Two Essays on The Wizard of Oz

by Courtney Hilden

Salman Rushdie, the author of books such as The Satanic Verses, writes about The Wizard of Oz, the movie that everyone loves in two short essays "A Short Text About Magic" and "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers" in a short book called, naturally, The Wizard of Oz.
"A Short Text About Magic" explores the world of The Wizard of Oz comparing it, interestingly enough, with Bollywood films, with Rushdie, an Indian native, is familiar with.
Rushdie also gives the audience some fine trivia as part of his essay. He discusses the differences between the movie and book, including the ruby slippers originally being silver shoes. He discusses the story of the actors and actresses who played the Munchkins. He even tells the audience about how the tornado that transports Dorothy to Oz was made. (Muslin stiffened with wire, naturally.) The one detail he wishes the movie hadn't changed was the realism of Oz itself, explaining that within the original book, there was no question that Oz was a real place, but in the movie, it is simply make-believe. Rushdie believes this introduces "bad faith" into the audience, and is a pity that it did so. Rushdie here ignores the way most viewers construct the film: they ignore the suggestion it was all a dream and see it as a place that exists beyond what most humans can see, like other mythical places in modern literature, notably Hogwarts or Alice's Wonderland.
Rushdie also explores the women of the film, concentrating much of his time comparing the witches of the story. He notes that the Witch of the East (the one who dies in the beginning of the movie) was probably not much of a despot, since the streets were clean and homes well taken care of and that she didn't rely on soldiers of any kind to keep her world safe.
"At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers" is less an essay in the traditional sense and more a (possibly fictional) exploration of what the ruby slippers mean to an unnamed narrator. Rushdie is famously part of the magical realism movement within fiction, and this story/essay/whatever is not different, moving through with a dreamlike pace and tone. There are lots of details, but they feel random, as if plucked from a generator.
Both pieces feel strangely nice together in this tiny little package. It was a dream reading both of these essays, and both complement and contain the magic of their subject.