Day 1 - Peter returns to Oz in AM (a Saturday - season is "summer") -
  meets Jack Pumpkinhead - lunch at Goody Shop - visits Scare City, frees
  Snif - travel to Bourne - dinner and camp outside Baffleburg at night
  ("Jack watched the sun sink down behind the grim red mountains") -
  Belfaygor grows beard in AM - Mogodore kidnaps Shirley Sunshine,
  intending to marry her next morning - at night ("while Peter and his
  friends rested in their hidden cave") Mogodore plots to conquer the
  Emerald City
Day 2 - Peter's party crosses to Baffleburg Sunday AM & they are
  captured by Mogodore - Mogodore begins march to EC to conquer Oz,
  reaching and capturing it in late afternoon/early evening (at dusk
  - "that fine hour before dinner") - Peter's party retrieves the
  forbidden flagon ("The search for the flagon had taken just an hour"),
  escapes from Baffleburg in AM  - Peter, Belfayor, & Snif captured
  by sack - Jack visits Jinnicky, returns to EC & frees Ozites after
  dark ("Dusk turned into darkness, lights shone from every room in the
  palace") - marriage of Belfaygor & Shirley Sunshine - wedding feast
  continues all night ("not until daybreak did anyone think of retiring")
Day 3 - Festivities continue all day (Monday) - Belfaygor & Shirley
  leave at lunchtime ("at noon they rode off on the Sawhorse") - Fraid
  Cats & Statues returned to normal - Belfaygor & band returned
  to Baffleburg in late afternoon - Peter returns home
 
Note: The distance between Bourne and the EC is never determined exactly.
Peter's party has lunch on the way and are interrupted at its conclusion
by the denizens of Swing City.  Peter says "It must be nearly four o'clock"
by the time they have escaped Swing City and gotten back underway, and
they overtake Mogodore shortly afterwards. Snif say that it "will not take
longer than an hour to fly to the capitol" from Baffleburg, but it is not
clear how he knows this--and, based on the timing of his trip (they are
already in flight by noon but are not captured by the sack until around
3:45-4:00), the estimate is probably off.  Mogodore arrives in the EC at
sunset (perhaps as late as 8:30 if the season is really summer), giving
him a 9 to 11 hour trip between Bourne and the capitol. (Horses can't
travel more than about 12 mph, and they can't keep it up for very long.
This gives a maximum distance of 120-132 miles, with 60-75 being perhaps
more realistic.) If this is the case then Jack must spend almost four
hours in the Red Jinn's domain (from about 4:00 to 8:00) before being
summoned to appear before Mogodore.

Date: Tue, 21 Oct 1997 14:42:52 -0500
From: David Hulan <davidhulan at ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 10-20-97
 
Dave:
>(I have a question: If Ozma is
> "a little girl after all", then why do so many Oz illustrators show Ozma
> with a height of 5+ feet and give her *breasts*???)
 
I have a theory about that that I think I voiced (or phosphored, or
whatever one does with the Digest) a year or so ago, but it might bear
repeating. If you look at Neill's drawings of Ozma (and he was the only one
who depicted her for a long time), you'll note that up through _Jack
Pumpkinhead_ he invariably dresses Ozma in such loose, flowing garments
that you can't tell if she has breasts or not. Starting with _Yellow
Knight_, though, he switches to more fitted garments that definitely show
her as no longer a "little girl". (The covers to _Ozma_ and _Emerald City_
showing her in fitted clothing were drawn after _Jack Pumpkinhead_ was
written.) Some subsequent artists have copied the earlier and some the
later version. My theory is that it was in _Jack Pumpkinhead_ that Mogodore
expressed a desire to marry her - and since, for all his faults, there's no
indication that Mogodore was a pedophile, Neill probably concluded that
Ozma must appear of marriageable age and started drawing her more
definitely that way. Mogodore was the first, and as far as I recall the
only, person to express a desire to marry Ozma for her own sake; Pompa's
proposal was reluctant and only to save his father's kingdom.
 
Some of Neill's early drawings of Ozma make her look very young - in
_Ozma_, for instance, or the one of her sitting in a tree at the beginning
of _Lost Princess_. But in most of them her features look like a
teen-ager's. Of course, so do Dorothy's and Trot's...
 
David Hulan

From:  RMorris306 at a...
Date:  Thu Feb 1, 2001  12:38 am
Subject:  Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz

Since JACK PUMPKINHEAD OF OZ is the next book to be discussed, I think I can
be forgiven for retelling the story of how I first read it...especially as
many of the current group wasn't around when I joined the list. Not only is 
it one of my favorite Thompson Oz books, but it was the first non-Baum Oz
book I ever read...and the last for over a decade.

I was in second grade, left to my own devices in an empty classroom while my
mother and my teacher had a meeting. Naturally I looked around for something
to read, and I was thrilled to find two fantasy books I hadn't read, but
which were characters I'd heard of. And to top it all off, one was an Oz
book!!! I read JACK PUMPKINHEAD straight through and was halfway through the
other book by the time the conference ended, and my teacher generously let me
take that one home and finish it. Which I did...and I read and reread it
endlessly (it was PINOCCHIO, and I think I'd seen the Disney movie and read 
the Little Golden Book, but this was the much longer Collodi original) before
it had to go back. And in the years since, I constantly berated myself for
not having borrowed JACK PUMPKINHEAD instead...I'd also loved PINOCCHIO but 
copies of that weren't hard to find in the library, whereas I never saw
another copy of JACK PUMPKINHEAD OF OZ again until, I think, I was well past
thirty. (And not long after, of course, thanks to Del Rey, I finally acquired
a copy of my own.)

Of course, I may have been looking in the wrong place. I didn't learn for
many years that not all the Oz books were by L. Frank Baum, so looking under
any other author would have been as unheard-of for me as looking for a Freddy
the Pig book by anyone but Walter Brooks. Still, when I finally reread it, I
was astounded by how much I remembered...not only the main plot but a lot of
the byplay, including some perfectly dreadful sequences of puns (which I
loved). "It's Cy at the door" and the "right/left" business in the tunnels of
Baffleburg were classics.

I know the book always seemed a bit "off" to me when I thought back on it. I
would have found it hard to imagine Baum giving a boy a name like Peter (he 
always tended toward more exotic names for his children, especially the
boys), and the mention of Peter having been to Oz before (though I never came
across him in the Baum titles) also fascinated me. And yet Thompson used the
standard Ozzy sequence...indeed, looking at the main characters again, I
can't think of any other Oz book with an ensemble cast that so perfectly
parallelled that of WIZARD. Once again you have an American child
(Dorothy/Peter) looking for a way home, an exotic artificial man (the
Scarecrow/Jack Pumpkinhead) who proves not to be the fool he at first seems,
a once-normal man who's fallen victim to an enchanter's curse (the Tin
Woodman/ Baron Belfaygor) out to rekindle his lost love and prove worthy of 
ruling a country, and an ostensibly wild beast (the Cowardly Lion/Snif the
Iffin) who's truly kind and gentle, but not lacking in courage. (All right, 
so there's no character to parallel Toto. So sue me.)

Thompson often seems to allow the characters to suggest a theme, and at first
she seems to be inspired by Jack's pumpkin head to expand on Halloween (Peter
turning Jack's head into an actual Jack O'Lantern, and of course Scare City 
with its Scares and Fraid Cats). But there it seems to end; she doesn't even
bring in a witch, as easy as that would have been in Oz. Perhaps she
remembered that Oz books were generally marketed for Christmas, not for
Halloween...and the walking, talking Christmas tree was one of the more
bizarre one-shot characters, but that too quickly ran its course, serving
only to introduce the magic dinner bell. I always loved the magic talismans 
Baum would drop into his books...starting with the Silver Shoes and Golden
Cap in WIZARD and continuing with the Powder of Life, the Magic Belt, Inga's
three pearls, and many more. Thompson got a lot of mileage out of that dinner
bell, using it not only for nourishment but as a weapon, a means of
transportation, and last but not least a way to introduce what turned out to
be an important continuing character, the Red Jinn. (As I remarked on the
list not too long ago, I thought at one point Thompson was deliberately
reversing a cliche in having a magic talisman owned by a genie and having
power over the humans he kept as slaves...the reverse of the usual Arabian
Nights situation. But it really didn't come off as amusing in
retrospect...almost behind the times, especially with Jinnicky generally
depicted as white and his slaves as black.) The pirates' sack was also
fascinating and useful, if maybe a bit under-explained ...who created it, for
instance? And how did the pirate get it?

Please don't think that, just because I compared the characters to those
in WIZARD, they weren't expertly handled and fascinating in their own right.
Peter may have been a bit lacking in personality as compared with, say,
Dorothy or Trot or Ojo, but he was a great viewpoint character for a male
reader. Jack Pumpkinhead, as the only major character taken from Baum, was
nicely developed along Baum's lines in a role he'd never had much of a chance
for before...while Baum probably intended him in LAND to fill a role similar
to the Scarecrow's in WIZARD (with the Woggle-Bug similarly filling in the
Tin Woodman's role), he hedged his bets by also giving the real Scarecrow and
Tin Woodman major roles, inevitably overshadowing the later characters. His 
actually using his brains for once (although clearly he'll never be as clever
as the Scarecrow generally was) was one of my favorite sequences. Snif was
amusing and his poetry wasn't too dreadful, but Belfaygor clearly was the one
who stepped forward and became the book's true hero. Baum used young men
relatively rarely (as has been noted, when his men weren't constructs like
Jack or the Scarecrow, they tended to be middle-aged or elderly like the
Wizard, Cap'n Bill, and the Shaggy Man), but Thompson...more of a romantic
and understandably more interested in virile men than Baum...used them quite
a bit, and Belfaygor, with his beard keeping him from being taken too
seriously, worked perfectly.

The resolution to the plot and the true nature of the Forbidden Flagon
were also inspired on Thompson's part, tying the novel together very neatly.
It says quite a bit that my biggest complaint, in retrospect, is that
Thompson always seemed compelled to rush her visitors home from Oz so
quickly. In Baum's books, usually Dorothy or other visitors would get to
spend several days (or even weeks) in Oz before they had to go home, but
Thompson usually had Peter have to rush straight home for a baseball game.
(Couldn't she, just once, have brought him to Oz outside baseball season?) I
think I speak for most people on the list in saying that, if I'd ever had a 
chance to visit Oz as a child (or as an adult, for that matter), I'd have
wanted to stay there as long as possible!

I think several others on the list have said that JACK PUMPKINHEAD is
from an extended run of some of Thompson's best Oz books. Although my
judgment, as I've explained, is far from unclouded by nostalgia, I most
definitely concur.  

Rich Morrissey

From:  "ruth berman" <berma005 at m...>
Date:  Thu Feb 1, 2001  10:51 am
Subject:  BCF: jack pumpkinhead of oz

"Jack Pumpkinhead" is nice on the character side -- it's fun to see Jack,
who is usually the idiot child in a story, turning up as the hero. The Snif
the Iffin is an enjoyable beast character, and Jinnicky, although he's
really only sketched in here in his first appearance, became one of RPT's
two most popular characters (he and Kabumpo are probably tied). Both led to
interesting tie-in stories, Phyllis Karr's "Maybe the Miffin" (was that
published by Chris Dulabone?) with a romance for Snif, and Robert Pattrick's
story about how Jinnicky got started in magic by Glinda (was that one
published in "Oziana"?). On the story-telling side, the story is weak,
however. The irrelevant episodes of the Goody Shop and Swing City are
notably irrelevant, and the action calls for rather too many heroes, so that
Snif has to be put out of power twice lest the story finish up too quickly,
and Peter and Belfaygor have to be put out of action along with him on the
second time. (And Betsy Bobbin, the only one in the castle to escape
capture, just sits in her butterfly bush, and never does get to do anything
with her freedom towards solving matters.)

I get the impression in the portrayal of Jinnicky's country that RPT at
this stage was thinking of him as living in some other universe, perhaps a
universe of "tales of the Arabian Nights" magic. There is no indication of a
Nonestican location for it. In fact, with a sea of shards of glass, wherever
that un-named sea is, it can't very well be part of the Nonestic Ocean,
unless Jinnicky's magic is keeping the glass-area confined to his own shore.
It's a spectacular land (and sea) scape, but hard on non-wooden bodies.  When
RPT returned to Jinnicky's country in "Purple Prince," the location was
specified as on the Nonestic coast, and the sea is green as glass, but not
actually made of glass (and the sand is sand, and not more shards of glass).
Perhaps we might assume that the glassified landscape was a temporary magic.
Neill made use of an unusual illo-shape for several of the pictures, a
long thin half-pager -- surprisingly effective. Also some very effective
arch-framed doublespreads (although someone in making up the book lost count
with the blilnd-man's-buff one, putting the two halves back to back on pp.
209/210, instead of making a spread of it on pp. 210-211). In the color
plates, I wonder again if he was expecting the number of plates to be
diminished. Of the 12, about five are close in appearance to b&w illos,
sometimes so much so that the captions get confused. The CP of Belfaygor
clipping away with his scissors is like the Belfaygor half of the
doublespread of him meeting Jack & Peter; the CP of the Baffleburg mountain
is like the half-pager of it; the CP of Belfaygor tieing up the soldier in
his beard is captioned for the moment shortly after when he and Peter use a
beard-length to knock the Forbidden Flagon out of the Fountain of Fire, and
resembles the b&w double-spread of that action; the CP of the three in the
sky on Snifback resembles the half-pager on p. 176 (there are two more CPs
of people on Snifback, one of Peter just ready to take off, and and
especially handsome one of the three flying over Mogodore's army, but the
layout of these is considerably different from the two sky-emphasizing
drawings; and the CP of Ozma led in chains is slightly similar to her half
of the doublespread in which she is chained to a tree and confronting
Mogodore. The CP of the Soldier standing guard over Mogodore's reduced army
is a lovely one, and was used as the front cover on the "Bugle" one time to
go with Barbara Koelle's article on the Soldier. (Curiously, the "Bugle"
never seems to have had an article devoted to Jack, or to Peter, or to
Jinnicky, or at least I don't remember any and don't find any skimming the
likely headings in Fred Otto's index.)

Ruth Berman

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Thu Feb 1, 2001  11:00 pm
Subject:  BCF: JACK PUMPKINHEAD patterns

Thanks, Rich Morrissey, for your story of reading JACK PUMPKINHEAD and
rediscovering it years later. The experience of having read an Oz book that
no longer seems to exist--that sounds like one of Fred Meyer's holiday
cards!

Interesting parallels between WIZARD's ensemble and the crew that coalesces
around Peter. One telling difference between Baum and Thompson is the quest
that she gives Peter. He doesn't have a child's goal of home, even with all
his talk about the "big match" [ch 1]. Only when he adopts Belfaygor's
classic romantic quest to rescue a princess from a villainous usurper does
he become "more interested and excited than he had been since his arrival
in Oz" [ch 7]. A very traditional quest, not what children really want but
the type of quest they've probably read about.

Despite Belfaygor's central place in that plot, I don't think he
becomes "the book's true hero," however. I agree he's more appealing and
heroic than Baum's romantic young men, especially Pon in SCARECROW. And he
certainly grows during his adventure. He seems somewhat callow at first:
his main concern before his marriage is new outfits for his retainers and
redecorating his castle [ch 7]. He's also very unsure of himself--contrast
his feeling "suddenly dissatisfied with my appearance" with how "Mogodore
could see nothing amiss with the red face, bristling black whiskers and
hair, small blue eyes, great nose and crooked mouth that confronted him" in
his mirror [ch 9]. At first despairing, Belfaygor grows bolder until his
bravery surprises even Peter [ch 10]. Finally, as I discuss below, the
young baron's beard is indispensable to the party's success, and he
contributes breakthrough ideas.

Yet Belfaygor disappears before the crucial last battle, as do
Peter and Snif. Ozma, the Wizard, Dorothy, and every other Oz-book hero in
the Emerald City (except, for some reason, Betsy Bobbin) is tied up. It's
title character Jack who truly saves the day, by not using his head.

<<Jack Pumpkinhead, as the only major character taken from Baum, was nicely
developed along Baum's lines in a role he'd never had much of a chance for
before.>>

Yes, Thompson seems to have Jack's character down, even if that means she
lays it out a little too clearly. "Jack who was extremely literal," she
calls him at the start of chapter 5.

Thompson has clearly reread LAND as preparation for this book,
summarizing it in chapter 1. This may be the first time Jack's claim on
Ozma as his "father" recurs. Thompson might even have been inspired by
Jack's first meeting with the Scarecrow, with Jellia acting as translator.
In chapter 16 an inversion of the same scene appears: Jack meets a ruler
who IS speaking another language ("'Tis the laugh language, Jack"),
alongside a child servant who IS interpreting the local customs for him.
Thompson seems to start out by playing off Jack as a Halloween
jack-o-lantern: a candle in his head in Soot City [with three uses of
"light-headed" in two pages of ch 2], encountering another holiday object
in the Christmas tree [ch 3], and visiting the Scares [ch 4]. But soon she
seems to recognize that as a short and limited road. Instead, she starts
basing her scenes around the looseness of his head.

Because Jack's head slips off his body, he gets to overhear the
conversation of Mogodore's guards about the Forbidden Flagon [ch 12].
(Thompson succumbs to the lazy author's trick of having two characters
explain to each other what they both already know, but at least Jack
overhears in an original way.) Because Jack can remove his head, he gets to
break the Flagon safely [ch 19].

Thompson conception of Jack's head-neck connection seems different
from Baum's. She continually mentions him turning his head with his hands,
or having his head spin around, implying he can't pivot his head
intentionally. I don't recall Baum ever saying that.

<<Thompson got a lot of mileage out of that dinner bell, using it not only
for nourishment but as a weapon, a means of transportation, and last but
not least a way to introduce what turned out to be an important continuing
character, the Red Jinn.>>

Peter and Jack indeed use the dinner bell with remarkable resourcefulness.
In the same way, characters find many uses for Belfaygor's beard: a cushion
for a soft landing [ch 7], material for a climbing rope [ch 8, 10], as a
clue out of the labyrinth [ch 12], as a way to tie up a guard, and finally
as the tool for grabbing the Forbidden Flagon [ch 13].

Belfaygor's beard may also have symbolic power. It forces him to
keep moving (or snipping), symbolizing how he has to take action to save
Shirley, not just redecorate his castle. And, of course, being able to grow
a beard has always been a male symbol of coming of age.

Another way to look at those many uses of Belfaygor's beard is to
consider how often the action in JACK PUMPKINHEAD hinges on figuring out
solutions to physical obstacles. For instance, in sneaking into Mogodore's
castle Peter and his friends must deal with the terrain, the tilting
tunnel, the spear-throwing towers, and so on. That requires teamwork and
shared decision-making--or rather distributed decision-making. Each
character has a major idea in turn: Snif to use the beard to cross the
chasm [ch 86], Belfaygor to jump into a tower [ch 10], and so on. After his
friends conquer another set of obstacles, Peter declares to Snif, "You
overcame the mirrors, Belfaygor captured the guard. Now it's my turn" [ch
13]. And, of course, Jack has the crucial ideas at the end of the book.
This cooperation is again reminiscent of WIZARD.

That's all for tonight. Plenty to talk about in this book!

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Fri Feb 2, 2001  10:51 pm
Subject:  BCF: JACK PUMPKINHEAD & the Red Djinn

I have the Del Rey edition of JACK PUMPKINHEAD, which is why I'm citing
chapters instead of pages. In preparing that edition, the firm doesn't seem
to have inserted the many missing commas, or replaced commas with the many
missing question marks, or even flipped the two pictures of Jack that seem
to be upside-down [ch 10, p 101 DR; ch 15, p 165 DR].

But, if I recall the Reilly & Lee edition of this book accurately,
Del Rey changed "Red Djinn" to "Red Jinn" throughout. I don't think
Thompson adopted the latter spelling until PURPLE PRINCE, when we're
reintroduced to that character as Jinnicky, a decidedly cuddlier Jinn.
Two other unwelcoming aspects of the Red Djinn we meet in chapter
16, which Thompson later dropped, are:
* The slipper-striking custom. Jack may be particularly sensitive about his
fragile head, but young readers wouldn't like this greeting, either.
* The "green glass sea, whose waves broke with a melodious tinkle and crash
on the beach,...a gleaming stretch of glass splinters." Again, that's an
interesting image for an exotic, never-to-be-revisited magical place, but
hardly somewhere children would enjoy (as Tompy does in YANKEE).
In addition, Thompson later situates Jinnicky in Ev, while it's
unclear where outside Oz this Red Djinn lives.

Rich Morrissey wrote:
<<I thought at one point Thompson was deliberately reversing a cliche in
having a magic talisman owned by a genie and having power over the humans
he kept as slaves...the reverse of the usual Arabian Nights situation. But
it really didn't come off as amusing in retrospect...almost behind the
times, especially with Jinnicky generally depicted as white and his slaves
as black.>>

Thompson probably had in her mind the traditional story of the genie being
freed from a bottle and being bound to serve his rescuer well before the
Red Djinn himself appears:
* She compares the Chimney Villains to "evil genii...who had long been
imprisoned in magic bottles" [ch 2].
* She introduces a "slave" to a magic object--Ginger and his dinner
bell--while mentioning the Djinn [ch 3].
* Snif tells Peter, "Since you have freed me from my captors I will serve
you faithfully for seven years" [ch 5].

Finally, I was struck by one line toward the end of chapter 16. The Red
Djinn has determined to help Jack, and is wondering how. He says, "My magic
umbrella would carry you to Oz, but I need that myself." Instead, he offers
the Jinricksha that we see Jinnicky driving in later books.
But let's go back to that umbrella. There is, of course, a very
famous magic umbrella that carries people around in the Oz universe: the
one Button-Bright used to travel to California, Sky Island, and (presumably) Mo.
That umbrella has an elephant head handle carved of wood, with "red
stones" for eyes; those eyes shoot "red sparks of anger" when in an
emergency an actual elephant emerges.

The Red Djinn's primary color is, of course, red. He lives in a
"glittering red glass palace," furnished in "sparkling red glass."
Button-Bright describes the object's history this way, possibly
based on what his Uncle Bob told him: "One of my great-great-grandfathers
was a Knight--an Arabian Knight--and it was he who first found this umbrella."
Outside the Red Djinn's castle, Jack encounters "a vast company of
turbaned gentlemen, who might have stepped directly from the Arabian Nights."
Button-Bright's family has kept the umbrella for generations, and
he uses it to cross the United States and back. But as soon as he uses it
to cross the Nonestic, SCARECROW implies, he loses it.

The Red Djinn is, of course, on that side of the Nonestic, and his
magic is probably much more powerful there.

It's at least conceivable, therefore, that Jinnicky created the
magic umbrella, and one of his Arabesque retainers took it on a trip to
Europe or America, where he became one of Button-Bright's eight
great-great-grandfathers. Then when the boy rode the umbrella back across
the Nonestic, it came under Jinnicky's power once more, which is why he
came to lose it.

But Jinnicky doesn't seem too concerned about losing some of his
magical items; he actually enjoys following the travels of the magic dinner
bell (which ends up among Ozma's possessions--ch 21). So possibly the Jinn
had nothing to do with Button-Bright losing his umbrella. Perhaps it
dropped him (or vice versa) in Mo, and the Jinn eventually obtained it
because of his fondness for powerful red magic.

In either event, if I were Button-Bright, I'd want to find my way
to Jinnicky's palace and ask to see that magic umbrella. Alas, finding his
way is not one of Button-Bright's skills.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  RMorris306 at a...
Date:  Sat Feb 3, 2001  1:43 am
Subject:  Re: [Nonestica] BCF: JACK PUMPKINHEAD & the Red Djinn

In a message dated 2/3/01 1:11:51 AM, JnoLBell at c...
writes:

<< I have the Del Rey edition of JACK PUMPKINHEAD, which is why I'm citing
chapters instead of pages. In preparing that edition, the firm doesn't seem
to have inserted the many missing commas, or replaced commas with the many
missing question marks, or even flipped the two pictures of Jack that seem
to be upside-down [ch 10, p 101 DR; ch 15, p 165 DR].
But, if I recall the Reilly & Lee edition of this book accurately,
Del Rey changed "Red Djinn" to "Red Jinn" throughout. I don't think
Thompson adopted the latter spelling until PURPLE PRINCE, when we're
reintroduced to that character as Jinnicky, a decidedly cuddlier
Jinn.>>

Interesting that Thompson would decide to drop the initial silent letter
of "Djinn," even though she restored that of "Gnome"
which Baum had earlier dropped...

<<Two other unwelcoming aspects of the Red Djinn we meet in chapter
16, which Thompson later dropped, are:
* The slipper-striking custom. Jack may be particularly sensitive about his
fragile head, but young readers wouldn't like this greeting, either.
* The "green glass sea, whose waves broke with a melodious tinkle and crash
on the beach,...a gleaming stretch of glass splinters." Again, that's an
interesting image for an exotic, never-to-be-revisited magical place, but
hardly somewhere children would enjoy (as Tompy does in YANKEE).
In addition, Thompson later situates Jinnicky in Ev, while it's
unclear where outside Oz this Red Djinn lives.>>

Although it's almost inevitable that, once he became a regular character
(and a sympathetic one), he'd become a bit less forbidding. (Baum did much
the same with the Wizard of Oz.)

Rich Morrissey wrote:
<<I thought at one point Thompson was deliberately reversing a cliche in
having a magic talisman owned by a genie and having power over the humans
he kept as slaves...the reverse of the usual Arabian Nights situation. But
it really didn't come off as amusing in retrospect...almost behind the
times, especially with Jinnicky generally depicted as white and his slaves
as black.>>

Thompson probably had in her mind the traditional story of the genie being
freed from a bottle and being bound to serve his rescuer well before the
Red Djinn himself appears:
* She compares the Chimney Villains to "evil genii...who had long been
imprisoned in magic bottles" [ch 2].
* She introduces a "slave" to a magic object--Ginger and his dinner
bell--while mentioning the Djinn [ch 3].
* Snif tells Peter, "Since you have freed me from my captors I will serve
you faithfully for seven years" [ch 5].>>

Thompson always seemed to have a special fondness for the Arabian
Nights...I've noted how characters in COWARDLY LION and HUNGRY TIGER (and
later in WISHING HORSE and possibly YELLOW KNIGHT) could have stepped right
out of those stories.

<<Finally, I was struck by one line toward the end of chapter 16. The Red
Djinn has determined to help Jack, and is wondering how. He says, "My magic
umbrella would carry you to Oz, but I need that myself." Instead, he offers
the Jinricksha that we see Jinnicky driving in later books.
But let's go back to that umbrella. There is, of course, a very
famous magic umbrella that carries people around in the Oz universe: the
one Button-Bright used to travel to California, Sky Island, and (presumably) Mo.
That umbrella has an elephant head handle carved of wood, with "red
stones" for eyes; those eyes shoot "red sparks of anger" when in an
emergency an actual elephant emerges.

The Red Djinn's primary color is, of course, red. He lives in a
"glittering red glass palace," furnished in "sparkling red glass."
Button-Bright describes the object's history this way, possibly
based on what his Uncle Bob told him: "One of my great-great-grandfathers
was a Knight--an Arabian Knight--and it was he who first found this
umbrella."

Outside the Red Djinn's castle, Jack encounters "a vast company of
turbaned gentlemen, who might have stepped directly from the Arabian
Nights."

Button-Bright's family has kept the umbrella for generations, and
he uses it to cross the United States and back. But as soon as he uses it
to cross the Nonestic, SCARECROW implies, he loses it.
The Red Djinn is, of course, on that side of the Nonestic, and his
magic is probably much more powerful there.

It's at least conceivable, therefore, that Jinnicky created the
magic umbrella, and one of his Arabesque retainers took it on a trip to
Europe or America, where he became one of Button-Bright's eight
great-great-grandfathers. Then when the boy rode the umbrella back across
the Nonestic, it came under Jinnicky's power once more, which is why he
came to lose it.

But Jinnicky doesn't seem too concerned about losing some of his
magical items; he actually enjoys following the travels of the magic dinner
bell (which ends up among Ozma's possessions--ch 21). So possibly the Jinn
had nothing to do with Button-Bright losing his umbrella. Perhaps it
dropped him (or vice versa) in Mo, and the Jinn eventually obtained it
because of his fondness for powerful red magic.

In either event, if I were Button-Bright, I'd want to find my way
to Jinnicky's palace and ask to see that magic umbrella. Alas, finding his
way is not one of Button-Bright's skills. >>

Interesting indeed! Although Marvin Kaye had quite a different
explanation as to the origin of Button-Bright's family's umbrella in THE
INCREDIBLE UMBRELLA...


Rich

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sat Feb 3, 2001  10:48 am
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD animals

Nathan DeHoff wrote:
<<I don't think any of the animals in Baffleburg talk.>>

Yes, Thompson describes the Baffleburg horses' "frightened neighs" rather
than vocal complaints after they've become tiny [ch 20]. There's no proof
they can't talk, but Snif is the only local beast who does.
Interestingly, that the horses shrink implies they're no more
ordinary horses than the reddies were ordinary men. Does the dog also
shrink after Jack breaks the flagon? Perhaps the men and animals are all
from one tiny community which doesn't have the same nature and customs as
the rest of Oz.

I, too, thought it was interesting that Thompson specified that Snif isn't
a traditional griffin, with "the usual eagle head" [ch 5]. That shows on
the one hand her ongoing concern with how tradition dictates things should
be in fairylands, on the other hand her willingness to change such details
to make a character more appealing for her readers. After all, dogs seem a
lot friendlier close up than eagles do.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sat Feb 3, 2001  1:16 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD timing

Thanks, Ken Shepherd, for your JACK PUMPKINHEAD chronology. Here are a
couple more remarks about time in this book.

Five years before the events of this book, the Scares ensnared Snif [ch 5].  

It's been two years since the events of GNOME KING brought Peter to Oz [ch
1]. That's the same amount of time that passed between the publication of
the two books, in contrast to GIANT HORSE's hint of events in Oz happening
faster than they were published.

At the beginning of the book, Peter is preparing his team for a "big
match," meaning it's baseball season once again. In Oz, meanwhile, it's
"summer" [ch 6]. So the two places' seasons are parallel. (I seem to recall
that Benny's confused arrival in GIANT HORSE didn't take place at the same
time of day as when he'd left Boston.)

Finally, Jack says Mombi raised Tip "for nearly nine years" [ch 1]. I don't
know how this figure fits with attempts to figure out the pre-Dorothean
history of Oz.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sat Feb 3, 2001  5:50 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD plot

Ruth Berman wrote:
<<the story is weak, however. The irrelevant episodes of the Goody Shop and
Swing City are notably irrelevant, and the action calls for rather too many
heroes, so that Snif has to be put out of power twice lest the story finish
up too quickly, and Peter and Belfaygor have to be put out of action along
with him on the second time.>>

I agree that there are a high number of irrelevant episodes in JACK
PUMPKINHEAD. The Chimney Villains feel like a dead end. The Goody Shop has
so little effect that I'd completely forgotten it when I reread the book
(for some reason, it reminds me of the sheep's shop in THROUGH THE
LOOKING-GLASS). The Christmas Tree is a one-creature enclosed community,
trying to incorporate Peter and Jack into itself for force. Swing City is a
delaying tactic, though it also provides a use for the saucebox Peter took
from Mogodore's castle.

Scare City is somewhat an exception. It gives Peter both a new
companion and knowledge of the grab bag. It's also genuinely nightmarish.
But that threat disappears after one chapter, leaving Peter literally lying
back on the grass and congratulating himself about how easily he's
traveling through Oz [ch 6].

But right after that the barons' struggle surfaces in the book, and
I think Thompson constructed that main plot surprisingly well. I've already
written about how I like the cooperation among the main characters: Peter,
Snif, Belfaygor, and even Jack each has his own moments to shine. I think
that's the same pattern you found to be "rather too many heroes," so we
just had different responses to it.

More important, however, Thompson sets up the magical comings and
goings in this book better than in many other novels. The capture of the
Scares in chapter 4 prepares us for the action of the grab bag in chapter
15. The disappearance of Biggen and Little in chapter 11 alerts both Jack
and us that he can use Ginger as transport in chapter 15.

Jack's timely return is due not to the Red Djinn or Glinda casting
spells from afar, but from Mogodore's own curiosity about the Forbidden
Flagon [ch 16, 19]. That curiosity is the sort of self-destructive urge
that's convenient to give villains, but Thompson has at least established
it back in chapter 9. Thus, Mogodore's seizure of the Magic Belt, which
seems like the book's low point, turns out to contain the seed of his
defeat.

In chapter 12 we see Jack lose his head, and in chapter 13 we read
that opening the flagon "Brings woe to Baffleburg and dire / Disaster on
his head." (In contrast, GRAMPA never quotes the prophecy about Princess
Pretty Good for us to puzzle out, GIANT HORSE never gives us a hint of what
Tattypoo saw in her magic window, and so on.) Without being obvious, JACK
PUMPKINHEAD gives all the clues we need to figure out how Jack and
Mogodore's confrontation will work out.

The chapters' lengths also reflect how well Thompson structured her
story's climax. In the Del Rey edition, the first seven chapters average
almost 12 pages apiece, and the next seven over 11. But the last seven
chapters, in which the action speeds up and the suspense reaches its
highest point, average fewer than 9 pages. (That despite chapter 17,
inflated with two double-page spreads, being the longest in the book.
Excluding the longest chapter from each sample drops the average lengths to
10, 9, and 6.)

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sat Feb 3, 2001  5:50 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD magic

Rich Morrissey wrote:
<<The pirates' sack was also fascinating and useful, if maybe a bit
under-explained ...who created it, for instance? And how did the pirate get
it?>>

And why, once Polacky got it, did he store gold in it? And once he stored
gold in it, why didn't the gold disappear? And, as Nathan DeHoff noted:
<<at the end of _Gnome King_, Ozma said she could only transport
the gold from the Outside World to Philadelphia, yet this gold included the
magical piece of change, and half of it was in the Grab Bag. . . . Either
some Nonestican items stowed away with the "real" gold, or the magical
itmes originated in the Outside World.>>

Chapter 2 in JACK PUMPKINHEAD repeats the distinction between "real gold"
from a "real pirate," even as it sets up Peter to travel back to Oz through
a magical coin included in that real gold (though unaccountably overlooked
in his accounting).

One possibility is that when Peter was "giving the top sack a
little shake," he dislodged a piece of change that the bag had grabbed in
some former use, just as Jack shook out the bag [ch 19]. That explains how
an unreal coin might have gotten to Philadelphia, but not how the unreal
bag did.

In the course of the book, Peter and his companions collect a number of
magical implements, and even get a little cocky about how much power they
have [end of ch 10, end of ch 13]. Throughout the book, in fact, Peter
keeps thinking everything looks good, only to come up against an unexpected
challenge [ch 1, ch 6, ch 14]. That keeps things interesting for Peter and
for us readers since he's not worried about being away from home.
As part of that theme, not one of the magical implements works just
the way Peter and his companions expect. As I wrote in an earlier message,
they get more than ordinary effects from the dinner bell and Belfaygor's
beard. But the saucebox operates effectively by chance [ch 14], the sack
turns on Peter at the worst time [ch 15], and nobody foresees what the
Forbidden Flagon accomplishes [ch 19].

Another magical revelation of this book is that the Magic Belt still works
when Mogodore wears it "round his arm, for it would not begin to go 'round
his waist" [ch 17]. That also implies that either that the Belt was altered
for slinky Ozma, or that Roquat wasn't as fat as reported.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sun Feb 4, 2001  3:59 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD art

Ruth Berman wrote:
<<Neill made use of an unusual illo-shape for several of the pictures, a
long thin half-pager -- surprisingly effective. Also some very effective
arch-framed doublespreads (although someone in making up the book lost
count with the blilnd-man's-buff one, putting the two halves back to back
on pp. 209/210, instead of making a spread of it on pp. 210-211).>>

I think JACK PUMPKINHEAD is one of the more interesting Oz books in terms
of illustration design, and I'm disappointed that I have only the Del Rey
edition and memories of the original to work with.

The double-page spreads (captioned, as many of the full-page
pictures in GIANT HORSE were) are a variation on the shape of the
chapter-opening illustrations: arched top, concave sides, square bottom.
They also make up for the lack of the double-page chapter openers Reilly &
Lee struggled to make work in GNOME KING and GIANT HORSE.

Even more interesting are the tall, thin--almost
Jack-Pumpkinhead-shaped--illustrations within the chapters. There seem to
be two sorts. Some are truly columnar, often with square frames at top or
bottom. Others fill this sort of space (if you read these lines in a
monospaced font):

XXX
XXX
XXXXX
XXX
XXX

In the Reilly & Lee edition, I recall that the corners of these pages were
filled with text, producing some interesting interaction. In the Del Rey
edition, these pictures are on pages by themselves, making some look as if
Neill simply got tired of drawing.

Most of the other line art within the chapters is horizontal. I
suspect that those were all one size in the first edition. The narrow trim
of the Del Rey paperbacks means that they're reproduced quite small.
One interesting choice Neill makes in depicting the characters is
that not only Peter but Belfaygor wears short pants, and Mogodore even
seems to wear a kilt. With shorts being a marker of boyhood in America at
this time, that might underscore both barons' need to mature. As in GNOME
KING, Neill dresses Peter a little more casually than Thompson did; she
gives him a coat or jacket [ch 10, ch 14], while Neill keeps him in
summertime shirtsleeves.

Am I right in remembering that the Red Djinn's first appearance in an Oz
book is in a JACK PUMPKINHEAD color plate, in which he looks quite
monstrous, with chains rising from his ears?

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "Timothy Alfalfa" <DinnerBell at t...>
Date:  Sun Feb 4, 2001  9:07 pm
Subject:  Re: [Nonestica] BCF: JACK PUMPKINHEAD & the Red Djinn

J.  L. Bell:
>But Jinnicky doesn't seem too concerned about losing some of his magical
>items; he actually enjoys following the travels of the magic dinner bell
>(which ends up among Ozma's possessions--ch 21).

Well, he DOES have two of them. (I wonder what would happen if both of them
were rung simultaneously.)

>So possibly the Jinn had nothing to do with Button-Bright losing his
>umbrella. Perhaps it dropped him (or vice versa) in Mo, and the Jinn
>eventually obtained it because of his fondness for powerful red magic.

Note that Jinnicky carries an umbrella in _Purple Prince_, but there is no
indication that it has magical properties. He also has an umbrella
(possibly the same one) in _Yankee_, which expands to protect his party from
the stones thrown by Badmannah. The Jinn never uses an umbrella for
transportation within the Oz series, but the statement in _Jack Pumpkinhead_
certainly suggests that he has at least one that can. (Perhaps Jinnicky has
a collection of magic umbrellas, or one multi-purpose one.)

Note that the Jinn's reason for not loaning the umbrella to Jack is that he
needs it himself. I wonder what he might have needed it for.

Nathan

From:  "Timothy Alfalfa" <DinnerBell at t...>
Date:  Sun Feb 4, 2001  9:24 pm
Subject:  Re: [Nonestica] JACK PUMPKINHEAD animals

J.  L. Bell:
>Yes, Thompson describes the Baffleburg horses' "frightened neighs" rather
>than vocal complaints after they've become tiny [ch 20]. There's no proof
>they can't talk, but Snif is the only local beast who does.
> Interestingly, that the horses shrink implies they're no more
>ordinary horses than the reddies were ordinary men. Does the dog also
>shrink after Jack breaks the flagon?

As none of the dogs accompany the invaders to the Emerald City, this is
never really answered. The entire town shrinks, however, so either the dogs
shrink with it, or Baffleburg has some serious problems with giant dogs
around the time that the story ends.

Nathan

From:  "Timothy Alfalfa" <DinnerBell at t...>
Date:  Sun Feb 4, 2001  9:38 pm
Subject:  Re: [Nonestica] JACK PUMPKINHEAD timing

J.  L. Bell:
>At the beginning of the book, Peter is preparing his team for a "big
>match," meaning it's baseball season once again. In Oz, meanwhile, it's
>"summer" [ch 6]. So the two places' seasons are parallel. (I seem to recall
>that Benny's confused arrival in GIANT HORSE didn't take place at the same
>time of day as when he'd left Boston.)

The beginning of chapter 14 mentions "some country people dancing around a
May pole," but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's May.

>Finally, Jack says Mombi raised Tip "for nearly nine years" [ch 1]. I don't
>know how this figure fits with attempts to figure out the pre-Dorothean
>history of Oz.

The way I see it, it's rather hard to reconcile with the rest of what we
know, i.e.:

Pastoria was no longer King when the Wizard arrived in Oz. I suppose he
could have been in hiding or something, but this is never suggested in any
of the books, so it's highly likely that he was enchanted BEFORE the
Wizard's arrival.

The Wizard delivered the baby Ozma to Mombi. Ozma was born before
Pastoria's enchantment, so either this occurred shortly after his arrival,
or Ozma stayed a baby for a long time.

The Wizard stayed in Oz long enough to grow from a young man to an old one.
We don't know exactly how many years this was, but it was almost certainly
more than nine. Therefore, either Ozma was a baby for the majority of the
Wizard's reign, or she stayed with Mombi for more than nine years.

I would appreciate any other comments and suggestions people might have
about this, since I consider it to be one of the more confusing aspects of
Oz and Ozma's history.

Nathan

From:  "Timothy Alfalfa" <DinnerBell at t...>
Date:  Sun Feb 4, 2001  9:59 pm
Subject:  Re: [Nonestica] JACK PUMPKINHEAD plot

J.  L. Bell:
>The Goody Shop has
>so little effect that I'd completely forgotten it when I reread the book
>(for some reason, it reminds me of the sheep's shop in THROUGH THE
>LOOKING-GLASS).

I found it somewhat reminiscent of the word market episode in _The Phantom
Tollboth_. One of the merchants sells "goods," which are useful for "good
riddance," "goodbye," and various other expressions containing the word
"good."

> But right after that the barons' struggle surfaces in the book,
>and
>I think Thompson constructed that main plot surprisingly well.

This is actually the first time that Thompson introduces a new villain with
the desire to conquer Oz (both Mombi and Ruggedo, who made the attempt in
earlier books, already bore grudges against Ozma), a plot device that many
people accuse Oz authors of overusing. She would later introduce three more
new villains with that goal: Skamperoo, Wutz, and Strut. Ruggedo also makes
another attempt in _Pirates_, making all three of Peter's appearances take
place during an invasion of the Emerald City.

Nathan

From:  "ruth berman" <berma005 at m...>
Date:  Mon Feb 5, 2001  11:55 am
Subject:  bcf: jp in oz

Ken Shepherd: Thanks for the chronology. "Jack Pumpkinhead," at only 3days
of adventure, must be among the shorter books for time elapsed? (Which one
is shortest, and which longest, by your counts?)

J.L. Bell: Interesting suggestion for Jinnickey's magic umbrella. I would
think Serena DuBois was right in thinking you should try writing the implied
story, but (as Nathan DeHoff commented regarding "Maybe the Miffin") there
would be some copyright problems in doing anything with it that way. Maybe
if you focused on the story of the Arabian knight who came originally from
the land of a mighty wizard, and didn't actually the name the wizard you had
in mind?

Yes, there does seem to be a resemblance between RPT's Goody Shop and
the Sheep's shop in Carroll. I think the shop that the impoverished
gentlewoman sets up in Hawthorne's "House of Seven Gables" is also a goody
shop?

Some other possibilities for how the magic grab bag with the magic piece
of change could be used to store gold that could be felt inside it and
transported across the Deadly Desert without getting lost along the way --
maybe (considering that RPT follows Baum's borderlands-of-Oz-books in having
a few examples of magics that work in America) both the bag and the change
originated in America with magic that managed to stay in action here? Or
maybe both the bag's magical grabbiness and the change had fallen into the
otherwhereness of the bag's interior (perhaps Polacky did some travelling
back and forth between the seacoast of Poland -- and the coast of Bohemia,
too, perhaps while he was at it! -- and the Nonestic Ocean, and was stuffing
magic, including the bag's own magic, into the bag, in order to evade the
difficulties of bringing magic through Customs, and had neglected to pull
out the bag's magic on one such transit, and then Peter dislodged it in
Philadelphia)?

You're right in remembering the color plate of Jinnickey as looking
fearsomely monstrous. I think the chain may be meant to be a single chain
hanging behind his head, but it certainly looks as if it's two chains
pulling on his ears.

Rich Morrissey: You're right that he's the Red Djinn rather the Red Jinn in
"JP." The difference in the spellings reflects the differences in
pronunciation between French and English. The Arabian Nights first became
widely known in europe (and England) in a French translation, and the French
transliteration of djinn became familiar, although for an English speaker
there's no difference between djinn and jinn (for a French-speaker, the dj
is information that the word is to be pronounced like the English-j and not
like the French-j). The same kind of problem in representing sounds can be
seen in early references in English to the playwright Tchekov, known in
translation through the French before he was being translated directly from
Russian into English.

Ruth Berman

From:  David Hulan <davidhulan at n...>
Date:  Mon Feb 5, 2001  11:53 am
Subject:  Jack Pumpkinhead

A few general comments:

The copy I own includes what I consider a sad tale. On the "This Book
Belongs To" page a childish hand has written: "for my children when I
grow up", and then "Patty Goode, 4007 Drew, Cincinnati, O. Sep 14,
1950." On the front endpaper (the free one, not the pasted-down one -
probably has a technical name but I don't recall it if I ever knew) a
much more adult hand has written "Property of Pat Goode."

The sad part is that I bought the book at a used bookstore in
California in the mid-Eighties. This means that Pat Goode either (1)
died young (she had to be younger than me, based on the handwriting
and the 1950 date; I'd guess that she was born about 1940, so by the
time I got the book she'd have been no older than her mid-40s); or
(2) never had children, even though she apparently wanted them
(though maybe it was a case of changing her mind as she got older);
or (3) had children who weren't interested in Oz (I know that one
from personal experience); and in the case of (2) or (3) above,
either (1) had a serious enough financial reverse that she had to
sell off her books; or (2) lost interest in keeping her Oz books
after moving to California. Almost any of these possibilities saddens
me to a greater or lesser extent.

I like this book all right, though I don't think it's up with
Thompson's best. For one thing, I still don't like Peter much as a
character; he isn't nearly as engaging as Dorothy or Trot, or as her
later protagonists Speedy and Randy. And for another, it's even more
episodic than most of her books; the main plot, of Mogodore's
kidnapping of Shirley Sunshine and subsequent invasion of the EC,
doesn't get under way until Chapter 6, and is interrupted by a
completely Irrelevant Episode in Swing City.

The logistics of using Belfaygor's beard to get across the chasm
never seemed to work for me, even when I first read the book as a
kid. The method Snif suggests in Chapter 8 and that they follow in
Chapter 10 would only work if beards grew from the tips, like tree
limbs. The way it could be made to work - since beards grow out from
the chin, not from the tips of the whiskers - would be for him to
walk around the three three times and then wait until a long enough
length of beard had piled up to reach across the chasm. Then cut it
off and let Snif carry the cut end over and around another tree.

Incidentally, since rereading the book as an adult I've been somewhat
bemused by the name Belfaygor, since there's a character in Ariosto's
_Orlando Furioso_ named Belphegor (acute accent over the secone "e")
- only she's female. (I haven't actually read Ariosto, but I assume
that Pratt and de Camp did their homework before writing _The Castle
of Iron_ and that there's such a character in it.)

A couple of pictures seem to me to be upside down - the one of Jack
on the beard-bridge on page 123 (in chapter 10 for those with
different page numbering from the R&L version), unless gravity has
been repealed, and the one of him falling with the flagon on page 190
(in chapter 15), unless he's moving upward - of which there's no
mention in the text.

Probably more comments later.

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Mon Feb 5, 2001  8:08 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD barons and Glinda

On re-examining the JACK PUMPKINHEAD art, I concluded that Belfaygor isn't
wearing shorts and Mogodore a kilt, as I wrote earlier. Rather, both barons
seem to be in tunics that end above the knees, and Mogodore has
accessorized his with a martial breastplate. We can hope, looking at the
picture of Peter, Belfaygor, and Jack in the tilting tunnel, that Belfaygor
also wears tight hose, but I don't believe that's ever stated.

Glinda's role in the events of JACK PUMPKINHEAD seems to warrant some
critical examination. Of course, she arrives in her swan chariot just after
Jack baffles the Baffleburgers, having been summoned by Scraps [ch 18]. She
later explains the invaders' origin, earning a chapter-opening drawing for
the effort [ch 20]. But what responsibility does Glinda bear for this
book's crisis in the first place?

Bourne, Baffleburg, and the other baronies Snif alludes to are all
in one mountainous region of Glinda's Quadling Country. The barons clearly
know about the Emerald City, Ozma, and even her Magic Belt. However, they
pay little attention to Ozma's laws.

Even Belfaygor, who in Snif's opinion is "one of the good barons,"
has a mesmerizer to perform forbidden magic. When chided about this, that
miserable old man insists, "I know no law but the law of Belfaygor of
Bourne" [ch 6]. Belfaygor is also able to dub Peter, Jack, and even Snif as
knights, indicating that he can raise his own army [ch 7].

As for Mogodore, Wagarag tells him, "Your word is law in
Baffleburg" [ch 9--yet another of Thompson's grumpy ruler/anxious advisor
pairings]. The Baron of Baffleburg likes to "make war on the barons below,"
and Belfaygor claims, "No one has ever...returned alive from Mogodore's
mountain." And, of course, the first deed see Mogodore commit is an
old-fashioned rape, as in ancient Rome's rape of the Sabines: carrying off
a woman to be his wife [ch 7].

Yet Glinda seems to have done nothing about the barons, either
their magic or their wars. This isn't out of character for her, given that
she's also reluctant to act in SCARECROW and GLINDA. She presumably thought
they'd keep to themselves, none becoming too powerful or harming less
martial neighbors. And that approach probably would have worked if Shirley
Sunshine (a princess, though it's unclear how she comes by that title, and
seemingly the only female in the region) hadn't enlarged Mogodore's
ambition to the level of conquering all Oz.

That change comes in chapter 9, in which Thompson shifts the
barons' isolated squabbles into a threat to the whole Ozian order. Suddenly
a book which had been a bit aimless starts pushing Ozma's rule to the very
brink. Of course, we can be fairly confident that Glinda could defeat
Mogodore, even with the Magic Belt. But if she'd been more proactive
[sorry, Eric] about Mogodore's bad behavior earlier, Ozma's desperate
moments tied up in her garden might never have occurred.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Tue Feb 6, 2001  12:30 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD beard

David Hulan wrote:
<<The logistics of using Belfaygor's beard to get across the chasm never
seemed to work for me, even when I first read the book as a kid. The method
Snif suggests in Chapter 8 and that they follow in Chapter 10 would only
work if beards grew from the tips, like tree limbs [but] beards grow out
from the chin, not from the tips of the whiskers>>

I noted that discrepancy, too. Belfaygor's beard is, of course, magic, so
arguably it grows differently from yours. But I suspect Thompson hadn't
thought through the image.

Neill contributed another oddity in this episode, showing Belfaygor
walking across the beard like a slack-wire artist even though Thompson
implied the whole party went hand over hand: "Peter...swung himself
skillfully across on the swinging red cable," and "Jack's wooden fingers
almost lost their hold." Peter has already told himself the baron would
make "a splendid Alpine guide," but wire-walking on loosely twisted human
hair is another skill altogether [ch 10].

Michael Herring, the cover artist for Del Rey, took that image to
even more outlandish heights, sending our awkward friend Jack across the
top of the beard.
There are, as it turns out, tightrope walkers in chapter 14.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Tue Feb 6, 2001  12:30 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD's (D)Jinn

Ruth Berman wrote of Jinnicky:
<<You're right that he's the Red Djinn rather the Red Jinn in "JP.">>

David Hulan wrote:
<<my R&L edition spells it "Jinn." I do recall that "Djinn" spelling from
somewhere>>

Ruth's copy has color plates, indicating it was probably printed before
WW2. David's seems to have been purchased around 1950 since a young owner
signed it that year. That implies that the spelling change I thought was
Del Rey's was in fact made by Reilly & Lee, presumably to make JACK
PUMPKINHEAD consistent with the other books about Jinnicky. I didn't know
they cared.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "ruth berman" <berma005 at m...>
Date:  Tue Feb 6, 2001  1:05 pm
Subject:  Past & Pumpkinhead in Oz

Nathan DeHoff: I'd think that even though there's no mention of Pastoria as
being around after he was deposed (and before he was disappeared), there
might have been a long gap, running well past the Wizard's arrival. If so,
it would be easy enough for Ozma to have been born during that gap (unless
you want to get Snow's version into the mix, with Ozma presented to Pastoria
for adoption by Lurline). But assuming that Ozma stayed a baby for a long
time would handle it, too.

David Hulan: Yes, that is a sad story about Pat Goode's Oz books. I suppose
there's at least the chance that she married an Oz enthusiast who had a
better or equally good copy of "Jack"?

Oddly enough, Pratt and de Camp didn't do their homework in asserting
that there's a character Belphegor who corresponds to Spenser's Belphebe in
Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso." I suppose they must have run across the name in
something describing Ariosto's work and assumed that it was obviously the
original of Spenser's Belphebe, but it isn't. (There isn't really any
character corresponding to Belphebe in Ariosto.) The character isn't in
Ariosto, either -- he's in the earlier epic, Boiardo's "Orlando
Innamorata."

And Boiardo hasn't been translated into English in full, so I'm not sure
what part Belphegor plays in the action, but Leigh Hunt's summary of the
story describes Belphegor as a demon. RPT might have run across the name in
a volume of Hunt's essays and remembered it as attractive, but it's perhaps
equally likely that the similarity of Belphegor and Belfaygor is just
coincidence.

You and JLBell both identified those two pictures of Jack (full-pager on the
beard-bridge and half-pager falling with the flagon first time) as probably
upsidedown. The one with the flagon must certainly be so -- Jack has a hand
extended to hold his head on, which makes no sense if he's falling feet
first (and, besides, the text says he "dove"). There is, by the way, a
considerably similar full-pager of Jack falling with the flagon (second
time, when Mogodore's use of the magic belt summons him to Oz). I wonder if
perhaps Neill did those two illos as alternatives expecting that only one,
the one that fit better into the layout, would be used. I wonder also if the
layout people at R&L, finding it helpful in the layout to use both pictures
at different points, deliberately ran the half-pager upsidedown to make it
less obvious that the two were different versions of the same moment. (In
terms of the text, there's no reason why Jack should be seized into Oz
head-first and upended by the belt's summoning. Dorothy never lands on her
head when transported by belt.) The beard-bridge illo, though, I think, may
be printed correctly, and Neill may have been supposing that Jack, out of
fear of losing his head, would inch across in a sitting position, rather
than stretching out beneath it. At any rate, he doesn't have his hand
extended to hold his head on, which you'd think he would if the illo were
meant to go the other way up.

Joe Bongiorno: In getting annoyed when illos and text don't correspond --
keep in mind that in most cases the author doesn't get a chance to see the
illos before they're printed and so can't ask for corrections. Accuracy
depends on whether the artist is good at keeping track of small details
scattered through the text (Neill was only so-so at it) and whether the
publishers care to keep close watch on illo accuracy (R&L evidently didn't).
There are also cases when an artist is working from a summary, and not the
whole story (although not usually in children's books -- this one is more a
problem for artists doing covers only for adult books). I remember that Jack
Gaughan, who did pride himself on accuracy, complained afterwards of feeling
upset when he did cover illos for the Ace editions of Tolkien's "Lord of the
Rings" on such a tight deadline that he was depending on Wollheim's summary
and couldn't read the whole thing, and discovered too late that the Nazgul
should not be riding on a winged horse but on some sort of pterodactyl. All
the same, his illos seems to me to have caught the flavor of the story a lot
better than many later, more detail-accurate illos by other people have
done. And certainly Neill was quite wonderful at getting the feeling
across.

Ruth Berman

From:  "ruth berman" <berma005 at m...>
Date:  Wed Feb 7, 2001  11:40 am
Subject:  pumpkins & bulbsin oz

Nathan DeHoff: Your recollection that Neill doesn't mention Jinnicky is
correct. (This is the sort of thing I can back up fairly easily, because
James Haff's list of the "Who's Who in Oz" characters, which I published,
includes listings of which later Oz books had which characters appearing or
mentioned again.) I'll try to remember to look at my copy of JP to see if
you're right in remembering that it used both Djinn and Jinn spellings. I
know it uses the Djinn spelling, as I was struck by its appearance there in
re-reading for the current discussion, but am not sure if it uses both.

Scott Hutchins: Your memory that the "Bugle" published "Jimmy Bulber" is
incorrect. The story was published in "Oziana." Incidentally, as a matter of
courtesy, it's inappropriate to refer to other people's interest in details
of bibliography as anal -- you wouldn't care to have other people call you
anal for having enough interest in such details to ask a bibliographical
question, I suspect.

Ruth Berman

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Wed Feb 7, 2001  2:22 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD art

Ruth Berman wrote:
<<The beard-bridge illo, though, I think, may be printed correctly, and
Neill may have been supposing that Jack, out of fear of losing his head,
would inch across in a sitting position, rather than stretching out beneath
it. At any rate, he doesn't have his hand extended to hold his head on,
which you'd think he would if the illo were meant to go the other way
up.>>

As David Hulan said, this drawing has to be upside-down for Belfaygor's
beard to arc across the canyon correctly. Furthermore, if we look at the
drawing upside-down, Jack seems to be supporting himself by hooking his
hands over the beard. If we take it as right-side-up, it's hard to see
what's holding him up above the loose strands. Of course, if Jack's head
were hanging straight down and loose enough to spin around as Neill shows
it, it would probably be in the bottom of the canyon. I think the artist
was constrained by the space he had to drawn in.

As in some other upside-down pictures (like the Scarecrow
pole-vaulting in, I think, WISHING HORSE), Reilly & Lee's layout team seems
to have been guided by how the characters' faces were oriented. Of the two
pictures in which Jack is falling with the forbidden flagon, only the one
in which he's holding his head up was properly placed.

I don't have a Reilly & Lee edition to look at, but I suspect that
JACK PUMPKINHEAD's half-page and three-quarter page drawings meant that
Neill had to have figured out general page breaks in advance, rather than
leave all the layout in the publisher's hands. Unlike GIANT HORSE, with its
full-page portraits that could go anywhere (and seem to), this book's
design needed text and art pretty well integrated.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "ruth berman" <berma005 at m...>
Date:  Thu Feb 8, 2001  11:22 am
Subject:  Bels and Djinn/Jinn and Neill in oz

Scott Hutchins: Looked at your "Maid of Arran" site -- looks an impressive
lot of work. // Identification of Boiardo's Belphegor with Biblical
Baal-Peor sounds correct.

Patrick Maund, Doug Greene, Nathan deHoff, David Hulan: I looked again at my
copy of "JP," and I see that Nathan's recollection is correct that
Jinnickey's title is spelled both Djinn and Jinn. (Very reliable sort of
memory Nathan has there.) Unless David's copy has the first set of spellings
changed, I think we can assume that there was no editing of the story
between editions by R&L involved. It's Djinn in the chapter early in the
story when Peter and Jack find the dinner bell, read its inscription, and
discuss the unknown magic-worker; it's Jinn in the chapter-title and
chapter-text late in the story when Jack actually gets to meet him.

Ruth Berman

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sat Feb 10, 2001  5:03 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD names

On the Belfaygor question, it's ironic but not surprising that the name
Thompson chose for her romantic hero in JACK PUMPKINHEAD ultimately derived
from a rival (and therefore villain) to Judeo-Christian monotheism. And
that's not only because I think "Bel" is a perfectly fine name for an
object of worship. Rather, "bel" APPEARS to have a root in the French for
"beautiful," so it would be an appropriate way to start a handsome man's
name.

On the other side, "Mogodore" sounds like "mug," an unattractive
face, and Mogodore is indeed classically ugly (though completely unaware of
that). Like Shakespeare's Benvolio and Malvolio in different plays, these
characters wear their roles on their nametags.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sat Feb 10, 2001  6:22 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD's Peter

I've noted how in JACK PUMPKINHEAD Belfaygor has to grow up to win Shirley
Sunshine. Peter, too, seems to be looking ahead to adulthood in ways he
didn't do in GNOME KING. In that book he was adamant about not being called
a "child" (or a "slave"), but his ambitions were still childish: to win the
baseball game, to be a Nome general.

In this book, Peter's still primarily concerned with the short term
(i.e., the "big match"), but he's also thinking ahead. He and his
grandfather have put some of his wealth "into a bank, so that Peter might
go to college" [ch 1]. He has specific hopes to "be an air mail pilot" [ch
11]. After eating a meal on Snif's back, he says, "I shall think of nothing
of airplane trips after this" [ch 14], and his final conversation with his
grandfather is also about flying [ch 21].

Peter slips quickly into Tip's old role of father-figure to Jack:
"Peter felt somehow responsible for the flimsy fellow. It rather flattered
him to have Jack so obedient to his wishes and dependent upon his advice"
[ch 2]. He also reassures Snif when the griffin shrinks [ch 7]. Peter's no
longer behaving like the peer of an immature companion, as with Ruggedo and
Scraps, but in many ways he becomes his group's leader.

(Similarly, Snif talks repeatedly about one day having
grandchildren [ch 10, 11, 14. 20, 21]. The first time, Snif looks ahead to
saying that most grandfatherly phrase: "When I was little...")
Peter retains his ultra-masculine values. When Jack compares him to
Ozma, the boy's reaction appears muted because Thompson and Reilly & Lee
never bothered to inserted the exclamation points, but his anger is
apparent: "'Your dear father,' Peter exploded. . . . 'But Ozma's a girl,'
shouted Peter indignantly." He also thinks Ozma would "much rather have
stayed a boy" [ch 1]. No wonder that when the trapezists discuss whether to
dress Peter in pink or blue, Hi-Swinger quickly answers, "Blue" [ch 14].
Peter's interest in traditionally masculine things makes him
secretly admire the book's villain (just as in GNOME KING). He has "dreamed
of owning" a castle like Mogodore's, especially because of the "swords and
armor" on its walls [ch 11]. (Recall how Belfaygor has redecorated his
castle to suit Shirley's taste.) For "rescuing the Princess," Peter is
assigned his own horse and suit of armor in Bourne [ch 21].
Ironically, Peter doesn't actually save Princess Shirley Sunshine,
or Princess Ozma. He's in a blackout when that happens [ch 20]. Jack
carries out the mission for Peter, Belfaygor, and Snif. But Jack virtually
disappears in the final chapters of his own book, and the celebration is
all focused on Peter and the happy couple.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sun Feb 11, 2001  6:33 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD's Shirley Sunshine

JACK PUMPKINHEAD seems like one of the most male-dominated Oz books. Unlike
many novels in the series, its group of travelers is all-male. (Other
exceptions at this point include LAND, though Tip's presence provides some
irony there; RINKITINK; and COWARDLY LION.) Its main villain is male, too.
And although Scraps and Glinda seem poised to defeat Mogodore, his actual
downfall comes at the hands of other males.

From all appearances, Shirley Sunshine is the only female in the
whole of the barons' mountains. In my memories of the book, she was simply
a passive victim whom the men fought over. So I was struck on this reading
by how active she TRIES to be in chapter 9. She seeks to escape from
Mogodore through threats, bribery, cajolery, and finally distracting the
mighty baron with a dare that he make himself king of the Emerald City.
She's not only the object of the barons' warfare, but she turns that local
struggle into a story that threatens the whole Ozian order. So while
Shirley's quite ineffectual, it's not for lack of trying, and she's crucial
in the novel as an actor, not just an object of others' affection.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Wed Feb 14, 2001  6:04 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD geography

Serena DuBois wrote:
<<The subject of maps brings me to another question from the current book
under discussion JP. When they escape from Scare City Peter asks the Iffin
where he lives and the Iffin tells him "In the Land of the Barons among
those hills" and he points to where "the lordly castles reared their round
red towers". Now the map in the front of the Del Rey edition created in
1980 by James Haff and Dick Martin...has Scare City very close to the
Emerald City green belt border and the Land of the Barons at least one full
inch away on the map and halfway to the Great Sandy Waste on the southern
border of the Quadling Country.>>

I was bothered by that geographical discrepancy, too. In Scare City, Snif
says, "I will fly over the wall into the Land of the Barons" [ch 5]. That
implies that they're contiguous, or at least very near. There may be many
more barons than we encounter in JACK PUMPKINHEAD, and thus a larger area
for them than indicated on the Haff/Martin map, but there still seems to be
too much space between Scare City and Bourne.

In another geographical note, people occasionally ponder this question:
since the Munchkin and Gillikin countries have yellow brick roads, what are
roads made of in Winkie Country? In chapter 1, Peter and Jack walk along a
"gold paved highway."

Finally, I've been noting references in Baum's later books and most of
Thompson's to maps of Oz, which I view as indications that the authors had
the TIK-TOK maps on their minds as they wrote. And indeed, Mogodore has an
"old map of Oz" to plan his campaign against the Emerald City [ch
11].

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sat Feb 24, 2001  1:12 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD lines

A few notable lines in JACK PUMPKINHEAD--

"If Jack and Peter were blue before, they were navy blue now" [ch 5].

Mesmerizer: "I am a mess! I am a mess! I am a mess!"
Snif: "Tut! Tut! If you don't shout it so loud, maybe no one will find you
out." [ch 6]
(I also note that "miserable mesmerizer" appears in the text as a
generic term, as Thompson also used it in GIANT HORSE. Jack Snow's WHO'S
WHO, as I recall, turned it into the character's name.)

"So much had happened since Peter fell into the pumpkin field, he was weary
as a walrus" [ch 8].

"Buttered billygoats!" Wagarag sputters [ch 9]. Wagarag seems to be
culinarily inclined since he later shows up in "armor of iron pots and
sauce pans" [ch 11].

But I can't figure out what Thompson meant by this, near the end of chap 6:
"He is a Pumpkinhead, magically brought to life," volunteered Peter. "And some pumpkins," he
finished, with a wink at the Iffin.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sat Feb 24, 2001  1:12 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD: Baum v. Thompson

One example of difference between Baum's Oz books and Thompson's appears at
the start of chap 17, when she writes, "Betsy and Trot...prefer life in the
Emerald City to life in America, as indeed I should myself." Of course, the
whole point of WIZARD is that Dorothy prefers life in America, even the
grayest part, to life in the Emerald City.

There's a bit of Baum's interest in multiple points of view in this book.
In LOST PRINCESS, we got a big [too big?] dose of that as the animals
debated the loss of Toto's growl and other weighty matters. Here Peter
tries to dismiss Snif's wish to have his own growl back by saying, "I'd
rather be an Iffin than a griffin, any day." Snif replies, "That's because
you never were either" [ch 6].

Belfaygor later expressed a tolerant attitude about Swing City:
"What a curious existence. . . . Well, everybody has their own idea of
comfort" [ch 15].

I also find it interesting that Mogodore's wish to open the Forbidden
Flagon ends up being a lesson against curiosity--though Thompson tries to
make this a warning against being "discontented and greedy" instead [ch
21]. In contrast, when Baum wrote about things that are forbidden to
touch--the palm tree in LAND, the Forbidden Fountain in EMERALD CITY--they
turn out to be useful.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  RMorris306 at a...
Date:  Sun Feb 25, 2001  2:33 am
Subject:  Re: [Nonestica] JACK PUMPKINHEAD lines

In a message dated 2/24/01 5:48:38 PM, JnoLBell at c...  writes:

<< A few notable lines in JACK PUMPKINHEAD--

"If Jack and Peter were blue before, they were navy blue now" [ch 5].

Mesmerizer: "I am a mess! I am a mess! I am a mess!"
Snif: "Tut! Tut! If you don't shout it so loud, maybe no one will find you
out." [ch 6]
(I also note that "miserable mesmerizer" appears in the text as a
generic term, as Thompson also used it in GIANT HORSE. Jack Snow's WHO'S
WHO, as I recall, turned it into the character's name.) >>

No, just the most common designation for the character, since we don't
KNOW his real name...just as Snow lists the Tin Woodman under that
designation, even though we all know his real name is Nick Chopper.

"So much had happened since Peter fell into the pumpkin field, he was weary
as a walrus" [ch 8].

<<"Buttered billygoats!" Wagarag sputters [ch 9]. Wagarag seems to be
culinarily inclined since he later shows up in "armor of iron pots and
sauce pans" [ch 11].>>

I believe Arthur Ransome had a character in SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS (Nancy
Blackett IIRC) whose favorite expression was "Barbecued billygoats!" (Which I
confess I remember less from the book and its sequels than from the fact that
one Karen Pearlston (sp?), who belonged to a group called Apanage along with
me and a few other Nonestica regulars like David Hulan, used to use it as her
zine title.) I think Ransome's book appeared before JACK PUMPKINHEAD, but
possibly it was the other way around, in which case maybe Thompson influenced
Ransome...?

<<But I can't figure out what Thompson meant by this, near the end of chap 6:
"He is a Pumpkinhead, magically brought to
life," volunteered Peter. "And some pumpkins," he finished, with a wink at the Iffin.
>>

"Some pumpkins" was a popular expression of the time for something
impressive.

Rich

From:  "John W. Kennedy" <jwkenne at a...>
Date:  Sun Feb 25, 2001  1:42 pm
Subject:  Re: [Nonestica] JACK PUMPKINHEAD lines

"J.  L. Bell" wrote:
> But I can't figure out what Thompson meant by this, near the end of chap 6:
> "He is a Pumpkinhead, magically brought to
> life," volunteered Peter. "And some pumpkins," he
> finished, with a wink at the Iffin.

Period slang. "Some pumpkins" (or, more usually, "punkins") was an
expression of nonspecific praise. Hot stuff. Cool. Fresh. The bee's
knees. I have no idea of its origin, but it appears to be at least as
old as 1912.

--
John W. Kennedy
(Working from my laptop)

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sun Feb 25, 2001  1:58 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD: Baum v. Thompson

Tyler Jones wrote:
<<> Of course, the whole point of WIZARD is that
> Dorothy prefers life in America, even the grayest
> part, to life in the Emerald City.

I'm not so sure about this. It's been a while since I read the original
story, and I'm at the office now, but I seem to remember taht Dorothy
preferred life with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry to living without them, no
matter where they may be.>>

WIZARD is somewhat ambiguous about why Dorothy wants to go home so much.
Most of the time she seems to want to go there simply because it's "home,"
as in this exchange with the Scarecrow:

"Tell me something about yourself and the
country you came from," said the Scarecrow, when
she had finished her dinner. So she told him all
about Kansas, and how gray everything was there,
and how the cyclone had carried her to this queer
Land of Oz.

The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said,
"I cannot understand why you should wish to leave
this beautiful country and go back to the dry, gray
place you call Kansas."

"That is because you have no brains," answered
the girl. "No matter how dreary and gray our homes
are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live
there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful.
There is no place like home."

We can deduce from EMERALD CITY that Dorothy's family was the real
attraction of Kansas; she leaves there happily when that's the only way to
preserve the family. But in WIZARD the main theme is that even a beautiful
and magical place can't measure up to what one has come to know as "home."

I was thinking about the difference between that attitude and Thompson's
line in JACK PUMPKINHEAD: "Betsy and Trot...prefer life in the Emerald City
to life in America, as indeed I should myself." When Trot came to Oz, to
the best of our knowledge she still had relatives (her parents) alive in
the Great Outside World. And regardless of what we like to think about
Trot, Thompson certainly had family in Philadelphia at the time she wrote.
Yet she states she'd prefer to live in Oz.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sun Feb 25, 2001  2:41 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD phrases

On the question of money in Oz, it seems significant that the Goody Shop
owner doesn't recognize what Peter means when he uses the word "buy." She
offers him a goodbye instead of a good buy [ch 2].

Thompson writes of Peter, "never, even when he was making a home run, had
he sprinted along any faster" [ch 10]. She was writing in Babe Ruth's
heyday, when home runs were swatted out of the ballpark and running fast
wasn't required. So she seems to have based her thoughts of a home run as a
feat of speed, not just strength, on the dead-ball era that preceded that
time. Or perhaps the oldest meaning of the phrase, to mean the actual
running for home plate from third base.

In one of his moments of cockiness, while flying to the Emerald City on
Snif's back, Peter thinks, "I don't believe anything could ever surprise or
frighten me again; not even a highwayman." He's thinking of a stereotypical
"Mexican bandit," but suddenly the trapezists grab him. The man on the
"high trapeze" with a "high, jolly voice" turns out to be Hi-Swinger, "the
highest Swinger here" [ch 14]. And, as Snif's complaint in the next chapter
makes clear, he's the head of a group of "highwaymen"--men seizing the
highest way of all.

Two crucial phrases that we never hear are in chap 16, when Jinnicky
whispers his magical advice to Jack. He offers two sentences, one of nine
words and one of eight. Jack reveals their sense in chap 20, but not the
exact 17 words. Yet Thompson had clearly counted them.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sun Feb 25, 2001  2:41 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD Scares & other obstacles

In the room of mirrors, Peter recalls "how he had often laughed at his
distorted reflection in the mirror maze at Willow Grove" [ch 13].  Thompson
writes as if everyone should understand her reference. I presume it's an
amusement park in greater Philadelphia, the equivalent of Coney Island. Can
anyone confirm that?

Much of the action in JACK PUMPKINHEAD seems to borrow from
circuses and carnival rides, in fact. We have the haunted house of Scare
City, the equestrians of Baffleburg, and the high-flying acrobatic
Swingers. In Mogodore's castle Peter must overcome not only the funhouse
mirrors, but a tilting room that slides everybody to one side and an indoor
labyrinth.

The action of this book could also lend itself easily to a late
1980s videogame, the type with the player's figure traveling in a plane
from left to right, braving obstacles. Level 1: Break into Mogodore's
castle. Level 2: Get through the castle to the Forbidden Flagon. Level 3:
Fly past the Swingers. And so on.

As Neill draws them, Snif's distorted reflections in the mirrors in chap 13
look like the Chimney Villains back in chap 2.

Those creatures are made of smoke, of course. In her previous book,
GIANT HORSE, Thompson briefly experimented with having Quiberon spell out
his desires in smoke instead of roaring. The Chimney Villains communicate
vocally, but smoke signals are part of the atmosphere of Scare City in chap
3, with fumes spelling out "Scare City!" repeatedly.

Might "Scare City" have been Thompson's pun on "scarcity"? Scarcity
would be even less a laughing matter by the end of the year, with the
stock-market crash sending the US economy into the Great Depression.

The Scares return in chap 20 when Jack shakes out the grab bag. In fact,
they return before the bag's most recent seizures: Peter, Belfaygor, and
Snif. HARRY POTTER fanatics may be reminded of the recent contretemps about
the order of spirits coming from Voldemort's wand near the end of GOBLET OF
FIRE--in that book the spirits exit in reverse order of their deaths.
The grab bag seems to have some nullifying effect on magical
spells, but a limited one. Somehow it has permanently and conveniently
grabbed Belfaygor's beard. However, it does nothing to restore the Fraid
Cats it swallowed along with the Scares.

In chap 21 the Wizard disenchants the Scares' prisoners, and they
return to their homes. Presumably Scare City is still in business, however,
and perhaps accumulating a new population of Fraid Cats and scared-stiff
statues.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Mon Feb 26, 2001  3:19 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD phrases

Thanks, Rich Morrissey and John Kennedy, for identifying the meaning of
"Some pumpkins!" I like to think Jack was just as mystified as I was by
Peter's remark.

Rich Morrissey wrote:
<< (I also note that "miserable mesmerizer" appears in the text as a
generic term, as Thompson also used it in GIANT HORSE. Jack Snow's WHO'S
WHO, as I recall, turned it into the character's name.) >>

No, just the most common designation for the character, since we don't
KNOW his real name...just as Snow lists the Tin Woodman under that
designation, even though we all know his real name is Nick Chopper.>>

I didn't express myself as clearly as I should have. The moaning magician
we meet in JACK PUMPKINHEAD calls himself a "miserable mesmerizer," but his
actual title is more likely "chief mesmerizer" [ch 7], as Belfaygor refers
to him. It seems clear that he's miserable because of the unusual
circumstance of his hirsute spell going haywire.

In contrast, the Tin Woodman is the only tin woodman and is ordinarily a
tin woodman. The stork in WIZARD (to take a generically identified
character who gets his own entry in WHO'S WHO) isn't the only stork, but
he's ordinarily a stork. Belfaygor's magician seems to be neither titled a
miserable mezmerizer, nor the only miserable mesmerizer, nor ordinarily a
miserable mesmerizer. We'd be unlikely to find him based on Jack Snow's
identification unless, for some reason, he's remained miserable. Indeed,
for all we know this aged, mid-level magician appears elsewhere in the
series under his actual name. Belfaygor refers to him as "a good old man
and exceedingly well versed in necromancy."

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Tue Feb 27, 2001  1:22 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD phrases

John W. Kennedy wrote:
<<> Thompson writes of Peter, "never, even when he was making a home run, had
> he sprinted along any faster" [ch 10]. She was writing in Babe Ruth's
> heyday, when home runs were swatted out of the ballpark and running fast
> wasn't required. So she seems to have based her thoughts of a home run as a
> feat of speed, not just strength, on the dead-ball era that preceded that
> time. Or perhaps the oldest meaning of the phrase, to mean the actual
> running for home plate from third base.

What does Babe Ruth have to do with the sort of game Peter would have
played?>>

Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927, the year of GNOME KING. He was the
biggest thing in baseball that decade. Peter didn't play in Yankee Stadium,
or any stadium, but it's impossible to imagine him not following the
big-league game and trying to emulate its stars. Like the young Ruth, Peter
seems to be a pitcher who can hit. He may have preferred the Athletics, but
he couldn't have missed the sport's emphasis on both homers and stars in
that period.

I remarked on "making a home run" in a message on interesting phrases in
JACK PUMPKINHEAD. That phrase struck me in two ways. Baseball has changed
so much--a change that started shortly before Peter's time--that "making a
home run" no longer refers to running but to hitting. Second, today's
baseball-minded writers would more likely use running to beat the throw to
first base as an exemplar of speed, even for sandlot players.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...

From:  "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at c...>
Date:  Sat Mar 3, 2001  2:44 pm
Subject:  JACK PUMPKINHEAD alliteration

Serena DuBois wrote of JACK PUMPKINHEAD:
<<I haven't seen so much alliteration in one work since the Anglo-Saxon
poetry of my graduate days! It seems to start with the appearance of the
"miserable mesmerizer" and "Belfaygor of Bourne" whose beard "flashed and
flowed down his breast" and continues on with the names of the characters,
the chapter headings through most of the book. I know that RPT has always
used puns a lot in her works, including this one, but this is the first
time I noticed this. >>

It takes me an extra second to remember the name of Mogodore's stronghold
because it's NOT alliterative with his name. Belfaygor is the baron of
Bourne. He's the suitor of Shirley Sunshine. And Mogodore the Mighty lives
in...Baffleburg. That he's the baron of Baffleburg, and guarding the
Forbidden Flagon, makes it a little less baffling.

J. L. Bell JnoLBell at c...