FLF: the four and who/what they are

William Ansley · 15 Dec 2002, 06:49 · from urth-v0212.mbox · original

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From: William Ansley <wansley at warwick.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) FLF: the four and who/what they are
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 01:49:44 -0500
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At 5:46 PM -0800 12/10/02, Michael Andre-Driussi wrote:
>In the first Oz book, the Army of Oz is a single soldier (wearing green
>spectacles).  In the second book, iirc, Oz is overrun by an invading army,
>a coalition of militants from each of the four member-states of Oz, and
>after the Ozma restoration a more modern army of many generals and one
>private is established in Oz.
>
>The fact that of the 100 or so businessmen there are four named suggests
>comparison to the coalition army, and the fact that the Florida real estate
>salesman has to wear beachcomber attire in winter shows that he represents
>"the South," much as the coalition army is made up of members from North,
>South, East, and West, with the differences marked by a bit of color in
>their uniforms.

It is rather late to respond to your message, mantis, but here goes anyway.

As I have said many times before, I have always found the Oz=20
parallels in FLF to be rather superficial. Sure there are some=20
references to the movie, but I have found all attempts to draw deeper=20
parallels to be strained at best. Especially since Wolfe demonstrated=20
just how thoroughly he could incorporate Oz lore in one of his=20
stories in "The Eyeflash Miracles."

Anyway, you are thinking of General Jinjur's Army of Revolt ("We are=20
revolting!" "You don't look it.") in _The Marvelous Land of Oz_ by L.=20
Frank Baum. In this book the Emerald City is conquered by an army of=20
girls (that is, young women). They are assured of victory because, as=20
Jinjur says, "What man would oppose a girl, or dare to harm her? And=20
there is not an ugly face in my entire Army." And, just in case, they=20
all have sharp knitting needles thrust in their hair, which they use=20
to great effect as weapons.

These girls are from all four parts of the land of Oz, but Baum=20
mentions this mainly, it seems, as as excuse to describe their=20
costumes in great detail. They wear green blouses and skirts that are=20
one quarter blue, yellow, red and purple. They also have four buttons=20
on their blouse of the same colors. The color of the front section of=20
the skirt and of the topmost button indicate which part of Oz the=20
wearer comes from.

(Baum may have been satirizing the women's suffrage movement; it is=20
hard to be sure.)

I don't think my information contradicts your theory, but it may=20
weaken it, since the most important characteristic of the Army of=20
Revolt was that it was made up of girls, not that it was a coalition=20
from all "four corners" of the land of Oz.
--=20

William Ansley

--=20

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