Log in

View Full Version : Wicked, The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West


Don Corleone
10-05-2005, 03:20
by Gregory Maguire. It seems to be a good read that I'm currently enjoying, though I disagree with the hidden message the author is preaching. Has anyone else read this novel? I have a couple of pointed questions I'd like to ask if I may...
Redleg
10-05-2005, 04:15
by Gregory Maguire. It seems to be a good read that I'm currently enjoying, though I disagree with the hidden message the author is preaching. Has anyone else read this novel? I have a couple of pointed questions I'd like to ask if I may...

My wife is going to go see the play this week - I believe its based on this book.
Crazed Rabbit
10-05-2005, 06:31
Although I haven't read it, I'd guess that the 'hidden messages' have to do with that poor witch being mischaracterized and was the victim of unfortunate social circumstances that made her, in the eyes of some unenlightened people, 'wicked'.

Crazed Rabbit
Don Corleone
10-05-2005, 13:33
It's a little more over the top than that. In this version of Oz, the Wizard is a thug that takes over Oz at the barrel of a gun. The Witch is actually a revolutionary with deeply held humanist beliefs (well, because they're being oppressed, Animalist, talking Animals, capital A, are 2nd class citizens, although they do have regular animals too). In typical Marx fashion, all the religions (amazingly, there's 3, all distantly related, hmm...) are bent on 1) keeping control of the people 2) manipulated by the Wizard to keep the people focused on the next life, ignoring their plight in this one.

But the book itself isn't one I'm getting after. There were a series of visits to a place calle the Philosophy Club that I didn't understand and I was hoping somebody might at least be able to explain the what, if not the why.