Fairy Tale Spotlight: Sirius [Book Review]

[This blog spoils some major aspects of the book.]

"Sirius" is a novel written by Olaf Stapledon. It was published in 1944. This feels like a spiritual sequel to his other book "Odd John," which I reviewed a while back. Where "Odd John" was about a super genius human being, "Sirius" is about a dog who has standard human intelligence. Interestingly, this makes him a super genius as far as dogs go.

Sirius is still a canine in form (a German Shepard in verity), but he has the mind and possibility the spirit of a human inside of him. Basically, he is a person. He can even speak English, although he had an extremely heavy accent since his dog maw isn't really designed for speaking. It takes time to actually understand him when he speaks.

At this book's core, the question of "What makes a person?" is asked. Does consciousness and self-awareness make someone a person? If an animal had the intelligence of a human, should we afford him the privileges and standing of one? The book deals with both sides of the argument, but it treats everything very realistically. This is not bizarro fiction. This is a science fiction with deep and dramatic points of interest. This is something Olaf Stapledon is fairly good at accomplishing, I think.

There was a lot in this book that I did not expect. Sirius gets very interested in religion. I think this is understandable, since he might be questioning his own existence. There are no other dogs like him in the world. He wonders if there is a place for him in the religious sector. Does he have a soul? One wonders! Even I wondered myself.

One of the pastors was very open-minded about Sirius, seeing it more as a miracle of God. In truth, Sirius is actually the product of science, but since all science is of God... You get where I am going with this. Sirius actually becomes a Christian in the book, something that I don't think he ever fully recants, although life becomes so hard for him later on that he doesn't focus as much on the spirit as often. Of course, the question of whether or not God even wants him is always going to be on his mind, mainly because the world is mostly against the idea.

The other pastor is a lot harder on him, seeing him as a product of Satan. This man causes him no end of trouble, ultimately leading to the dog going through madness as the world turns against him, leading to him having a crippling loneliness. Sad stuff really. All this happening during WW2 as well. Dark stuff.

Now, the real driving part of the story in "Sirius" is the love affair he holds with his childhood sweetheart, Plaxy. Plaxy is not a dog; she's human. I didn't think I'd get into the realm of bestiality in a book from the 40's... but I did. And it wasn't something that was really harped on or described, but it does happen. It happens because the world rose up against them and drove them into each other's arms.

This naturally brings up the question whether or not this was bestiality at all! After all, Sirius is not feral. He is a person who has thoughts, feelings, aspirations in life, a sense of self-worth. He laughs, he cries, he loves, he is everything a regular dog isn't. So when he ends up having sex with a human he has known since childhood, and their love is real, is this still bestiality? And that is a debate happening with this book.

The book does briefly deal with politics. Plaxy does favor communism, but surprisingly, Sirius is more the conservative. They argue the two points, and I was enjoying how Sirius rips up all of her arguments. It gave me a lot of satisfaction.

All said, this is a great, well-written science fiction. I gotta say: Olaf Stapledon is a really great author. His chapters are a little overly-long, but the content is so good that I often found the books hard to put down. Both "Odd John" and "Sirius" get a big ol' recommendation from me. True lovers of science fiction should defiantly find a place for either or both of these books.

This blog was written on December 23, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Dr. Pipt [Oz Character]

Dr. Pipt, otherwise known as the Crooked Magician, is a reoccurring character in the Oz series. Originally portrayed as somewhat villainous, he's never really done much of anything that bad other than perform magic for his own benefit.

Dr. Pipt is very much a crooked man. He is tall and gangly, and his limbs seem to be somewhat disjointed. He tends to stay at home, working on his magic, while his wife Margolotte takes care of the house for him. All in all, they seem to be a happy couple.

The thing that gets Dr. Pipt into trouble is that he practices magic during the nearly 100 years where magic was made illegal by Ozma. Probably the most famous creation made by him was the famous Powder of Life which was also featured in the movie "Return to Oz." The creation of this power was a bit ridiculous. It involves stirring four pots simultaneously for something like ten years, which only produces a small number of grains. He does this by tying large spoons to his legs, using them both to help with the stirring. Being crooked has its advantages.

The Powder of Life can make anything that is not alive live. You just have to say the magic words: "Weaugh, Teaugh, Peaugh."

This powder was used to bring a number of things to life such as Jack Pumpkinhead, the Wooden Sawhorse, the Flying Gump, Scraps the Patchwork Girl, and also Bungle the Glass Cat. Dr. Pipt's magical invention is directly and indirectly responsible for all of these characters existing.

Even though all these marvelous character came from the actions of Dr. Pipt, Ozma chose to forbid him from practicing magic ever again. This was rather devastating to him, since magic was his most favorite hobby. Most of his creations were just intended to make life at home more comfortable for him and his wife. All the outside effects were unintended.

Dr. Pipt was one of the decent magic users that got squashed by the no magic laws. He obeyed the law for a long time, but it ended up making him feel bored and unfulfilled as a person. As it turned out, he did eventually go back to doing his magic but in secret. This was later revealed in "The Living House of Oz" which dealt with these controversial laws.

As it stands now, Dr. Pipt is allowed to legally pursue his magical hobby as long as he reports on it. I was happy to hear that, but I am sad he had to go through what he did to get there. Even though he used his magic selfishly, a lot of good came from it in Oz.

This blog was written on December 22, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Oz Magic

If you were a citizen of Oz or any of its surrounding fairylands, you would probably be using magic as a day to day thing. I'm not talking about spell-casting and such; leave that to the witches and sorcerers. I am talking about simple magic such as using enchanted items.

Think of it like this: You accidently fell in some mud and got yourself all dirty, so you go home to get cleaned up. At home there is a special arch that cleans anything that walks through it. You simply walk through the arch and you and your clothing are perfectly clean in seconds. You can also stick dirty dishes through the arch too, and they come out spotless.

I know this example sounds amazing, but you wouldn't think it was that big of a deal if you lived in Oz. You might also have a bread box that has one new loaf of bread in it every single day. Once again, it is something you'd just get used to. You'd always have bread, and you'd never have to actually make it.

These two examples are based on magical items available in Oz. They are rather normal things that a regular citizen of Oz might have in their home. They generally don't make these things themselves, but they likely get them from an approved magic user in the Emerald City. Counties on the outside of Oz likely have their own wizards that can handle such things.

Now imagine going to Oz and telling them that you don't have magic where you come from. You might find the Ozian to be just as shocked as you are. "How do you even do anything?!" they might say.

As to the dirty clothing issue, you can try and explain about washing machines. You can also mention showers and baths for how we clean ourselves. Bread will have to be baked or bought from a store, only for the same process to happen again when the bread runs out or gets moldy. To an Ozian, these chores will probably sound really offensive. They'll see you as some poor, sad person stuck doing things the hard way.

It's all a matter of point of view. You see them as fantastic, and they they see you as sad and pathetic. This is something that has happened here and there throughout the book series. I find it very amusing. Just think how easy living here would be if we could add a little magic to it. But then again, if we had self-washing clothing and insta-bread, Oz might not be all that interesting anymore. Ha!

This blog was written on December 18, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Trouble Under Oz [Book Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"Trouble Under Oz" is the fifty-ninth book in the Oz series originally started by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Sherwood Smith and published in 2006. It is the second part of a trilogy of books commissioned by the Baum Family Trust, forcing this one into the canon without any possible exception.

"Trouble Under Oz" returns to the main characters of the previous entry, "The Emerald Wand of Oz," that being Dori and Em, who are direct descendants of Princess Dorothy. This time only Dori returns to Oz to help Rik the Nome attempt to take the throne of the Nome Kingdom away from its current ruler, King Kaliko. She is joined by Prince Inga of Pingaree, who possesses three magical pearls that give them protection along the way.

The whole business with Inga and the Nomes is a reference to the tenth book in the series called "Rinkitink in Oz" which travels along a similar path. That particular book is pretty darn good, and I liked reconnecting with those characters and situations.

The problem with Rik and Nomes in general is that they tend to be extremely immature and wicked by nature. Rik actually has a rightful claim to the throne because he is the son of the original Nome King. But Nome politics are extremely odd since lying and treachery are pretty much a way of life for them. They can even deceive each other as long as they don't get caught. Expected but still punishable by their own laws.

This leads Dorothy and Inga into a world that they just don't understand very well. And Rik, who they do support as King, does not really seem to have the maturity for it, even as a Nome. King Kaliko is actually as selfish and devious as Rik, but he is a far more mature Nome and understands the responsibilities that the station requires. Yes, this book is full of stuff like this.

The reason Dori was sent on this mission at all (by Ozma, in case you were wondering) was because there was a concern that there might be a war caused by the sudden change in power. This was a very real threat, and Dori was hoping that she could settle everything out peacefully before things got too rough. For one thing, King Kaliko had a myriad of treaties with hostile neighbors that would become nullified if he was replaced. The politics of this story was very interesting.

While this whole story is going on, Em is in Kansas watching all that is happening to Dori by way of a magic snow globe that was introduced in the first story. She has the comical duty of trying to hide the fact that her sister is not in the house for days from a prying mother, father, and nosey neighbor. These little segments were a lot of fun.

The sad and somewhat cynical contrast between our world and Oz's is still prevalent in this story. It is a situation that will hopefully sort itself out by the third book. Em and Dori's parents are not getting along, and it just seems like the most impossible thing to fix, which is crazy if you consider all the things they have to deal with in Oz seeming so much bigger by comparison.

"Trouble Under Oz" has two main hanging plot points that are left unresolved. In fact, these two plot points were introduced in the first book. First, Dorothy is missing, and nobody knows where she is. Second, there is a big scary cloud with faces appearing in it that seems to appear whenever anyone uses magic. Nobody knows what to do about these things.

Lastly, I want to say that the title of this book, "Trouble Under Oz," is unfortunately inaccurate. The story only goes underground when Dori and Inga go to the Nome Kingdom which is not within the borders of Oz. Misleading title aside, I do recommend this book! It seats solidly within Oz canon, and the reoccurring main characters are very well represented and feel real. Time to tackle the next one!

This blog was written on December 15, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Mangaboos [Oz Characters]

The Mangaboos are a race of people who live outside the borders of Oz in a land called the Vegetable Kingdom. It borders on the land of the Nomes. The Mangaboos have only been featured a couple of times in the Oz books, but their presence hits hard every time.

The Mangaboos look like beautiful people with very pretty clothing. They are, however, vegetable in nature. They actually grow like plants and have to be picked. In fact, their queen has to be picked regularly as the former one withers away. Any Mangaboo showing any signs of deformity must be replanted (buried), even if they don't want it.

As beautiful as they are as people, they are probably the most heartless creatures that the Oz books have ever presented to the reader. They are extremely cold and uncaring. They do not like anyone but themselves, and the death or injury of other people mean nothing to them. If they were to see you torn into gory chunks, they would probably just yawn and walk away as if bored.

Now, they cannot help this. It is entirely in their nature to be this way. They cannot be convinced to change, and they will never actually change. That said, it is extremely infuriating to ever have to deal with them. Just being around them cause normal people to become very hateful of their methods and ways.

The hate felt towards the Mangaboos is actually irrational, since they honestly cannot help being the way they are, but if you met one of them, you might start thinking about people who have acted like them. Humans can sometimes be like Mangaboos. So when confronted with the very ideal of what a Mangaboo is, you may feel hatred anyhow.

I just thought you might find this creature interesting. If you ever happen to run into the Mangaboos, they'll probably just end up chucking you into a deep black pit. Might not be so bad, as the pit might lead somewhere better than there. And if you are worried about what's down there, just remember that the Mangaboos don't care what's in the hole, so it could be anything, even a way out!

This blog was written on December 11, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Emerald Wand of Oz [Book Review]

[This blog contains spoilers for a book nobody reads anymore.]

"The Emerald Wand of Oz" is the fifty-eighth book in the Oz series originally founded by L. Frank Baum. It was written by Sherwood Smith, who is a woman in case any of you can't tell from the name. It was published in 2005. I want to also point out that this book had no choice but to become canon since it was commissioned by the Baum Family Trust. Yes, the actual estate of L. Frank Baum paid to have this book made. I'm not joking.

The story follows the tale of Dori and Em, who very well may be descendants of the original Dorothy. They experience their own tornado and and end up in Oz. This is the very first tornado since the first book. Dori is the imaginative type who has read many of the Oz books. Em has only seen the movie, which she has to be pointed out quite often that it is not very representative of the actual world of Oz.

The latter point is something I rather liked. In some ways, that makes this story a good starting point for new readers. There are a lot of people who only know Oz by the grossly inaccurate movie. This book takes bits and pieces from the originals story, but it stays true to both the canon aspects of Oz as well as its long-held continuity.

Now, the main point of this story has to do with a witch who is using a special wand to steal the intelligence of Oz's leaders in order to conquer it. This witch is actually the niece of the Wicked Witch of the West. Yes, she sort of came out of nowhere, but they explained it off that she had been in "witch school" all of those years. Interestingly, she is very beautiful since she has not had enough time to become old and ugly yet.

Dori and Em team up with a nome boy named Rik to try and stop her and her evil plan. Although Rik has his own evil aspirations since he wants to take the throne of the Nomes, and that wand could certainly help him do that. These points, on the whole, are the basic driving points of the story.

Now, I do want to say that this book has a very slow start. After initially entering into Oz, the girls get stuck in one of Oz's many random encounters for nearly half of the book. They run into a village of unicorns that trap boys and girls, forcing them to dress them up and parade them around so that they feel good about themselves. I swear that for a long time I thought this was going to be the whole book! However, once they break free of this problem, the real plot of the book kicks in and stays strong to the end.

One really rather sad thing about this story is that it very heavily deals with the difference between our world and Oz. Everything is upsetting and cynical about life in a non-magical world. Parents have trouble staying together, and there are so many adults that just can't believe in anything more than what they see every day. But in Oz, everything is wonderful even when its scary. This is probably the best this contrast has been made in the series so far. The last I remember it being addressed was when Dorothy and her guardians were about to lose their house in Kansas, and so they just moved to Oz to not have to worry about it. Dori and Em don't have that latter privilege though, which is too bad.

Oh, and I do want to say that the new illustrator, William Stout, is very good, but this book hardly has any illustrations in it. Oz has historically been very heavily illustrated, and I was lucky to get even one picture in any given chapter. It's not really a bad thing, mind you. I read the first forty books without the illustrations. My imagination was plenty up to the task, but I was surprised of the lack of pictures this time around.

All said, I do recommend "The Emerald Wand of Oz," even if its your first Oz book. I would lastly like to mention, however, that I believe this book is the first in a trilogy. There were a number of loose ends that did not get tied up. I'm gonna get on that right now and let you know how things progress. Cheers.

This blog was written on December 7, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: Edward Einhorn, Author of Oz

Can an author make a fictional world better in only two books? Yep! Edward Einhorn did just that! For the longest time, I wondered about that upcoming title "Paradox in Oz." I have been using this canon list for a long time, and I felt the name did not fit much into the usual titling of Oz books. But when I finally got there, it all made sense: Edward was trying to fix some major problems with the Oz universe with the help of some cleverly written science fiction mumbo jumbo.

From what I have been able to discover about this man, he was a fairly successful playwright. He wrote science fiction plays, and some of his characters from those plays ended up in these two Oz books. That in particular stood out to me that he was combining his own personal characters from outside of Oz into his Oz book.

The real problem (and this really was a problem) was that there were too many Oz stories out there, which also included movies that did not fit with the books. Also the mainline canon of books had some very notable inconsistencies of themselves. Baum did this to himself as well. It was actually why other authors did it, because they noticed he did it too. It basically made the Oz canon kind of liquid.

Names of mainline characters would sometimes change. The locations of entire countries in Oz would switch sides on the map. Hell, the map was not even consistent when Baum was doing it. Half the time, nobody knew which direction you had to go to find the Munchkin Country!

In 1939, a very famous movie came out for the first book, but it was kind of all over the place. Not to mention that, in the film, the whole thing was a dream that Dorothy was having. In "Return to Oz," it was also a dream, but there seemed to be a correlation between what was happening in Oz and what was happening in our world. But the real problem is that none of these stories agree with one another.

With "Paradox in Oz," everything suddenly agrees. Every canon of Oz now has been witnessed by Princess Ozma herself. She has officially seen them, and to a small extent experienced them. Edward Einhorn used his talent for writing whimsical science fiction to bring all of those different forms of Oz together so that it all existed within one canon multiverse. Although it does seem like things just got more complicated, it is actually more relaxed because it means even the stuff you write can be a part of the canon Ozma might have seen.

Oh, and don't worry about if your stuff is officially published or independently published either. I'll deal with that in a later blog next year. But in short... IT DOESN'T MATTER! Trust me.

The second problem Edward tackled (in "The Living House of Oz") was a very annoying one started by Baum himself. I am referring to the fact that Ozma made the practice of magic illegal in Oz with the exception of Ozma, the Wizard, and Glinda. This has been an ongoing thing of annoyance for fans of the book since it happened nearly a century ago.

Making magic illegal did not stop it from happening. There were many undiscovered countries in Oz that did not know of this law, and so they used magic anyways. Some of them used magic for good, but once Ozma found them, she shut them down. Absolutely infuriating.

There was also those who knew about the law but then did it in secret. Yes, many of these were bad people, but some of them weren't. The man who invented the Powder of Life continued to practice his magic in secret. It was a law that just made things awkward.

Edward Einhorn did not completely remove this law. He loosened its tightness. He eased it up so that the practice of magic was just better regulated in Oz. Now people who were using magic for good could still do that. Of course evil magic is still illegal, but now people who want to use it for good can do that. Finally!

These two problems were major issues in the Oz universe for almost its entire run, and it took a man named Edward Einhorn to write only two books to solve them. That is why he is one of the most important authors of Oz. And now you know it too.

Thank you, Edward Einhorn, for making Oz a better place than it already was.

This blog was written on December 1, 2023.

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Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Red Balloon [Book Review]

[This blog does spoil some major plot points from the book.]

"The Red Balloon" is a book written by Albert Lamorisse. It was published in 1956. It is the literary adaptation of the movie of the same name which was released the same year. The author is also the creator of the movie. Albert wrote, produced, and directed that movie which is one of my all time favorite films. I've seen it a lot of times since I was very young, and I still enjoy it to this day.

The story is about a boy named Pascal who finds a large red balloon tied to a street pole in Paris. At first it seems to be a regular balloon, but the boy soon figures out that it is actually sentient. It will not fly away if let go and will follow Pascal around like a loyal puppy.

The story goes into how the boy struggles to keep the balloon with him. There seems to be rules everywhere that will not allow him to take along his red balloon such as on the trolley, or to his school, and also to church. And although some of the adults can kind of see that the balloon is not acting normal, it irritates them more than amazes them, which I always found interesting.

The book is more of a booklet, and the story is more of a short story intended for children, which is fine. It is full of pictures which are production stills from the movie. This is also fine, and, might I say, well implemented. I was very impressed with how the pictures from the movie went with the text. This is a book really anyone can read and enjoy.

All except for one small detail, the book follows the movie to the letter. That one point has to do with how the balloon is ultimately destroyed. I felt that this scene was far better exhibited and had more impact in the film. It was very long and drawn out in the movie, which I felt gave it more power, but in the book, it is very fast and a bit jarring. That said, I still really liked the book.

Weirdly, I am going to recommend this one, if you can find it. It looks to me like everything involving this project was hand-crafted by Mister Albert Lamorisse. He did everything. This is one of those projects that has the very soul of the creator baked into it.

I should also say that you should find and watch the film. It's really good and has almost no dialog in it whatsoever. It uses imagery and music to convey thoughts and feelings. It's really a wonderful piece of art that I truly hope will stick around in our media for many decades to come. A child's imagination is a wonderful thing. They see things we silly adults often miss. This story is all about that, and I really love it.

This blog was written on November 30, 2023.

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