Rushdie and the Wizard of Oz

While reading Rushdie's interpretation of The Wizard of Oz, I was originally somewhat proud of myself because I had picked up on some of the things he mentions, the concepts of Adults vs. Children, the double identities of most important characters, the concept of coming of age. However, as he delved deeper into his analysis I found myself in awe of the things that he noticed, specifically the use of geometric and non-geometric shapes to emphasis beauty, safety and goodness versus ugliness, evilness and weird. Rushdie in enormous detail, recounts the emergence of simple geometric shapes in Kansas, triangles, circles and horizontal and vertical lines. These simple geometric shapes are juxtaposed to the wicked witch who wears a misshapen hat and physically stands with a crouched posture. Rushdie calls this "the films animosity towards whatever is tangled, claw-crooked and weird". Although it makes sense when reading it, my cinematic mind however is not mature enough to notice these details just yet.

Another interpretation that I found amusing as well as extremely though provoking was Rushdie's interpretation of feminism and female characters in the story. Although the film is titled after a male character who we may initially be inclined to assume is the hero of the story, Rushdie explains how the Wizard himself, as well as the other male characters are all weak and flawed. Where as all the female leads, including Dorothy, Glinda and The Wicked Witch either are innately powerful (the witches) or come to find their strength and power through experience (Dorothy). For a film made in this era, it seems extremely progressive to have three women holding more power than their male counterparts. Feminists would be proud.

The part of this that I found amusing was how Rushdie dislikes Glinda and calls her an embarrassment. He suggests that the Wicked Witch is the more appropriate female figure because she shows compassion for her dead sister, while Glinda comments on how bad the Wicked Witch must be because she is ugly. Although, Rushdie chooses not to comment on how the Wicked Witch locks up Dorothy and devises a plan to kill her in order to get a pair of shoes. I don't if feminists would look so proudly at a women who are willing to commit murder for a pair of shoes.