Some links to get you pondering as we descend into the rest of the week:
1. The world of Oz is catching imaginations again, with the new movie Oz the Great and Powerful coming out and now a new collection of stories about Oz written by a variety of fantasy authors. The collection, Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond, features an introduction by Gregory Maguire:
... Oz lives contiguously with us. The Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City and the great Witch’s castle to the west; these haunts are more than tourist traps and hamburger stands. They are this century’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Via Dolorosa and Valhalla. Oz is myriad as the Mediterranean with its spotted Homeric islands; Oz is vast as Middle-Earth and moral as Camelot. This is to say, of course, that Oz is a mirror. Turn it about and, in the mirror, OZ nearly says ZOE, the Greek word for life. ...
You can read a larger excerpt of his essay here.
2. Jill left an insightful comment on the earlier post about cover reveals about the YA novel becoming the new teen girl's magazine. Building off of that, an essay in New Statesmen discusses the anti-feminist traits within young adult literature and the romances that ensue.
3. And a bit of thoughtful fun: Maria Tatar asks what books with magical properties can you think of that crop up in our favorite children's stories. Aside from the texts she mentions in Harry Potter I can't help but think of Tom Riddle's Diary. Have a suggestion? Join the comment thread here.
1. The world of Oz is catching imaginations again, with the new movie Oz the Great and Powerful coming out and now a new collection of stories about Oz written by a variety of fantasy authors. The collection, Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond, features an introduction by Gregory Maguire:
... Oz lives contiguously with us. The Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City and the great Witch’s castle to the west; these haunts are more than tourist traps and hamburger stands. They are this century’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Via Dolorosa and Valhalla. Oz is myriad as the Mediterranean with its spotted Homeric islands; Oz is vast as Middle-Earth and moral as Camelot. This is to say, of course, that Oz is a mirror. Turn it about and, in the mirror, OZ nearly says ZOE, the Greek word for life. ...
You can read a larger excerpt of his essay here.
2. Jill left an insightful comment on the earlier post about cover reveals about the YA novel becoming the new teen girl's magazine. Building off of that, an essay in New Statesmen discusses the anti-feminist traits within young adult literature and the romances that ensue.
3. And a bit of thoughtful fun: Maria Tatar asks what books with magical properties can you think of that crop up in our favorite children's stories. Aside from the texts she mentions in Harry Potter I can't help but think of Tom Riddle's Diary. Have a suggestion? Join the comment thread here.
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