Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Incorporated (QCOM) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Anthony who wrote (15188)	9/18/1998 7:17:00 AM
From: Jon Koplik	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 152472

To all - very O.T., but it is almost the weekend : September 18, 1998 'Wizard of Oz' at Center of Debate Filed at 6:37 a.m. EDT By The Associated Press SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) -- Roger Baum and Michael Genovese agree on one thing -- Toto was just a dog. Beyond that, ''The Wizard of Oz'' is either the greatest children's novel ever written or a story about the collapse of Populism in the late 1800s. Baum, the great-grandson of ''Oz'' author L. Frank Baum, will be in Chesterton this weekend for the 17th annual Wizard of Oz festival. His views are clear. ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was written solely to pleasure children of today,'' Baum said, quoting from the introduction to the book written 98 years ago. But Genovese, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University, says Oz has a political dimension beyond the yellow brick road. Describing Oz as just a fairy tale about a girl from Kansas is like claiming ''Moby Dick'' is nothing more than a story about a white whale, he says. Henry Littlefield, a teacher in Pebble Beach, Calif., is credited with finding the Populism theme. Populists advocated free coinage of silver to counteract inflation, abolition of national banks and a graduated income tax, among other things. Littlefield interpreted the yellow brick road and Dorothy's silver shoes -- they were changed to ruby in the movie to show off new color technology -- as representing the gold standard and the coinage of silver. His students found more parallels: -- The title Oz is actually the abbreviation for ounce, the standard measure used for gold. -- The Tin Woodman is the industrial worker, left heartless by dehumanizing work in factories. -- The brainless Scarecrow is the farmer, not intelligent enough to recognize his political interests. -- The Cowardly Lion is Williams Jennings Bryan, a leader in the Populist movement ridiculed for having more bark than bite. -- The Wizard is any one of several presidents in office in the late 1800s trying to be everything to everybody but were just common men, ruling others through deception. -- The wicked witches of the East and West are the capitalists and bankers who kept the ''little people'' -- that would be the munchkins -- in bondage. ''You don't have to buy into it,'' Littlefield said. ''It's just a way of looking at these wonderful stories written by this absolute genius at writing fantasy.'' But for Baum, all the talk of subtext blasphemes a charming children's book. ''There are a handful of professors here who love to turn 'Oz' into a political satire, and there's just no basis for it in any of great-granddad's notes or anything else, and it has a tendency to tear down some of the things we cherish so much in this country,'' Baum said. ''This is all insane.'' Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company