First published in "the New Yorker" as "Out of Kansas," I think it is one of the best essays on "the Wizard of Oz" ever written. When I was a little boy, I would always cry when the wicked witch melted. With this essay Rushdie comes to her defense and defines my childish wonder!

Novena reseña del 2023
UN BREVE TEXTO SOBRE MAGIA

No conocía el libro y no estaba en mis planes leerlo. Lo encontré en una librería y me resultó interesante. Luego de haber visto el film, los mitos que rondan sobre su rodaje es algo que me daba curiosidad y... si bien no se centra principalmente en esto (derribar mitos, lo que ocurrió en el rodaje, desglose argumental, preguntas sin respuestas), me dio la sensación que fue una excusa para poder contar su experiencia con el film y lo que conllevó en su vida.
Aclaro que acá no se compara el libro con el film homónimo. Sino esto es mas centrado en el mundo audiovisual.
Y con respecto a la calificación se debe a la velocidad leída. Tan solo contiene 80 páginas.
Por ende, leerlo bajo tu propia responsabilidad.

FRASES DESTACADAS

(...)en el caso de una película amada, todos somos los dobles de las estrellas.

Esta penetración en el mundo real de lo ficcional es un síntoma de la decadencia moral que caracteriza la cultura del milenio. Los héroes salen de la pantalla de cine y se casan con los miembros del público. ¿Se pondrá fin a todo esto? ¿Acaso la violencia utilizada por el Estado resulta insuficiente? ¿Debería haber controles más rigurosos? Debatimos estas cuestiones con frecuencia.

This was simply excellent. Rushdie in this short form is a delight to read- he gives a snapshot if an iconic American tale landing cyclone like in India.

“(A parenthetical worry about the presentation of Munchkinland: is it not a mite too pretty, too kempt, too sweetly sweet for a place that was, until moments before Dorothy’s arrival, under the absolute power of the evil and dictatorial Witch of the East? How is it that this squashed Witch had no castle? How could her despotism have left so little mark upon the land? Why are the Munchkins so relatively unafraid, hiding only briefly before they emerge, and giggling while they hide? The heretical thought occurs: Maybe the Witch of the East wasn’t as bad as all that – she certainly kept the streets clean, the houses painted and in good repair, and no doubt such trains as there might be, running on time. Moreover, and again unlike her sister, she seems to have ruled without the aid of soldiers, policemen or other regiments of repression. Why, then, was she so hated? I only ask.)” (42)

I love The Wizard of Oz, I love Salman Rushdie, but this combination does not add charm to either. This seems to have been written at a time of self-conscious intellectualism. Either way, I retain my love of both.

I started reading this as a library loan on my Kindle, and immediately realized that I needed to be able to see all the still shots of the movie that were included in the originally published paperback book, so I bought my own copy.

It's such a quick and juicy read. Salman Rushdie's love for this movie, its messages and its music, is so affirming for those of us who still watch the yearly broadcast of Dorothy and her Toto & Friends on TV, usually around Thanksgiving. Because what else could be better to give thanks for than this wonderful story that shows us it is still possible to find what we are looking for just over the rainbow, somewhere.

Rushdie's writing style was born during his first experience with the movie, and lingered even beyond conscious thought to become characters and events in his future novels, "So striking were these colour effects that, soon after seeing the film as a child, I began to dream of green-skinned witches; years afterwards, I gave these dreams to the narrator of my novel Midnight's Children, having completely forgotten their source."

Rushdie reveals the symbolisms in the movie, and often compares them to Baum's original story, sometimes to its advantage and sometimes not. Rushdie sees the strength in Baum's story, and in the movie, that thrilled me as a child:

"Glinda and the Witch of the West are the only two symbols of power in a film which is largely about the powerless, and it's instructive to 'unpack' them. They are both women, and a striking aspect of The Wizard of Oz is its lack of a male hero -- because, for all their brains, heart and courage, it is impossible to see the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion as classic Hollywood leading men. The power centre of the film is a triangle at whose points are Glinda, Dorothy and the Witch; the fourth point, at which the Wizard is thought for most of the film to stand, turns out to be an illusion. The power of men, it is suggested, is illusory; the power of women is real.

Rushdie also points out the kinship between Dorothy and the Wizard:

"These two immigrants have adopted opposite strategies of survival in a new and strange land. Dorothy has been unfailingly polite, careful, courteously 'small and meek', whereas the Wizard has been fire and smoke, bravado and bombast, and has hustled his way to the top, floated there, so to speak, on a cloud of his own hot air. But Dorothy learns that meekness isn't enough, and the Wizard finds (as the balloon gets the better of him for a second time) that his command of hot air isn't all it should be. It is hard for a migrant like myself not to see in these shifting destinies a parable of the migrant condition."

He discusses the magic of the music, which seals the deal of this being, in Rushdie's mind, the perfect movie. He points out songwriter Harburg's lyrics as an invention of "punning, concertinaed words.":

We're off to see the Wizard
The wonderful Wizzerdevoz,
We hear he is
A Wizzavawizz,
If ever a Wizztherwozz
If everoever a Wizztherwozz
The Wizzerdevoz is one because....

And finally, Rushdie doesn't just end his essay with ordinary plainspeak, he writes a short story about the auction sale of those Ruby Slippers (that really work) in a dystopian future. By the way, within that short story (written in 1992) can be found the original template for the novel The Martian - at least, that's what it looks like to me:

"At that time many television channels were devoted to the sad case of the astronaut stranded on Mars without hope of rescue, and with diminishing supplies of food and breathable air. The cameras inside his marooned spacecraft continued to send us poignant images of his slow descent into despair, his low-gravity, weight-reduced death... and when this condemned man on another planet began to sing a squawky medleyof songs I was reminded of the dying computer in '2001: A Space Odyssey'... "

I read this British Film Institute's publication, one of a series of similar publications (all about 70 pages long), on a Sunday while leisurely sipping my morning coffee. What a wonderful way to start my day. Thank you Salman Rushdie.

“(...) we understand that the real secret of the ruby slippers is not that ‘there’s no place like home’, but rather that there is no longer any such place as home: except, of course, for the home we make, or the homes that are made for us, in Oz: which is anywhere, and everywhere, except the place from which we began.”

Ok this isn’t the best book in this BFI series, but it’s the most unconventional. The ending is actually fiction (lol!). Not sure if I recommend this, but he does make a compelling case for why the line “There’s no place like home” actually undermines the movie’s actual heart—that travelers have all that they need inside themselves

I am a sucker for anything relating to the Wizard of Oz, and this is no different. Rushdie makes some great points, nevertheless.

I wish all of the BFI Film Classics monographs were like this one. Rushdie manages to combine personal reminiscence, sophisticated but jargon-free analysis, and film history anecdotes to give us an effortless but engrossing read. As almost an appendix to the main text, Rushdie adds an interesting short story about an auction for the ruby-red glass slippers. The story is completely out of place, but I admire Rushdie all the more for including it.

I love the wizard of oz I probably have like 5 different versions of the wizard of oz

This book was recommended by a random Wizard of Oz fan I met. She said it fundamentally changed the way she saw the film. I thought it was interesting to learn about Rushdie's perspective on the film and it's significance. There weren't many angles I hadn't already thought of myself, but enjoyed reading his take on them. He misquoted the move a couple times, which irked me a bit. Overall, a fun and thought provoking quick read.