As I teased in the last blog regarding the Wicked series, I found the first chapter of A Lion Among Men much better than the last book in the 'Wicked' series and full of promise of more action, better characters and an all around better story. Well, for the most part all of that is true, but....
Given Maguire's prediliction toward apathetic characters doing a lackluster job of finding their purpose in life, I was hardly suprised to find the focus of his third book in the Wicked series to be on the Cowardly Lion.
Sure to form the lion is hardly a character the reader can or wants to sympathise with. The saving grace is Yackle, a character who hid in the shadows of the first two books, but comes to the forefront of a Lion Among Men.
Sadly, Maguire ultimately has learned too well how to tease, and the number of unresolved mysteries are far too many to hold the reader's sense of suspense. What's the point if we're bloody never going to know or understand anything???
I don't know if there are further novels planned for the Wicked Years, and I don't care. The important point is that this book is better than Son of a Witch, has a more satisfying ending, and is also a quick read. Therefore I recommend this book only if you have read the first two and would like to have a better taste left in your mouth for the world of Oz.
At last we come to the Doctor, that renegade Time Lord who has inspired both the longest running science fiction show ever and numurous beatings of young pimply boys wearing long scarfs.
I have written several blogs in other forums inspired by the recently revamped television series, and blabbered endlessly to friends about how great it is regardless of the fact that they could care less. Even my wife, who truly truly could care less about Doctor Who, has found herself caught up at times in the ongoing storylines and a few truly great episodes I forced her to watch. She once told someone that she enjoyed the Van Gogh episode. True story.
But I digress. Doctor Who is just too brainy (or geeky) and too British for the bulk of the American public. But I adore the show, both the original campy version and the new turbo charged series. And this is my blog, dammit. (Well, the blog belongs to all the Gentlemen, but we are allowed to write about any topic here. Should a fellow Fellow disagree, I encourage comments and intelligent debate. Heck, dumb insult comments would be great in lieu of knowing that no one is reading this.)
Historically, Doctor Who aired in twenty minute episodes on PBS here in the States. Generally, four of those episodes would make up a full story. The show usually seemed to air either in the middle of the night, or during the Cosby Show, making it virtually impossible for 12-year old me in the eighties to catch. As a result, I rarely had much of a clue what was going on.
So when 12-year-old me strolled into a little bookstore in the Fifth Street Market and discovered a large selection of Doctor Who novelizations, I was thrilled. These small $3 books became a major guilty pleasure. Now, even then as a kid, I was already reading Frank Herbert and AC Clark. I understood that a 60 page adaptation of a children's TV show was far from quality literature. In fact, most of them plain old stunk. But reading them clarified so many plot points- and they covered the really old storylines which never air on TV- in fact, many of those old shows from the 60's were completely lost or destroyed. Plus, the books featured great art and the collection looked nice on my bookshelf.
Soooo. The timeline. In no way have I worked at adding in a comprehensive Doctor Who listing. Just cataloging the basic episodes is a major undertaking- there are hundreds. Many of them are vague on the settings. And although most episodes are self-contained within one era, owning a time machine means one can jump around at will. The Who continuity timelines I use for reference online are even more overwhelming- including background dates on characters and every mention of the Doctor meeting a historical figure, no matter how vague or off-handed the remark.
Nonetheless I will always find myself surfing tidbits of Gallifreyan lore on the internet, and looking up detailed explanations of how the Doctor sealed the latest crack in time. And yes, when I happen to think about it, I will pull up one of the timelines and look for a good story that occurs in my current era and happens to have a novelization available for sale for 30 cents on Half.com.
Such is the case with The Horror of Fang Rock. I have no recollection of this episode, and am reasonably sure that even in it's prime it was considered a forgettable episode. It does feature Tom Baker, arguably the most popular, or at least best known, Doctor (#4) and his companion Leela, the 14th most popular companion (not to be confused with the Futurama one-eyed chick). *
Witness the trailer for the episode, which starts off good, then gets boring, then gets weird, then gets boring again, then gets kind of awesome at the end.
The thing I notice most about this episode is the notable fact that Leela is fully dressed. I think her character was introduced as a switch up from the pretty smarty-pants Sarah Jane Smith. Leela, by contrast, was a tribal sort, complete with a really big knife that she liked to use to carve up sabretooth tigers, alien invaders, and pimps. But mostly she wore a skimpy tribal outfit a lot. But I guess even female warrior bad-asses get chilly when stalking monsters near lighthouses at night. I also guess that the geek majority in the eighties liked their chicks brainy, because Leela was replaced by Romana, a beautiful but hyper-intelligent Time Lord like the Doctor. I have to admit that faced with a choice between the three, I would pass up the goodie-two-shoes Sarah Jane and the savage Leela for Romana. Ramona was the ideal woman for middle-school me. As a side note, I had almost forgot that Romana regenerated once. The pic is the Romana that I liked.
Nonetheless, I think we should pass on commenting on the story or adaptation of Fang Rock in favor of watching more videos of Leela doing her thing. This video features some sweet knife throwing, plus that awesome scene where Leela bitch-slaps the screaming lady.
* To answer the age-old question of which Leela I would rather have with me in a fight: Futurama Leela. The wikipedia entry I linked earlier states that Futurama Leela is a master of martial arts and is able to best most males of any species in a fight. She also has access and affection for various weapons of the 31st century. Doctor Who Leela, on the other hand, is more comfortable with a knife than a laser gun, and relies more on brute violence than fighting technique. And, when you Google the word 'Leela', all kinds of sexy fan-art pops up of Futurama Leela. So, there's that.
I mentioned in a note to myself that the book I am currently reading mentions the topic of a prior post, Prince Kropotkin. Sure enough, on page 112 of the collected series edition I am reading, who should show up but Vladimir Ilyitch Ulianoz- an ancient Russian revolutionary with a distictive beard.
This thinly veiled historical figure pops his head up in an alternate history earth where he does little to advance the plot but much to advance author Michael Moorcock's opinions on racism, imperialism, socialism and anarchist politics.
Anyway, all of this really drives home the point that most of the first volume in this series, Warlord of the Air, takes place in the year 1973. Based on that (plus the 1971 publishing date) that is where I placed this series on my timeline. Turns out that may have been a mistake, as the novel actually starts out in 1903 when the author's alleged grandfather meets the main character, Oswald Bastable.
But wait! The entire series is framed by another 'story within a story' context. The very very beginning of the book is "real-life" 1971 Michael Moorcock discovering the writings of his grandfather. So the real real timeframe of the novel is 1971! Right?
You tell me, Dear Reader. I put way too much thought into the SETTING, and it really throws me off when you throw in time travel, shifting contexts, and toss in alternate histories on top of it all. Where does this series belong?
This important issue is something all Gentlemen who are also fathers face at some point. As a service provided by the Quorum we present this short video.
It's difficult to get all the way behind most religions. But Mormonism is a no-brainer. If it was possible to just choose a religion I would probably go with Hinduism (I'm a sucker for ancient Sanskrit stuff). But my second choice would be Mormonism.
Son of a Witch is the sequel to Wicked and was published ten years later. Maguire dedicated the novel to the cast of the musical 'Wicked', although the title character, Liir, had been written out of the musical. I found it to be a very inconsistant book. It alternated between fascinating and dull, fast-paced and slow. It never establishes itself as a continuation of Wicked or a story in it's own right. Even the style seems to alternate between mature and juvenile. It's no surprise that the growth and maturity of Liir's character is anticlimactic being that he is such an apathetic character- and never really grows out of it.
I continued on with this series because of my interest in how Oz is being handled, and Son of a Witch is a much quicker and easier read than Wicked. The first chapter of the third book, A Lion Among Men, is in of itself more entertaining than all of Son of a Witch put together. I can only really recommend the second book to committed fans of Oz and the Wicked novels.
Discussing the distinctions and discrepancies of the genders is taboo. Seriously, just shut up about it. Your opinion is poisonous and our society proudly wields this secret inequality as an ethical sword against the sexist moral decrepitude of less civilized cultures. Women and men are exactly the same in every way.
For instance: women cannot be better CEO’s. It would be sexist to say such a thing. Their ability to value justice over victory does not position them to have an advantageous skillset over men in this regard. It’s ridiculous to suppose that, when given the opportunity to make decisions, with the benefit of advisement resources, and the time to sit down and carefully measure and consider all facets of a pending predicament…the fairer sex has a better track record at making the successful call. The homerun swinging male CEO’s are just as prudent. The rash of golden parachuting corporate profiteering CEO's, that has widened the popularly publicized divide between Wall St. and Main St., have largely been greedy white dudes. But this is just a silly coincidence. Men handle power with poise and grace. This is social fact. Do not argue.
And men cannot be more effective COO’s. Women are just as capable of directing the assembly line minutia of the daily grind. Quick wits and the emotional agility to recover from temporary failures do not position males to succeed in the day-to-day management of an organization. When a rapidly changing environment requires stability and an even keeled demeanor…you can expect a woman to do just as well as a man. What kind of mid-century pig would suggest otherwise?
Our culture dismisses the notion that women and men can and should play different roles. And so we lie to ourselves. Every happily married man I know, myself included, understands how to roll with this modern family prevarication. The wife is clearly the CEO of the home; but the husband wears the title of “head of household”. Who are we fooling? We know that we’re all happier when we help support the direction set forth by the CEO. But this arrangement damages our iconic masculinity. And so we put on a show and overcompensate for this loss of control. Maybe it’s a mild form of bravado flag flying like flatulence or fantasy football…or maybe it’s a full blown midlife crisis. But we do not accept the role of 2nd in charge very well. Even if we do a pretty good job at pretending that we do.
And the husband is much better at dealing with the daily bullshit and maintenance of the family circle. We are the COO’s. But our wives aren’t willing/able/ready to fully give up the idea that they are still homemaker’s. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at what magazines are laying around the house. Every wife secretly wants to be her grandmother and she keeps this romantic notion alive via a magazine subscription. Women do not accept that the male management style of “not sweating the small stuff” as responsible nor thoughtful. The guilt that they carry, for bringing home a paycheck while somebody else raises their kids, is sometimes too much to bear. And so we all agree to pretend like women are mostly responsible for the daily details….and men pull the trigger on the big decisions. We are the hunters. They are the gatherers.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Let me start off by clarifying that I have never seen the musical. My family owns and listens to the soundtrack, so I am passingly familiar with some of the songs, but never really listened to it. I read this book because of my interest in the original series by Baum, which I read as a kid.
As I read through Wicked, I occasionally asked my wife about the musical and was able to ascertain pretty quickly that there is not a ton of similarity between the two. The original novel treats the characters of Oz very seriously within the context of the fantasy world. Although much of the story is about the friendship (and sometime rivalry) between Elpheba and Glinda, most of the subplot is quite political. The corruption of the Wizard, the supression of animal rights and other adult themes contrast to Elpheba's maturation from cynical young maid into political activist and eventual hermetic "witch".
I couldn't help but compare the anti-heroism of Elpheba to another character who let young idealism twist his moral compass, however much less plausibly.
Yeah, well, we could list a whole slew of reasons why Star Wars fans are disappointed in Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Vader. Ultimately, Anakin had every reason to be a great jedi, and even though Kenobi told us how he failed as a mentor, he really wasn't that bad. Anakin is just a dumb jerk, really.
Elpheba, however, fights off misconceptions about her from day one until the end. The reader knows it will all end in a puddle on the floor, and yet we care about this chick and hope that someone will "get it" before it's all over. The fact that she is still grossly misunderstood and feared when she finally meets Dorothy is the greatest tragedy.
There is nothing in the Wicked series to pinpoint an exact time setting, and it was written as a children's format where relation to the real world is completely subjective, changing and unimportant. The original novel was published in 1900, and the stories were always written to take place in current time. Where the movie is fairly explicit in writing Oz off as a dream, every novel written treats it as an actual land, although it is inconsistant in whether it is a hidden desert with the US, sitting in a seperate continent hidden by magic, or most likely existing in another dimensional plane.
The Oz books were subject to sequels and revisions by numurous other authors, some of whom I have tracked down and read in addition to Maguire's series. I will cover them soon in this blog.
As I write this it is Thanksgiving evening and as I sit here with a filled belly, I remember childhood nights tucked into hotel beds (grew up in hotels) falling asleep watching the Wizard of Oz on TV. As I look forward to doing the same thing tonight, it seems fitting that I should whip out this blog first. 'Wicked: the Life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West' may put a very different spin on the childhood tale, but it still manages to transport us back into a land of talking animals and emerald cities of magic.
. I have no recollection of this episode, and am reasonably sure that even in it's prime it was considered a forgettable episode. It does feature Tom Baker, arguably the most popular, or at least best known, Doctor (#4) and his companion Leela, the 14th most popular companion (not to be confused with the 
, is in of itself more entertaining than all of Son of a Witch put together. I can only really recommend the second book to committed fans of Oz and the Wicked novels.
by Baum, which I read as a kid.
on TV. As I look forward to doing the same thing tonight, it seems fitting that I should whip out this blog first. 'Wicked: the Life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West' may put a very different spin on the childhood tale, but it still manages to transport us back into a land of talking animals and emerald cities of magic.