I would Totally have Stayed in Oz

Salman Rushdie opens his wonderful, 57 page analysis of "The Wizard of Oz" by telling the story of his first story. "I wrote my fist story in Bombay at the age of time; its title was Over the Rainbow...I don't remember much about the story...I remember that The Wizard of Oz was my very first literary influence."

The analysis itself is fantastic in that it delves into the real core of what makes the film so important and endearing; he even goes on to claim right off the bat that *gasp* it could be a work of art.

The question for today is, what would Rushdie, with such an obvious personal connection to the book, think of this clip?


This clip is difficult to compare to Rushdie's writing because of the choice of song on the part of the adorable Indian children; rather than something ripe with meaning and significance like "Somewhere over the Rainbow" (for more information about this song as used in attempt to give significance to minority children see the second half of the eternity that is the film Australia), they went with what is likely the least interesting or memorable song in the entire film. I am going to assume that the did this for logistical reasons (it is perhaps unfair to ask four year olds to sing a song which requires an octave and a half range) and simply examine the fact that they are singing a song from Oz at all.

Much of the content of Rusdie's analysis speaks to the desire on the part of the audience to live vicariously through the film. He opens the analysis by describing how he imagined Oz through his own eyes as a child, "I remember, or imagine I remember that when I first saw this film at a time when I had a pretty good home, Dorothy's place stuck me as a dump. Of course, if I'd been whisked off to Oz, I reasoned, I'd naturally want to get home again, but then I had plenty to come home for." He even incorporates characters from his life into the story, "It took me half a lifetime to discover that the Great Oz's apologia pro vita sua fitted my father equally well - that he, too, was a good man, but a very bad wizard." The significance of the film is most relevant and special when seen through the lens of the viewers own life.

However, the most significant example of audience's desire to participate comes on page 46 when he first mentions the auction of the Ruby slippers (which later becomes the setting for his somewhat disappointing short story). He tells the story of a 1970 auction for an original set of Judy Garland's slippers which ultimately sold for 15,000 dollars. This desire to be a part of the film's legacy leads Rushdie to speculate that, "in the case of a beloved film we are all the star's doubles." What he means is that the pleasure of any film or story with special significance is to imagine ourselves in the places of the leads.

For this reason, I think that Salman Rusdie would see these children, so distant from the roots of Oz and MGM in the same way as every other lover of the film; people celebrating the mysterious and distant and fantastical through their own vicarious lives.