{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1347",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 1347,
    "subject": "The Wonderful Eyeflash of Oz, part 1",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1999-01-29T00:00:45+00:00",
    "last": "1999-01-29T00:00:45+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0023-0031@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "William H. Ansley",
        "address": "wansley at warwick.net"
      },
      "date": "1999-01-29T00:00:45+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Wonderful Eyeflash of Oz, part 1",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "This posting could be considered to be my way of volunteering to answer the\nFAQ: What are the Oz references in \"The Eyeflash Miracles\"? except that I\ndoubt it is a question asked very frequently. It is one that interests me,\nhowever.\n\nWhen I first read \"The Eyeflash Miracles\" I noticed that it had many\nreferences to Oz in it as well as many other references, including (not at\nall surprisingly) a great deal of Christian symbolism. I am not very\nqualified to discuss the Christian aspects of the story (especially as\nthere are so many others on this list who are), but I am fairly well\nqualified to discuss the Oz aspects.\n\nAs most of you, if not all of you, know _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ was\njust the first of many Oz books that L. Frank Baum wrote, although, because\nit was made into the very well known film[1] of almost the same name (_The\nWizard of Oz_), it is by far the most famous of his books (he also wrote\nmany non-Oz books, which are even less well known).\n\nThe movie version differs from the book in several significant ways. I\nmention this because Wolfe refers to details from both the book and movie\nversions of _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_, as well as _The Marvellous Land\nof Oz_ (the second Oz book), _Ozma of Oz_ (the third) and _The Road to Oz_\n(the fifth). I have recently reread the first six Oz books[2] so I can be\npretty sure about these. There may be references to other, later Oz books\n(in fact I think there is at least one) but not many. Since characters,\nplaces and situations recur throughout the Oz series, it certainly would be\npossible to include more books, but I am trying to only include the first\noccurrence of each reference.\n\nThe most interesting thing to me about the Oz references in \"The Eyeflash\nMiracles\" is that even though many of them are so explicit as to be quite\nobvious and wholly unambiguous (which is unusual for Wolfe) the boy in the\nstory, George Tibbs (usually referred to as Little Tib) never recognizes\nany of them. Now, I am willing to accept that, because of his unusual\nbackground, Little Tib never saw the _Wizard of Oz_ movie or read any of\nthe Oz books, but then why does he see characters from the Land of Oz in\nhis dreams and visions? I don't have any answer to this question beyond \"It\nis the kind of thing Gene Wolfe likes to do.\"\n\nI will get to the  actual references in my next installment.\n\nWilliam Ansley\n\n[1] I am, of course, referring to the 1939 movie starring Judy Garland.\nThere were several other films with the same name more or less based on the\nsame book.\n\n[2] If you want all the titles, they are:\n\nThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz\nThe Marvelous Land of Oz\nOzma of Oz\nDorothy and the Wizard in Oz\nThe Road to Oz\nThe Emerald City of Oz"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}