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.
Thank you for reading my blog! Did you enjoy it? Either way, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Also stop by my Amazon.com listing by clicking this link: https://www.amazon.com/T.K.-Wade/e/B07BQK9RTZ
Check out my books! Thanks!
Fascinating. He retconned problems without changing a thing. He brought consistently to the inconsistently. He used flow to restore balance.
ReplyDeleteHe made something wonderful even better.
DeleteIt is hard to maintain continuity between three stories, so it is hard to imagine doing so with that many. The best way would be to open up the possibilities for further tales. Then, even that which does not seem to fit has a place.
ReplyDeleteAny Oz is correct!
DeleteEinhorn obviously loves Oz because not only did he create in it but he also fixed some major bugs. The whole notion of making magic illegal is an annoying notion after all.
ReplyDeleteIt was annoying but people had to deal with that for over 100 years.
Delete