I'd like to know why Mr Bradbury choses to launch Baum and other writers in space and burn their books in The Exiles. I'm writing a thesis on The Wizard of Oz (uni in Italy)and I'd relly appreciate your help.
Thankyou

"The Exiles" (authors) have actually been banned from the earth by the likes of the censorship crew that is hunting them down. Mr. Bradbury is presenting a theme that can be seen in many of his works (Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, F451, Dust Returned). That is, "The old is being lost or purposefully destroyed to make room for the new." In this case, the most imaginative and creative authors of all time (Poe, Shakespeare, Dickens, Bierce, Carroll, Baum, et al) have days that are numbered.

The allusions to Santa Claus, Halloween, ghosts, Scrooge, Oz, the witches, Jekyll and Hyde, and so many more - all offer the reader an opportunity to see "what was" and "what will be"! The visual image of the Emerald City epitomizes, I believe, what each of these genius authors had created in his own works (pendulums swinging, bats flying, cauldrons brewing, tinsel and holly hanging, fiddles "chirping and laughing", tables heaped with lavish meals for one of many holiday celebrations, etc.)

And "what will be"? A world dipped in "lysol, antiseptic parents, clever sociologists, resentful educationalists" - a dystopian society that we can witness in F451, Veldt, 1984, Brave New World, and other "works of warning"!

Mr. Bradbury is not the culprit in presenting this view of the demise of Baum, Poe, Shakespeare and friends.
Then who is?

As Ambrose Bierce so mavelously understates, it is "a regrettable situation!"

This is a very interesting story (one of my favorites) and deserves much more than I have offered here. However, if it takes reading the story (book) 3 times!!! (totally unplugged, no tv), maybe that is where we need to begin! (RE: Previous "Q's on F451")

Otherwise, this story will come to be and the last book will be burned, the authors will not be simply exiled but rather extinct, and "sand will blow across 'our' shoes, whining"!
(I hope this helped in some way.)



[This message has been edited by fjpalumbo (edited 02-28-2002).]

Why not buy the set today?

I just saw a documentary about L.Frank Baum, and was quite taken with the illustrations from the first edition. (In my Baum-ignorance, and put off by the Hollywood movie, I have never actually read any of the books.) This set of replicas looks like a great idea.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
In my Baum-ignorance, and put off by the Hollywood movie, I have never actually read any of the books.

But the film was so different, although I loved it.

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Spaulding:
...But the film was so different...

I always knew that, but still wasn't particularly drawn to the books. But the illustrations are charming. Found some of them online here:

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.c.../08/original-oz.html

The whole of the first edition is supposed to be viewable on the Library of Congress website, but their server is down for maintenance at present.

There have been a number of versions before and since the 1939 film as well as other Oz-related projects, the movie just remains the most popular.