The Giant Garden of Oz
Encyclopedia
The Giant Garden of Oz is a novel written and illustrated by Eric Shanower
, first published in 1993 by Emerald City Press, a division of Books of Wonder. As its title indicates, the novel is a volume in the ever-growing literature on the Land of Oz
, written by L. Frank Baum
and many successors.
and Aunt Em
, the surrogate parents of Dorothy Gale
. In his sixth Oz book, The Emerald City of Oz
, Baum had brought the two characters from the mundane world of Kansas to the Emerald City
, where they enjoyed a blissful retirement. At the start of The Giant Garden of Oz, the couple, "after eighty-some years of a life of luxury," have decided to return to farming. (Inhabitants of Oz do not age, unless they want to.) They have acquired a small farm in the Munchkin Country
; with magical aids designed by the Wizard of Oz
, their farm labor is much less demanding than in the Kansas of their past.
Dorothy comes to pay her first visit to the new farm — but encounters an unprecedented problem. Overnight, the couple's vegetable garden grows to enormous size, with giant beets, broccoli, peppers, and watermelons, and heads of cabbage twenty feet high. The farmhouse is hemmed in by a vegetable wall. Dorothy sets out for the Emerald City, climbing a landscape of mountainous produce. Outside the garden, she crosses the Munchkin Country and meets new friends, principally a white-and-purple cow named Imogene, who gives varying dairy products depending upon her mood:
In a crisis, Imogene can yield a healing golden milk; and in the course of the tale, she gives whipped cream and ice cream too. (Imogene the cow originated in The Wizard of Oz, the 1902 stage adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
.)
Imogene talks Dorothy into accepting her companionship (the cow wants to see the Emerald City
). With the help of the Wizard, Dorothy begins to unravel the mystery of the giant garden, and to follow the trail of a would-be witch called Old Magda who is its cause. The task isn't easy; the trio endure a thunderstorm and a near-crash-landing during a balloon flight.
Magda created a giantism potion to make her gardening more productive and her life easier — but lost control of it; giant moles, eating the giant vegetables, become a pest to all and sundry. Dorothy falls prey to giantism herself and endures a subterranean ordeal before she, the Wizard, and Princess Ozma
resolve the problem and restore the normal order of Oz.
In the end, Dorothy and her friends face a choice. They rescue Old Magda and Imogene the cow from being buried alive; then they learn that they can revive one or the other, but not both. Saving the old witch can lead to the antidote for Dorothy's giantism; but Dorothy finds she cannot allow her bovine companion to die. Once recovered, however, Imogene supplies the golden milk that restores Magda too. The antidote is obtained, and Dorothy is restored to her normal size. Old Magda reforms, and Imogene gets her tour of the Emerald City.
and pastiche
s appeared in the twentieth century. By the later twentieth century, a literature of "alternative Oz" books was growing more substantive, with works like Philip Jose Farmer
's A Barnstormer in Oz
, Geoff Ryman
's Was
, and Gregory Maguire
's Wicked
trilogy. This alternative literature encompasses darker and more pessimistic material than is normally found in children's literature, and employs elements of satire
, science fiction
, dystopia
n literature, and even horror
— with, perhaps, an extreme reached in 2006's Bloodstained Oz
.
In terms of Northrop Frye
's critical categories, the traditional and highly idealistic conceptual framework of Baum and his followers embodies the redemptive nature of romance
, while alternative-Oz works possess the diremptive power of satire. Modern writers faithful to the original idealism of Baum, like Shanower, are nonetheless influenced by the darker views of the revisionists. In some individual cases, a writer of the traditional cast manages to accept some of the darker view without losing the bright and positive vision of the original. Edward Einhorn
's 1999 novel Paradox in Oz
stands out for its successful absorption of the dark side into the traditional idealistic vision. Less successfully, Shanower's The Giant Garden of Oz is (both literally and figuratively) a gritty ordeal, with abundant dirt, hunger, thirst, tears, bleeding, and suffering. His image of a filthy, naked, gigantic Dorothy Gale is certainly one of the most striking extremes in the literature of Oz.
Eric Shanower
Eric James Shanower is an American comics artist and writer, best known for his Oz novels and comics and the on-going retelling of the Trojan War as Age of Bronze.-Biography:...
, first published in 1993 by Emerald City Press, a division of Books of Wonder. As its title indicates, the novel is a volume in the ever-growing literature on the Land of Oz
Land of Oz
Oz is a fantasy region containing four lands under the rule of one monarch.It was first introduced in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, one of many fantasy countries that he created for his books. It achieved a popularity that none of his other works attained, and after four years, he...
, written by L. Frank Baum
L. Frank Baum
Lyman Frank Baum was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
and many successors.
Synopsis
Temporally, Shanower places his novel at the end of the twentieth century; he takes up the story of Uncle HenryUncle Henry (Oz)
Uncle Henry is a fictional character from The Oz Books by L. Frank Baum. He is the uncle of orphan Dorothy Gale and husband of Aunt Em, and lived with them on a farm in Kansas.-Oz Books:...
and Aunt Em
Aunt Em
Aunt Em is a fictional character from the Oz books. She is the aunt of Dorothy Gale and wife of Uncle Henry, and lived together with them on a farm in Kansas...
, the surrogate parents of Dorothy Gale
Dorothy Gale
Dorothy Gale is the protagonist of many of the Oz novels by American author L. Frank Baum, and the best friend of Oz's ruler Princess Ozma. Dorothy first appears in Baum's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and reappears in most of its sequels...
. In his sixth Oz book, The Emerald City of Oz
The Emerald City of Oz
The Emerald City of Oz is the sixth of L. Frank Baum's fourteen Land of Oz books. It was also adapted into a Canadian animated film in 1987. Originally published on July 20, 1910, it is the story of Dorothy Gale and her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em coming to live in Oz permanently...
, Baum had brought the two characters from the mundane world of Kansas to the Emerald City
Emerald City
The Emerald City is the fictional capital city of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
, where they enjoyed a blissful retirement. At the start of The Giant Garden of Oz, the couple, "after eighty-some years of a life of luxury," have decided to return to farming. (Inhabitants of Oz do not age, unless they want to.) They have acquired a small farm in the Munchkin Country
Munchkin Country
Munchkin Country is the Eastern region in the fictional Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In Wizard it was originally called "the land of Munchkins", and "Munchkin Country" in all subsequent Oz books...
; with magical aids designed by the Wizard of Oz
Wizard (Oz)
The Wizard of Oz, known during his reign as The Great and Powerful Oz, is the epithet of Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, a fictional character in the Land of Oz, created by American author L...
, their farm labor is much less demanding than in the Kansas of their past.
Dorothy comes to pay her first visit to the new farm — but encounters an unprecedented problem. Overnight, the couple's vegetable garden grows to enormous size, with giant beets, broccoli, peppers, and watermelons, and heads of cabbage twenty feet high. The farmhouse is hemmed in by a vegetable wall. Dorothy sets out for the Emerald City, climbing a landscape of mountainous produce. Outside the garden, she crosses the Munchkin Country and meets new friends, principally a white-and-purple cow named Imogene, who gives varying dairy products depending upon her mood:
- "When I'm content I give regular plain old milk. When I'm thinking hard and get into a brown study I give chocolate milk. When I'm sad and blue I give skim milk. When I get excited, which doesn't happen often, I give butter. And when I get real angry, sour cream."
In a crisis, Imogene can yield a healing golden milk; and in the course of the tale, she gives whipped cream and ice cream too. (Imogene the cow originated in The Wizard of Oz, the 1902 stage adaptation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
.)
Imogene talks Dorothy into accepting her companionship (the cow wants to see the Emerald City
Emerald City
The Emerald City is the fictional capital city of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
). With the help of the Wizard, Dorothy begins to unravel the mystery of the giant garden, and to follow the trail of a would-be witch called Old Magda who is its cause. The task isn't easy; the trio endure a thunderstorm and a near-crash-landing during a balloon flight.
Magda created a giantism potion to make her gardening more productive and her life easier — but lost control of it; giant moles, eating the giant vegetables, become a pest to all and sundry. Dorothy falls prey to giantism herself and endures a subterranean ordeal before she, the Wizard, and Princess Ozma
Princess Ozma
Princess Ozma is a fictional character in the Land of Oz, created by L. Frank Baum. She appears in every book of the series except the first, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz .She is the rightful ruler of Oz, and L...
resolve the problem and restore the normal order of Oz.
In the end, Dorothy and her friends face a choice. They rescue Old Magda and Imogene the cow from being buried alive; then they learn that they can revive one or the other, but not both. Saving the old witch can lead to the antidote for Dorothy's giantism; but Dorothy finds she cannot allow her bovine companion to die. Once recovered, however, Imogene supplies the golden milk that restores Magda too. The antidote is obtained, and Dorothy is restored to her normal size. Old Magda reforms, and Imogene gets her tour of the Emerald City.
Context
From a relatively early point in the publishing history of Oz, writers began to use Baum's creation for their own purposes; more than 100 Oz parodiesParody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
and pastiche
Pastiche
A pastiche is a literary or other artistic genre or technique that is a "hodge-podge" or imitation. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.-Hodge-podge:...
s appeared in the twentieth century. By the later twentieth century, a literature of "alternative Oz" books was growing more substantive, with works like Philip Jose Farmer
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
's A Barnstormer in Oz
A Barnstormer in Oz
A Barnstormer in Oz: A Rationalization and Extrapolation of the Split-Level Continuum is a 1982 novel by Philip José Farmer and is based on the setting and characters of L...
, Geoff Ryman
Geoff Ryman
Geoffrey Charles Ryman is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and surrealistic or "slipstream" fiction.Ryman currently lectures in Creative Writing for University of Manchester's English Department. His most recent full-length novel, The King's Last Song, is set in Cambodia, both at the time of...
's Was
Was (novel)
Was is a WFA nominated 1992 parallel novel by Geoff Ryman focussing on the lives of disparate individuals linked to one another by L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the musical film version...
, and Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire is an American writer. He is the author of the novels Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and many other novels for adults and children...
's Wicked
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, is a parallel novel published in 1995 written by Gregory Maguire and illustrated by Douglas Smith. It is a revisionist look at the land and characters of Oz from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, its sequels, and the...
trilogy. This alternative literature encompasses darker and more pessimistic material than is normally found in children's literature, and employs elements of satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
n literature, and even horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
— with, perhaps, an extreme reached in 2006's Bloodstained Oz
Bloodstained Oz
Bloodstained Oz is a Wizard of Oz related novella by Christopher Golden and James A. Moore, and it was illustrated by Glenn Chadbourne. It was published as a limited edition hardcover by Earthling Publications in 2006...
.
In terms of Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
's critical categories, the traditional and highly idealistic conceptual framework of Baum and his followers embodies the redemptive nature of romance
Romance (genre)
As a literary genre of high culture, romance or chivalric romance is a style of heroic prose and verse narrative that was popular in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a knight errant portrayed as...
, while alternative-Oz works possess the diremptive power of satire. Modern writers faithful to the original idealism of Baum, like Shanower, are nonetheless influenced by the darker views of the revisionists. In some individual cases, a writer of the traditional cast manages to accept some of the darker view without losing the bright and positive vision of the original. Edward Einhorn
Edward Einhorn
Edward Einhorn is an American playwright, theater director, and novelist, noted for the comic absurdism of his drama and the imaginative richness of his literary works....
's 1999 novel Paradox in Oz
Paradox in Oz
Paradox in Oz is a 1999 novel written by Edward Einhorn. As its title indicates, the book is an entry in the series of books about the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and a host of successors.-The book:...
stands out for its successful absorption of the dark side into the traditional idealistic vision. Less successfully, Shanower's The Giant Garden of Oz is (both literally and figuratively) a gritty ordeal, with abundant dirt, hunger, thirst, tears, bleeding, and suffering. His image of a filthy, naked, gigantic Dorothy Gale is certainly one of the most striking extremes in the literature of Oz.