Queen Zixi visits Oz
Apropos of a discussion in an earlier column, here is an illustration by John R. Neill of the visit by Queen Zixi of Ix to Oz on the occasion of Ozma’s birthday, as described by the royal historian, L Frank Baum, in ROAD TO OZ.
Her appearance is somewhat changed from the depiction by Frederick Richardson, but since, canonically, her appearance is an illusion that fools all eyes but her own, she could have as many heads and hair colors as Princess Langwidere of Ev.
For those of you who are interested, here are some of the other Guests of Oz, and their native storybooks.
John Dough is a gingerbread king of Hiland and Loland from the book JOHN DOUGH AND CHICK THE CHERUB.
I have not read the book, but am given to understand John Dough was brought to life with an Arabic elixir, flees from strange land to stranger on a flying machine, seeking not to be eaten.
The illustrations in this case match between the original book and ROAD TO OZ as John R. Neill draw both.
With him are Chick the Cherub (never named as boy or girl but called “it” in the text) who is the original Incubator Baby, and ParaBruin, a rubber ball bear.
In first picture above, we can also see Pittypat the Rabbit, and spy to the rear, one of the short, round men of Loland (who live in low, round houses) and the tall, thin men of Hiland (who live in tall, thin houses). Like King Bud of Noland, John Dough is crowned king merely because of the luck of a timely arrival.
A quick study of the map of the lands surrounding Oz show Hiland and Loland to be West, which is to say, East, of Oz (the directions are reversed on all Oz maps).
The next guest to arrive is Santa Claus, but specifically the Santa from L Frank Baum’s THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF SANTA CLAUS, who lives, not at the North Pole, but in the Forest of Burzee. With him are Ryls and Knooks. Ryls immortal creatures charges with protecting woodland and woodland creatures.
The next guests are the Queen of Merryland and the Candy Man, from DOT AND TOT OF MERRYLAND.
Again, this is not a book I’ve read, but Dot and Tot travel through the various odd valleys of Merryland, meeting odd folk. The Candy Man is made of a marshmallow substance, which will stick to surfaces unless he liberally powders himself with sugar.
The Queen is a large wax doll who rules Merryland with her fairy wand and thinking machine. Her name is never given in the book until the end, when Tot realizes it must be Dolly.
The Royal Family of Ev arrived next (not pictured here) , soon followed by the Braided Man of Pyramid Mountain, who Dorothy had met in underground realms explored in DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ.
The Braided Man is a great inventor who once lived on the surface of the earth. He manufactured Imported Holes for American Swiss Cheese, pores for porous plaster, and high-grade holes for buttons and doughnuts. Finally he invented an Adjustable Post-Hole and manufactured a large quantity. He stacked them end to end and put the top one in the ground, but fell into this extraordinarily long hole.
He currently manufactures flutters and rustles for flags, banners, and lady’s skirts.
King Dox of Foxville is next, who earlier in this tale, out of misplaced kindness, turned the head of Button Bright into a Fox head.
Also listed as a guest is the Good Witch of the North, whose name was never revealed by Baum. She appears in no book of his save the first, so her only illustration is by W. W. Denslow.
She is shown here holding the magical slate into which her pointed witch-hat transforms. When she balanced it on the end of her nose and counted three, it wrote the script: Let Dorothy Go to the City of Emeralds and sent her on her way.
She places a kiss on Dorothy’s forehead, which protects her from the Flying Monkeys sent later by the Wicked Witch of the West.
Philip Jose Farmer remembers this in A BARNSTORMER IN OZ, when Dorothy, now an old lady, dims the light and doffs her hat to show to young nephew (who is soon to visit Oz himself) the silver mark glowing in the dark left by the charmed kiss. It an eerie scene, and, frankly, the only one I recall.
The brief cameo at the birthday party is the only other time she appears in Baum’s works. Here she amuses the people by transforming ten stones into ten birds, the ten birds into ten lambs, and the ten lambs into ten little girls, who gave a pretty dance and were then transformed into ten stones again
Further guests include Johnny Dooit, a magical handyman able in a moment to made the land-sailing boat that carried Dorothy safely over the deadly desert in an earlier chapter. At the party, he builds a flying machine in a matter of minutes out of his toolkit, bid the princess Ozma farewell and flies away.
Also present is King Kikabray (who had given the Shaggy Man a donkey’s head when they visited Dunkiton) who likewise is from an earlier chapter.
The Shaggy Man was not pleased with the improvement:
One guest not mentioned in the text, but added by John R Neill is the Queen of the Field Mice, who had rescued Dorothy from the poisonous poppy field outside the Emerald City.
My comment: Myself, I find L Frank Baum’s work quite uneven. Certain of his books I like, other I like very much, and others not. In Oz he hit his stride, specifically, in LAND OF OZ and the books thereafter.
I am the only person I know who is an Oz fan who dislikes the first book, WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, because Baum lacks a sure grip on his storytelling, tends to meander, and maintains no consistent tone or theme: a comparison with the 1939 film version starring Judy Garden will make my point for me without any further discussion. It has one theme and one point that carries the girl through all her adventures.
I do not see this wandering weakness in LAND OF OZ or any of the later Oz books, including the ones clearly were not meant to be Oz (SCARECROW OF OZ and RIKITINK IN OZ) but were shoehorned into the background to ride the popularity of the author’s most famous work.
LAND OF OZ terrified me as a child, because Mombi the Witch brews the poison to turn Tip into a statue while he is sitting in her kitchen, watching her stir the cauldron. And I was enamored of the idea of the Powder of Life (which reappears in PATCHWORK GIRL OF OZ).
Likewise, MAGIC OF OZ starred Trot and Cap’n Bill, who frankly are more alive and likable here than in SEA FAIRIES or SKY ISLAND, and the vain and petty Glass Cat, whom I particularly love, despite her bad traits.
Likewise again, GLINDA OF OZ is practically a science fiction story, not a fairytale, with its undersea city resting on an expandable iron column, and the evil Dictator of the Flatheads, who carry their brains in tin cans, and can have them confiscated at will.
The weakness of plot and pacing and theme I see in WIZARD are present in most of the Royal Historian’s non-Oz books, where his quaint and curious people found in so many odd fairylands frankly lack the appeal of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Cowardly Lion.
The appeal of these characters, strangely, is that they are figures of pity, lacking brains, or heart, or courage.
Other Oz characters have some of the glamor and popularity of these three, such as the Patchwork Girl or the Shaggy Man or Polychrome the Rainbow’s Daughter, and others, as the Hungry Tiger or the boastful Frog Man, somewhat lack.
Baum was at his best when his characters suffered. The first rule of writing, or so I am told, is to tell a tale of a character we admire (or, at least, can sympathize with) who wants something very badly, something very hard to get.
The parade of characters from his other books simply emphasizes that, save for Zixi of Ix (who is beautiful only to others, never to herself), none of them have a driving motive built into their natures, as do the more famous of the Oz characters.
Why was Baum at his best in Oz, and none of his many other imaginative inventions took off? I cannot say. Sometimes inspiration strikes. Sometimes, it misses.
ADDED LATER:
As a bonus, let us savor the sly humor of John R Neill’s illustration of Toto laughing at the statue of himself in the gardens of the Tin Woodman’s castle. In the foreground is Dorothy. The statues are fashioned to resemble the ungainly portrayals of Toto and Dorothy by W. W. Denslow, the prior illustrator, who depicted the Kansas girl and her little dog in Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
