person to rescue the Ev royal family.

Although Ozma has the most power of any of the other characters, she's not the hero. She tries and her heart is in the right spot but she's too young and still as impetuous as she had been as Tip. We see how her haste fails her in the trial to recognize the Ev royal family as the Nome King's collectables.

Is Dorothy the hero? No. She is the main character but she's not the hero. Yes, she does manage to rescue on of the Ev children, but she fails utterly at figuring out the Nome King's mnemonic for transforming the Ev royal family.

The hero of Ozma of Oz is the Little Yellow Hen, aka Bill. Bill is a no nonsense, rough and tumble chicken who takes her new gift of human speech and just owns it. Whenever and wherever there's trouble, Bill gets right into the middle of it. She fights. She tells people off. She comes up with solid plans. She uses her diminutive status to gather vital information. Her abilities as a spy is what ultimately saves the Royal Family of Ev and the Ozians who were transformed after failing the Nome King's test.

Dorothy's relationship with Bill irks me. Dorothy who is usually a fairly liberal minded adventurer seems to be something of a gender essentialist. She refuses to acknowledge Bill's name because Bill is an egg laying hen. She renames Bill, Billina, to make her more feminine. She goes further and announces to anyone around her that the hen's name is Billina. Bill, though, when left to her own devices, always introduces herself as Bill. For example, when Bill rescues the Queen of Ev, she introduces herself, "Why, my name’s Bill, by rights." (p. 217)

Bill being on her own trajectory from the moment she realized she could talk until she decides to stay in Oz with Ozma, et. al, is why she's one of my favorite characters in the entire series. She's unapologetic for being who she is. She'll put up with people telling her otherwise but when left to her own devices, she goes right back to being Bill.

If you'd like to read more of my thoughts on this book, please see my 2018 review.

The fourth book in the series is Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908)

Five stars

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