Day 1 - Pompa's 18th birthday party in the morning (the Pumperdinkians spend
  "an anxious afternoon and evening") - Kabumpo & Pompa escape
  at night - Ruggedo finishes 6th rock ("on the same night that Prince
  Pompa and Kabumpo disappeared from Pumperdink") & discovers Glegg's Mixed Magic
Day 2 - Kabumpo & Pompa travel through Rith Metic, reach Illumi Nation -
  Ruggedo locks up Wag in morning, opens Glegg's box at evening - Dorothy's
  reception "on the evening after Ruggedo's strange discovery of the mixed
  magic" - Ruggedo impales Ozma's castle and heads for Ev, reaching it during
  night - Sand Man visits the Palace the same night, puts Ruggedo, residents to sleep 
Day 3 - Soldier with the Green Whiskers discovers missing palace after breakfast,
  summons Glinda - Wag & Peg depart late at night - Kabumpo & Pompa spend
  day in Illumi Nation, reach Soup Sea before moonrise - Kabumpo travels through the night 
Day 4 - Kabumpo & Pompa arrive at Emerald City at dawn, meet Glinda ("After
  studying a whole day and night in her magic books, Glinda had returned to the Emerald
  City to try to perfect her plan for rescuing Ozma.") - they catch up with Wag &
  Peg - adventures with Twigs, Runaway Country - Kabumpo's party arrives in Ev in afternoon
  (the Scarecrow indicates that the Palace inhabitants have been asleep for two days) -
  leave for Sun Top Mountain at dusk ("just one star twinkled cheerily in the sky")
  - arrive at Sun Top Mountain after moonrise
Day 5 - Peg & Pompa travel to EC

Note: There are several overnight stops included in this summary that are not directly
accounted for in the text. In order to match the times of Ruggedo's actions and those
of Glinda with Kabumpo's & Wag's journeys, I have to assume that Kabumpo &
Pompa spend a whole day in Illumi Nation, and that Wag and Peg similarly spend a
whole day in Wag's burrow after Ruggedo's growth. 

This could conceivably be covered in the text (Kabumpo spends some time
unconscious in Illumi Nation: "How long he lay in an unconscious state
the Elegant Elephant never knew"; and "For a long time after the
terrific bang following Ruggedo's final expansion, Wag and Peg Amy had been too
stunned to even move"--and, when Wag and Peg finally leave, they go at night
over the head of the Soldier with the Green Whiskers. If they'd left the same
night as Ruggedo, the Soldier would not have been there to see them leave-he discovered
that the palace was missing right after breakfast on the morning following Ruggedo's
escape). 

I would also like to include at least one overnight journey on the Runaway Country,
either on the way to Ev or on the way to Sun Top Mountain, or possibly both (partly
to round out the seven days mentioned in Glegg's scroll and partly in order to make
the traveling times more meaningful), but I can't justify this based on the existing text.

Date: Mon, 26 Apr 99 09:21:13 CST
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Pumperdink in Oz
 
comments on "Kabumpo"
 
Well, that's starting a story off with a bang.
 
It's been commented several times on the Digest that RPT is unlike 
Baum in using so many little kingdoms (like those in traditional fairy 
tales) and in not using such kingdoms as an occasion for satiric 
political comment, as Baum usually did when he put in such 
kingdoms.  It's a real difference, but I have found in the past (and find 
again on this re-reading) that I enjoy RPT's little kingdoms and feel 
that they fit in with the Ozzy landscape.  They're traditional in the 
sense of consisting of a village with a royal family and without any 
interest (in the inhabitants or in the narrative voice) in changing this 
concentration of power, but they're untraditional in the comedy of the 
homey portrayal.  A prince in a traditional fairy tale who set 
off in search of a princess to marry would usually be portrayed as 
being much more heroic and self-sufficient and would wind up with a 
princess a lot more like Ozma than Pompa does.  This version of what 
it means to be a "proper princess" is in its way as subversive as H.C. 
Andersen's "The Princess and the Pea."  It's interesting, too, that 
Kabumpo, filling the role of helper often taken by animals in traditional 
fairy tales, is untraditionally unreliable in his judgment of what kind of 
help is needed.  RPT had been doing this kind of comic upending of 
traditional fairy tales in many of the short stories in her Philadelphia 
"Public Ledger" children's page -- in fact, she'd used both Pumperdink 
(more than once) and Suntop Mountain as kingdom names in the 
"Ledger," although the kingdoms don't otherwise resemble their Ozzy 
counterparts.  The Oz books gave her a way to use such settings at 
more length, with room for more development of details of place and 
character (there's no Kabumpo in the "Ledger" Pumperdink) than the 
children's page format had allowed her.  Also in her comedy, I like the 
wordplay of the invented epithets ("perfectly pomiferous" is different in 
mood, but as expressive as Baum's expletive "hippicaloric"), Wag's 
spoonerisms (mostly quite literally spoonerisms, given his regret for 
his lost silverware), etc.
 
Ruth Berman

Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 22:43:48 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at compuserve.com>
Subject: out on a limb in Oz
 
About KABUMPO, Ruth Berman wrote:
<<I enjoy RPT's little kingdoms and feel that they fit in with the Ozzy
landscape.  They're traditional in the sense of consisting of a village
with a royal family and without any interest...in changing this
concentration of power, but they're untraditional in the comedy of the
homey portrayal.  A prince in a traditional fairy tale who set off in
search of a princess to marry would usually be portrayed as being much more
heroic and self-sufficient. . . . This version of what it means to be a
"proper princess" is in its way as subversive as H.C. Andersen's "The
Princess and the Pea.">>
 
Indeed, one quality of Thompson's little monarchies is that everyone
(author, reader, characters) seems to know how small kingdoms in fairy
tales are *supposed* to be. The royal households' vocabulary and quirks
make them comic, but we still see centuries of European tradition behind
them. Usually a Thompson palace is populated by characters struggling to
keep up with inherited images: the kings try to be dignified, the princes
brave, the generals bold, the advisors wise, the servants competent, the
elephants stately. [Queens usually succeed at being pretty or maternal, but
not much else.] But something's rotten in the state of Pumperdink, or
Ragbad, or Kereteria, and there must be a quest. Then, at the end of these
books, the ruling family has moved closer to the traditional ideal, and we
rejoice that the royal order is restored and affirmed. 

  The queer folks in Baum's little nations, in contrast, might simply say,
"Hereditary monarchy? Princes marrying to carry on the line? What nonsense!
We organize our society by drawing lots. And whoever does the best sketch
of the lot with the palace on it gets to be the Panjandra that month."
 
Ruth Berman wrote:
<<RPT had been doing this kind of comic upending of traditional fairy tales
in many of the short stories in her Philadelphia "Public Ledger" children's
page -- in fact, she'd used both Pumperdink (more than once) and Suntop
Mountain as kingdom names in the "Ledger," although the kingdoms don't
otherwise resemble their Ozzy counterparts.>>
 
After learning from OZ-STORY how Thompson had written earlier Pumperdink
stories, I began to see KABUMPO as the Oz book in which she spread her
wings. In ROYAL BOOK she was still writing under Baum's name, using his
early characters as her protagonists, addressing a mystery he left behind.
But KABUMPO is her own tale. She starts right off with her own place and
people (and heffalump). The cover of ROYAL BOOK displays only WIZARD
characters; the cover of KABUMPO shows but one familiar face and four new
ones. 

  That said, I haven't gotten farther than the cover on this re-read of
KABUMPO, having been immersed in pseudonymous Baum instead. You go on
ahead; I'll catch up. 
 
J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at compuserve.com

From: CruentiDei at cs.com
Date: Sat, 1 May 1999 00:12:02 EDT
Subject: Oz
 
Ruth:
RPT's kingdoms really fall into two categories. First, there's the "We're 
going to enslave you and turn into creatures just like us", whirlwind of 
really bizarre citizens that the adventurers meet, battle and escape in one 
chapter. Then there are the "cozy" kingdoms like Pumperdink and Ragbad. I 
like the second type and tolerate the first to an extent.
 
Tyler Jones

Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 15:14:45 -0500
Subject: Oz & Kabumpo
From: "David Frank Godwin" <d.godwin at minn.net>
 
Kabumpo:
There were a lot of things I did not like about this book:
 
1. Kabumpo - He could be considered an apt symbol of RPT's elephantine
fascination with royalty.
2. The name "Pompa." When I first read the book, I got him mixed up with the
Prince Pumper.
3. Pumperdink - The first in a long series of multiplying small medieval
kingdoms unnecessarily.
4. Wag - yawn; Uncle Wiggley in Oz
5. Peg - a true grotesque, not nearly as appealing as Pinocchio
6. The silliness and large number of the truly irrelevant IEs, which prove
annoyingly distracting during the journey of Kabumpo and Pompa.
7. The business with Ruggedo and his headgear - silly and at the same time
disturbing.
 
OTOH, this was a lot better book, IMHO, than Royal Book. Aside from the IEs,
it was well plotted and made some sort of sense. The device of the proper
princess worked well. It is, I think, undeniable that RPT got better over
time.
 
- David G.

Date: Sat, 01 May 99 13:49:28 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47 at mindspring.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
 
KABUMPO:
David G. wroye
>There were a lot of things I did not like about this book:
> ...
>
>7. The business with Ruggedo and his headgear - silly and at the same time
>disturbing.
 
8. No explanation of how Ruggedo regained his memory. (Although
   there *will* be in _Locasta_!)
 
9. Ozma's "I will never marry" sermon, rendering my writings "sacriligious
    blasphemy".
 
                             -- Dave

Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 17:45:06 -0500
Subject: Oz things
From: "David Frank Godwin" <d.godwin at minn.net>
 
Kabumpo:
Dave wrote:
>8. No explanation of how Ruggedo regained his memory. (Although
>   there *will* be in _Locasta_!)
 
I had always assumed (in the various books) that the effects of the Waters
of Oblivion wore off after a few years.
 
I stated previously that I did not care much for Peg Amy in this book, but
that's just as well.
*****SPOILER*****
She seems to be the first in a long line of characters whom RPT slated for
extermination by disenchantment.
*****end SPOLER*****
 
- David G.

Date: Mon, 3 May 99 09:43:58 CST
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: Wizardry in Oz
 
An additional "Kabumpo" comment -- there seems to be a continuity 
gap when Ruggedo walks off with the castle.  Everyone is worried, 
except the Wizard, who is serene and seems to have some kind of a 
plan.  When the narrative cuts back to the castle, the Wizard is not 
mentioned again.  I wonder if RPT meant to have him do something 
later in the story and forgot about it, or if the single sentence was 
inserted by editorial request to keep this popular character in view and 
make sense of the handsome full-page portrait of the Wizard Neill had 
supplied.
 
Ruth Berman

Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 10:36:15 +0100
From: David Hulan <davidhulan at ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 04-22 thru 05-01-99
 
4/29:
Ruth:
Since you're the first to start discussing _Kabumpo_ I'll start my comments
on it here. I haven't had a chance to reread it recently (though I'll try
to get to that in the next two or three days), so my comments here are more
general in nature. This is a book that always has seemed to me better in
prospect than in actual reading. When I was a child it was my least
favorite of all the Oz books I owned - which means that I even preferred
_Ozoplaning_ and _Lucky Bucky_. As an adult I think it's better than either
of those, but it's still somehow vaguely unsatisfying compared with many of
the other Oz books.
 
Part of it may be that some of the IEs are so very irrelevant (notably Rith
Metic and the Illumi Nation) that they get in the way of the story. Also,
even as a child I found Pompa's saying, "They remind me of something
disagreeable. Why, they're _books_, Kabumpo..." as singularly inappropriate
for the protagonist of a book. It's true that he goes on, "...great big
arithmetic books," which may be intended to imply that only arithmetic
books are disagreeable - but unfortunately the edition I have (and I think
all R&L editions would be the same) has that continuation overleaf, so the
association of books with something disagreeable is maintained for at least
the time it takes to turn the page.
 
And then the box of mixed magic keeps opening and closing at just the right
times to work the plot - even more of a deus ex machina than we get in most
Oz books. It seemed artificial to me when I was a kid and seems just as
artificial now.
 
Still, I do like Wag and Peg and Kabumpo, and Ruggedo seems more fun than
he was in any of Baum's books. His history on eight rocks is quite amusing,
and his tantrums with Wag are reminiscent of his personality in _Emerald
City_ while being much more innocuous. It's a better book than Thompson's
first, or than her next two, but it's not as good as most of Baum.
 
David Hulan

From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <xornom at hotmail.com>
Subject: Ozzy Matters
Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 20:08:30 PDT
 
David Godwin:
>I had always assumed (in the various books) that the effects of the
>Waters of Oblivion wore off after a few years.
 
That was the explanation that Thompson gave in _Kabumpo_.  Baum never gave 
any indication that the effects were only temporary; I think that his 
explanation of Roquat/Ruggedo re-learning his wickedness involved the fact 
that he returned to the Nome Kingdom, not that the water wore off.
 
Some thoughts on _Kabumpo_:
 
I haven't actually gotten around to re-reading the book yet, but I can 
remember it pretty well, and one thing that always struck me about it was 
Ruggedo's height.  I don't think Baum ever addressed this issue, but it was 
never hinted that the Nome was all that much shorter than the average human 
character.  In _Kabumpo_, however, Ruggedo is only one foot tall (until he 
uses the Expanding Extract, of course).  I'm assuming that Thompson was 
inspired by the gnomes of folklore, who often were no taller than that.  Did 
Ruggedo shrink due to exposure to sunlight?  Did Ozma shrink Ruggedo so that 
he couldn't cause as much trouble?  Is this just a goof on the part of the 
Royal Historian?  Notice that, when Ruggedo appears in _Gnome King_, Peter 
observes that the Nome is "no bigger than me" (not "several feet shorter 
than me"), and _Pirates_ gives his height as four feet, which seems to make 
sense; he's tall enough that people can communicate with him without bending 
down all that much, but short enough to be noticed as short.
 
Speaking of Ruggedo, I think his cave is fairly sparsely furnished in 
_Kabumpo_, and the furniture that is there is small enough to comfortably 
accomodate the foot-high Nome and his rabbit steward.  When Matiah visits 
the cavern in _Wishing Horse_, however, it contains a full-sized table and 
chairs (and possibly some other furniture; I can't quite remember).  Is it 
possible that someone used the cave in between _Kabumpo_ and _Wishing 
Horse_?  I suppose it could have even been Ruggedo himself, in the period 
between _Gnome King_ and _Pirates_.
 
Nathan

From: Ozmama at aol.com
Date: Fri, 7 May 1999 23:36:53 EDT
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 05-06-99
 
Ruth Berman:
<<An additional "Kabumpo" comment -- there seems to be a continuity 
gap when Ruggedo walks off with the castle.  Everyone is worried, 
except the Wizard, who is serene and seems to have some kind of a 
plan.  When the narrative cuts back to the castle, the Wizard is not 
mentioned again.  I wonder if RPT meant to have him do something 
later in the story and forgot about it, or if the single sentence was 
inserted by editorial request to keep this popular character in view and 
make sense of the handsome full-page portrait of the Wizard Neill had 
supplied.>>
 
That always bothered me as a kid.  I settled it in my own mind by 
telling myself that it was a plan RPT meant to use originally as the 
solution to the problem, but that she changed her mind later and 
simply forgot to delete the line from her old version.  That's fairly 
easy to do, and fairly difficult for a casual editor to catch.
 
                    --Robin

Date: Sat, 8 May 1999 22:40:26 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at compuserve.com>
Subject: KABUMPO and other weighty things
 
Dave Hardenbrook wrote as a fault in KABUMPO:
<<No explanation of how Ruggedo regained his memory.>>
 
Why do we need one? We already know he regained his memory after EMERALD
CITY, and the mechanism there is not much clearer. We also know that a
repeated dose of drugs can have diminishing effects on someone.
 
David Hulan wrote:
<<Part of it may be that some of the IEs are so very irrelevant (notably
Rith Metic and the Illumi Nation) that they get in the way of the story.>>
 
I agree with your criticism of Rith Metic, and especially Pompa's
unfortunate remark about books (though it may not be uncharacteristic--he
doesn't seem to be the bookworm Inga was). 

  But I think Illumi Nation plays a crucial role in the plot of KABUMPO
because that's where Pompa's hair is singed off. Thompson alludes to this
accident many times in the following pages, though Neill undercuts the
effect by illustrating it only once [169]. Pompadore's sudden whiffle cut
is significant in two ways:

  1) The physical deprivation and loss both he and Kabumpo go through make
their quest into a heroic journey, not simply a diplomatic mission. Pompa
is used to luxury, but the "once fastidious Prince of Pumperdink" [161]
must endure suffering much like Peg Amy in her torn frock. Compare also the
feast for Pompa at the start [23] to how famished and grateful he feels to
discover the Soup Sea [163]. 

  2) In losing his "once luxuriant pompadour," Pompa Dore symbolically
loses his identity. "No one will want to marry me now," he sighs [152-3].
Like a mythic hero, Pompa must come back from nothing, rebuild himself
stronger than before. 
 
J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at compuserve.com

Date: Tue, 11 May 99 14:11:23 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47 at mindspring.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
 
RUGGEDO:
J.L. Bell wrote:
><<No explanation of how Ruggedo regained his memory.>>
 
>Why do we need one? We already know he regained his memory after EMERALD
>CITY, and the mechanism there is not much clearer.
 
Didn't he re-learn evil ways from other Nomes, which is why the second
time around Ozma thought it would be safer to keep him in the Emerald
City?
 
                             -- Dave

Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 13:51:40 -0600 (CST)
From: Ruth Berman <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: oz digest
 
Nathan DeHoff: Ruggedo is about one foot tall in "Kabumpo"?  I think 
your memory is misleading you.  There isn't any direct statement to 
that effect.  Perhaps you got that impression from his being able to sit 
in a "doll's rocker" -- but dolls come in many sizes.  It can't even be 
assumed that the doll-size involved would be the same as Peg's (Peg 
and Wag seem to be about that same size, which might make her 1-2 
feet tall pre-expansion), because Peg was Trot's doll, and the rocker 
was Betsy Bobbin's.  A rocker for a 3-foot doll might well 
accommodate a 4-foot Nome.
 
Ruth Berman

Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 18:20:39 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at compuserve.com>
Subject: KABUMPO OF OZ never forgets
 
Ruth Berman wrote about KABUMPO:
<<there seems to be a continuity gap when Ruggedo walks off with the
castle.  Everyone is worried, except the Wizard, who is serene and seems to
have some kind of a plan.  When the narrative cuts back to the castle, the
Wizard is not mentioned again.  I wonder if RPT meant to have him do
something later in the story and forgot about it, or if the single sentence
was inserted by editorial request to keep this popular character in view
and make sense of the handsome full-page portrait of the Wizard Neill had
supplied.>>
 
At first I agreed with Robin Olderman that this could only be a path which
Thompson laid out for herself, but decided not to take. But then I noticed
some curious things around two other full-page portraits of our Ozzy
favorites:

* page 199 shows Jack Pumpkinhead, directly across from one paragraph about him.
* page 209 shows Nick Chopper, two pages after a sentence about him.

Why is it odd for these gents to be pictured and described? KABUMPO is an
Oz book, after all. I'm suspicious because those sentences are, I believe,
the *only* mentions of the Wizard, Jack, and Nick in the entire castle
journey. The Wizard doesn't turn out to affect the action, as Ruth noted.
Jack doesn't worry about losing his head, even though the Scarecrow does
[191]. The Tin Woodman does practically nothing, even as Thompson makes a
big deal of Sir Hokus and Tik-Tok clanging together [189].

  It's very easy to imagine Reilly & Lee telling Thompson, "It's all very
well that you've written these scenes with Scraps, the Scarecrow, Tik-Tok,
and that knight of yours, but the children are going to miss their other
favorites. We asked Johnny Neill to draw big pictures of them, and would
you insert a few words about each?" The actions the Wizard, Jack, and the
tin man take are quite in character for them, but they don't advance the
plot or action--so much so, in fact, that they make a reader as sharp as
Ruth wonder why not.
 
Additional remarks on the KABUMPO art:
* This is the only canonical Oz book with *two* characters on its spine. 
* The frontispiece is said to show page 18, but actually depicts page 48. 
* R&L has abandoned the two-page chapter openers it used in GLINDA and
ROYAL BOOK. The design is back to what seems to have the previous standard,
with text drawings in three set sizes: full page, chapter opener, and about
half a page horizontally. That would have made laying out the text easier. 
* I quite like the color plates opposite pages 105 (Omby Amby on the
Sawhorse) and 249 (Ruggedo sleep-walking). 
* On page 243, Neill makes a common mistake among right-handed artists by
drawing the Scarecrow with two left hands.
* The plate opposite page 288 gives Neill yet another chance to draw a
pretty girl's face inside a blossom, just as in Baum's books. 
 
J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at compuserve.com

Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 08:35:40 +1000
From: Gehan Cooray <calamity at eureka.lk>
Subject: Ozzy Matters
 
My POV on Kabumpo in Oz:
I think this book should have been called the Elegant Elephant of Oz or
Prince Poma of Oz. The name Kabumpo doesnt sound at all attractive. I
wondered what on earth the story was about before reading the synopsis. The
story is real fun and very-well written. Only problem is,Ruggedo's character
could have been better ever since he grew into a giant. He was as silent as
a graveyard ever since he grew. I expected him to cause more havoc being a
giant. He was real fun,but only before growing. Wag the Rabbit and Peg Amy
are two of the best FF characters,and so are Prince Pompa and Kabumpo. We
never see any elephants in Baum's Oz and so we can also see Thompson's wide
imagination. I'm sure she got the iedia of Peg Amy from Pinnochio,but the
iedia is still terrific. The story plot is very good too. Imagine a prince
going in search for a princess,especially to save his own kingdom from
dissapearance. The story also takes a grand twist when their plans are
thwarted by Ruggedo who carries away Ozma,the supposed proper princess on
his head,along with her castle. I also think that Glegg could have been a
more frequant villain in the story,with atleast two or three chapters with
him(atleast plotting by himself).My MOPPET on the Wizard's plan is that he
had soughted out an ingenius plan to save Ozma and the Emerald City,but by
the time he had everything set,Ozma and the City were already saved. The
Soup Sea,The Illumni Nation,The Currious Cottabus and (I forget the name of
the other kingdom which had something to do with numbers)were very
imaginative too and overall,I think the book is one of the best out of the
FF and it shows Ruth Plumly Thompson at the peak of her powers too....
 
C'ya later!
--Gehan
============================================================================
====
"In all the world there's no place like home.......execpt Oz!"

Date: Sat, 15 May 1999 09:19:26 +0100
From: David Hulan <davidhulan at ntsource.com>
Subject: Ozzy Digest, 05-11-99
 
Nathan:
I hadn't noticed that Thompson gave Ruggedo's height as only one foot in
_Kabumpo_. One thing about his size that is incongruous in the
illustrations, though, is the picture at the heading of Chapter 18, which
shows Ruggedo's foot, heel to toe, being about the same length as Wag's
height. Yet his head is big enough that the entire royal palace of Oz sits
on it. Since most people's feet are longer heel to toe than the length of
their skull front to back, this would imply a Very Small royal palace...
Actually, of course, Neill just got the scale of the foot wrong in that
drawing.
 
Interesting speculation that some person or persons unknown might have
lived in Rug's cave between _Kabumpo_ and _Wishing Horse_. Sounds like the
basis for a story...
 
J.L.:
>  But I think Illumi Nation plays a crucial role in the plot of KABUMPO
>because that's where Pompa's hair is singed off.
 
I suppose you're right that this makes it relevant, but I still didn't like
the episode much when I first read it and it hasn't improved with age. I
think it would have been possible for Thompson to have achieved the same
results in a more interesting way. (This is Oz-as-literature, of course;
from Oz-as-history POV, the episode is there because that's how it
happened.)
 
Dave:
>Didn't he re-learn evil ways from other Nomes, which is why the second
>time around Ozma thought it would be safer to keep him in the Emerald
>City?
 
That's what Ozma says in _Magic_, but it's possible that that's just
speculation on her part. From other evidence it seems as if Ruggedo
remembers what happened before his first dose of the water of oblivion, in
_Tik-Tok_, _Magic_, and _Kabumpo_.
 
David Hulan

Date: Sun, 16 May 1999 23:43:14 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ozmama at aol.com
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 05-16-99
 
John Bell:
ell that you've written these scenes with Scraps, the Scarecrow, Tik-Tok,
and that knight of yours, but the children are going to miss their other
favorites. We asked Johnny Neill to draw big pictures of them, and would
you insert a few words about each?" The actions the Wizard, Jack, and the
tin man take are quite in character for them, but they don't advance the
plot or action--so much so, in fact, that they make a reader as sharp as
Ruth wonder why not.>>
 
That's possible,John, especially since RPT was eager to please R&L
early on in her stint with them.  What bothers me is why she'd throw
in the red herring about the Wizard.  That doesn't feel like her.  I mean,
why not some other less intriguing dialogue and/or description?  His lines
aren't non-leading, they're mis-leading.  That's why I think that,
whatever her motivations were for including the Wizard, she had
something in mind for him that she simply didn't develop later for one
reason or another.  Surely, btw, Ruth and I weren't the only kids
intrigued and even irritated by the Wizard's "plan."

Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 09:26:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff <xornom at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 05-16-99
 
Ruth:
 >Nathan DeHoff: Ruggedo is about one foot tall in "Kabumpo"?  I think
 >your memory is misleading you.  There isn't any direct statement to
 >that effect.  Perhaps you got that impression from his being able to >sit
 >in a "doll's rocker" -- but dolls come in many sizes.  It can't even >be
 >assumed that the doll-size involved would be the same as Peg's (Peg
 >and Wag seem to be about that same size, which might make her 1-2
 >feet tall pre-expansion), because Peg was Trot's doll, and the rocker
 >was Betsy Bobbin's.  A rocker for a 3-foot doll might well
 >accommodate a 4-foot Nome.
 
After Ruggedo uses the Expanding Extract on Peg Amy, Thompson gives her
height as four feet, and later mentions that she is about four times Rug's
size.  I think that both these mentions occur in the book, anyway.
 
Gehan:
 >I think this book should have been called the Elegant Elephant of Oz >or
 >Prince Poma of Oz. The name Kabumpo doesnt sound at all attractive. I
 >wondered what on earth the story was about before reading the >synopsis.
 
Well, this could be said about many Oz books, even if the title character is
immediately recognizable.  For instance, it's obvious that the Hungry Tiger
is going to be an important character in _The Hungry Tiger of Oz_, but the
title gives no hint as to what the Tiger actually does in the story.  I do
find it a bit odd that the title is _Kabumpo IN Oz_, even though Kabumpo
lives in Oz.
 
 >We never see any elephants in Baum's Oz and so we can also see >Thompson's
 >wide imagination.
 
Baum does give some precedent for elephants in Oz, since the Cowardly Lion
mentions them as some of the animals that he scared with his roar (in
_Wizard_).  Thompson clearly had a love for elephants (or knew that her
child readers had a love for elephants), however.
 
Nathan

From: Ozmama at aol.com
Date: Wed, 12 May 1999 00:04:57 EDT
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 05-11-99
 
Nathan:
In _Pirates_, RPT tells us that Ruggedo is 4' tall.  He drew himself up
to his full four feet, she says.  (Close paraphrase) Could he have grown
since _Kabumpo_?  If so, how?  There's a story there for someone to
tell.  Another story to tell is suggested by your << When Matiah visits
the cavern in _Wishing Horse_, however, it contains a full-sized table
and chairs (and possibly some other furniture; I can't quite remember).
Is it possible that someone used the cave in between _Kabumpo_ and _Wishing
Horse_?  I suppose it could have even been Ruggedo himself,
in the period between _Gnome King_ and _Pirates_.>>
 
Someone write the stories, please!  :o)
 
--Robin

Date: Fri, 21 May 99 16:02:21 CST
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: hops in Oz
 
(I think I sent this before, but it wasn't in May 21 digest, so it may not
have reached Dave, or I may have misremembered sending.  Anyhow:)
 
J.L. Bell: Yes, the Jack Pumpkinhead and Tin Woodman brief
mention/big illo combinations do seem to fit in with the Wizard
mention/illo, and maybe strengthen the likelihood that the mentions
were late additions put in by editorial request.
 
Gehan Cooray: I seem to recall that "The Elegant Elephant of Oz" was
one of the titles considered for it.  Unattractiveness of name
"Kabumpo" -- keep in mind that James Fenimore Cooper's Deerstalker
series, with a hero named Natty Bumpo, remained popular for a long
time.  (I'm not sure if it actually went on being popular after Mark
Twain's essay on the absurdity of the stories came out, late 19th
century, but they went on being considered important and
automatically assigned as high school reading for a long time.
Dropped out of the curriculum maybe around WWII?)
 
Ruth Berman

Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 22:05:24 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at compuserve.com>
Subject: back to KABUMPO
 
 
More thoughts on KABUMPO: At the start of our conversation I wrote, "one
quality of Thompson's little monarchies is that everyone (author, reader,
characters) seems to know how small kingdoms in fairy tales are *supposed*
to be." Some remarks from the book to back that up:

* "[Pompus, Pozy Pink, and Pompa] looked exactly as a good old-fashioned
royal family should." [18]
* "Peg, being made of wood, did not feel the bumps and Pompa, being a
Prince, pretended not to." [217]
* "'The Prince always rescues the Princess he intends to marry,' said
Kabumpo [to Ozma] wearily. 'I should think you'd know that.'" [257]

   As Ruth Berman wrote, most of Kabumpo's assumptions about how his
prince's life should be turn out to be wrong, and the Proper Princess being
a wooden doll seems to undercut the whole notion of propriety and
princesshood. But then Glegg's spell over Peg Amy is dispelled, and
everything is restored to how fairyland kingdoms are supposed to work:
beautiful princess, handsome prince, sumptuous palaces. The marriage would
have been much more novel and therefore subversive if Peg had remained a
wooden doll, but Thompson (and perhaps we) wouldn't have accepted that.
 
Both this story and ROYAL BOOK tell of people [royalty, of course] who were
alive in the flesh, then turned magically into plants. Each person's spirit
then entered into an artificial anthropoid, retaining a few foggy memories
of the original life.

   Peg Amy's arrival on the scene gives Thompson a chance to play with a
motif Baum used often, the dawning of a character's consciousness. But
Peg's memories give her a head start over the Scarecrow, Jack Pumpkinhead,
Scraps, and others. She also rather swiftly seems to take the mantle of
protagonist in the book. She immediately tackles Ruggedo [127--"I could
pick him up with one hand!"]. When she joins Pompa and Kabumpo, her
adjustment to life is simply more interesting than their adjustment to not
living privileged lives. We see scenes through her eyes [e.g., 220]. Almost
everyone quickly comes to love her: Wag, Pompa and Kabumpo, the Runaway
Country.

   Peg has a significantly different attitude toward being alive from those
of preceding characters, though. Except for the Gump, they accept their
animation happily and matter-of-factly. They don't question it as Peg does:
"I haven't even any right to be alive." The Scarecrow wanted to better
himself with brains, but she desires only to justify her present state. Peg
also seems to have received the servile attitudes that Ojo didn't give
Scraps. She expresses her affection for Kabumpo and Pompa by cleaning and
pinning up their robes. She thinks, "Perhaps I can help Pompa and maybe
that's why I was brought to life" [220]. Am I wrong to see a parallel
between this approach to finding a purpose in life and how young ladies
were told they should find young men to serve?
 
Miscellaneous bumps in KABUMPO:

* The capitalization in the chapter list on page 13 isn't consistent with
either standard rules or the way those titles appear later. Reilly & Lee
was maintaining its usual copyediting standards.
* A doorknob magically appears on page 36. In what other Oz book do
enchanted doorknobs play a role? Is there any other book in the known
universe besides these two that sees so much magic in doorknobs?
* Ruggedo's treatment of Peg as a doll [85-6] resembles how a brother in a
naughty mood might play with his sister's doll: acting out his aggressions
while still speaking of the doll as a person.
* Thompson makes the first Emerald City character to speak be her own Sir
Hokus, firming up his place in the capital [95].
* Things not to do in Oz: "tip-toeing" up behind Glinda [168].
* The heroes' connection of "Glegg" to "J.G." is astonishingly poor logic
[218], yet--as in LOST PRINCESS--this assumption turns out to be true.
* Pompa and Peg are said to set up house on Sun Top Mountain, though we
next see them in PURPLE PRINCE at Pumperdink [291].
 
Finally, I think Thompson's notion of a Runaway Country is terrific all
around: in its physical description and workings, in its behavior, and in
how it fits well into the plot.
 
J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at compuserve.com

From: CruentiDei at cs.com
Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 23:08:51 EDT
Subject: Oz
 
I liked the idea of Ruggedo as a revisionist historian: Writing his history
in rocks, yet leaving out all of the unpleasant parts (sort of an Anti-Baum
here), and painting himself as the good guy, and painting the Oz folk as
prejudiced against the vertically challenged.
 
This was the first RPT book I ever read, since my mother had a copy when I
was much younger. I found myself wondering who this Hokus guy was, and
assumed (correctly) that Dorothy found him while wandering Oz in the as yet
un-read _Royal Book_. I found myself drawnn to RPT's style of language and
dialog, and while I gripe about her overuse of IE's, she remains my favorite
FF author.
 
One thing I disapproved of, however, was the fact that the Emerald City
people seemed to completely fall apart when the Palace vanished. Granted,
there would have been shock, but RPT made it seem like the people were
completely unable to function without Ozma around.
 
Tyler Jones

Date: Mon, 24 May 99 12:12:51 CST
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: knobs and cubes in Oz
 
Robin Olderman: As to why RPT would mention the Wizard in a way
that sounds as if there'll be a follow-up and then leave out the follow-
up:  Perhaps RPT (or whoever formed the sentence -- the wording
could have been a specific suggestion by the R&L editor to match up
with the artwork) didn't notice that saying that the Wizard was serene
and smiling would sound to readers as if he had a special reason (like
a plan of action) for his serenity.  The passage could have been meant
to suggest that the Wizard was trying to look serene in the panic to try
to reassure the others. // I wasn't actually irritated by the gap in
continuity as a child -- I don't think I noticed it as a gap until re-
reading "Kabumpo" this time around.
 
Nathan DeHoff: I took another look at the 4'/4 times his size passage,
and I think you could be right in taking it to mean that Ruggedo was
only foot high.  (Actually, he'd have to be a little more than that, as
Peg doesn't start from zero when she shoots up 4'.  If she's a 12" or
18" doll, she winds up 5' or 5-1/2' expanded.)  But two other possible
meanings for the passage occur to me.  One is that "size" in this kind
of context might mean 3-dimensional size rather than height, and if
she's 4 times bigger in cubic dimensions, his height might work out to
around 3'.  The other possibility is that when the narrative says "four
times" it reflects Ruggedo's (emotional) estimate rather than am
accurate measurement.  Considering that she has Ruggedo at what
sounds like 3' or 4' in "Gnome King" (as you mentioned), my guess
would be that she was thinking of emotional (or maybe cubic)
measurement here in "Kabumpo," and didn't really intend a 1'+
Ruggedo, even though interpreting "size" as "height" alone is certainly
a possible reading.
 
J.L. Bell: Interesting comment on Peg's overly servile approach to
finding meaning in her life.  Other magic doorknobs -- RPT used
talking doorknobs in the Kingdom of Doorways in "Cowardly Lion,"
and Neill had the enchanted doorknobs that turn into flying
gabooches in "Lucky Bucky."  I can't think offhand of a well-known
non-Oz book with magic doorknobs, but there are humans taking the
form of doorknockers in Thackeray's "Rose and the Ring" and
Dickens's "Christmas Carol" and Mary Norton's bedknob in "Bedknob
and Broomsticks."  A little known children's story is -- um, I don't
remember title/author.  I'll try to remember to look it up to add in a ps.
A pleasant story about a girl who finds a magic castle.  The castle had
been over-run with goblins, and the goblins had been controlled by
being turned into doorknobs, but as a result, getting doors open in the
castle is a trifle difficult.
 
Ruth Berman

From: "Nathan Mulac DeHoff" <xornom at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 05-23-99
Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 17:48:19 PDT
 
 >Ruth:
 >Gehan Cooray: I seem to recall that "The Elegant Elephant of Oz" was
 >one of the titles considered for it.
 
I believe that _The Elegant Elephant of Oz_ was a proposed title for _Silver
Princess_.  Of course, it might have also been a proposed title for
_Kabumpo_.  Thompson could easily have suggested that title for every
Kabumpo book, and had it rejected by Reilly and Lee every time.
 
J. L. Bell:
>The marriage would
 >have been much more novel and therefore subversive if Peg had remained a
 >wooden doll, but Thompson (and perhaps we) wouldn't have accepted that.
 
Perhaps this could bring us back to the "sex in Oz" discussion.  If such a
thing does exist, a wooden doll wouldn't be able to engage in it (especially
since Cap'n Bill certainly didn't carve Peg to be entirely anatomically
correct).  Pajonia might never have been born if Peg had remained a doll.
Then again, we can't really be sure of this, since the wooden Mr. and Mrs.
Hi-Lo had a son.
 
On a different note, however, an important theme throughout the Oz books is
that one's natural form is the best.  While there are exceptions (the Tin
Woodman being one of the most famous examples), most of the protagonists in
the series have been returned to their "proper" shapes, and Thompson might
have wanted to continue this trend with Peg.
 
 >* A doorknob magically appears on page 36. In what other Oz book do
 >enchanted doorknobs play a role? Is there any other book in the known
 >universe besides these two that sees so much magic in doorknobs?
 
The other book is, of course, _Lucky Bucky_.  I'm not sure about other books
seeing doorknobs as magical (_Cowardly Lion_'s Doorways contained plenty of
doorknobs, but I don't think any of them were magical), but plenty of books
have magical doors.
 
 >* Pompa and Peg are said to set up house on Sun Top Mountain, though we
 >next see them in PURPLE PRINCE at Pumperdink [291].
 
I was thinking of bringing up that same point, but you already did so.
Perhaps their stay on the mountain wasn't as long as they had originally
planned.  Someone might be able to write a story around this.
 
Note that Wag does not appear as a resident of Pumperdink in _Purple
Prince_, so he might well have remained on the mountain.  That's where
_Who's Who_ places him, and where he begins his adventures in an unfinished
manuscript of mine.  (Maybe I should start working on that story again.  I
probably still have it around somewhere.)
--
May the light shine upon thee,
Nathan
DinnerBell at tmbg.org

Date: Tue, 25 May 99 08:30:09 CST
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: with knobs on in Oz
 
The book I was trying to remember is "Shadow Castle" by Marian Cockrell,
ill. Olive Bailey, published 1945.  I don't know of any other work by
either the author or the artist.
 
Ruth Berman

Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 10:54:54 +0100
From: David Hulan <davidhulan at ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 05-16 thru 23-99
 
5/21:
Nathan:
 >After Ruggedo uses the Expanding Extract on Peg Amy, Thompson gives her
 >height as four feet, and later mentions that she is about four times Rug's
 >size.  I think that both these mentions occur in the book, anyway.
 
Four times Rug's size doesn't necessarily mean four times his height,
though. Maybe it meant four times his volume, which would mean Rug was
about 2.5 feet high - still small, but more reasonable. And since their
proportions are different he might be even taller.
 
 >I do find it a bit odd that the title is _Kabumpo IN Oz_, even though
 >Kabumpo lives in Oz.
 
Thompson's usual practice was to use "in" when the title doesn't lead with
"The" and "of" when it doesn't. Thus we get Kabumpo, Grampa, Pirates, Ojo,
Speedy, Captain Salt, and Handy Mandy in Oz, and "The" Royal Book, Cowardly
Lion, Lost King, Hungry Tiger, Gnome King, Giant Horse, Yellow Knight,
Purple Prince, and Wishing Horse of Oz. The two exceptions are Jack
Pumpkinhead of Oz and The Silver Princess in Oz. (Ozoplaning is
complicated; it doesn't start with "the," but it has a "the" before the
noun "of Oz" modifies, so I think it follows the rule.) Note that Captain
Salt never enters Oz in "Captain Salt in Oz," and the pirates and Speedy
are each in Oz only briefly in their books. Conversely, "The Gnome King of
Oz" sounds as if Rug has become king of Oz somehow, though he doesn't.
 
5/23:
Ruth:
Wasn't Cooper's hero's last name spelled "Bumppo"? It's been a long time
since I read those books, but that's how I remember it. They weren't
required reading when I was in high school, but they were titles in the
"Authors" deck. (Anybody else remember "Authors"? Do kids still play it?)
 
J.L.:
>Peg also seems to have received the servile attitudes that Ojo didn't give
 >Scraps. She expresses her affection for Kabumpo and Pompa by cleaning and
 >pinning up their robes. She thinks, "Perhaps I can help Pompa and maybe
 >that's why I was brought to life" [220]. Am I wrong to see a parallel
 >between this approach to finding a purpose in life and how young ladies
 >were told they should find young men to serve?
 
I think you're exactly right. Peg is doing "women's work." Baum never has
his female characters thus stereotyped as far as I recall (other than
jokingly, when in EC the Wizard charges Dorothy with "cooking dinner"), and
Thompson doesn't do it often - but she does with Peg, and she does with
Mandy.
 
 >* A doorknob magically appears on page 36. In what other Oz book do
 >enchanted doorknobs play a role? Is there any other book in the known
 >universe besides these two that sees so much magic in doorknobs?
 
The other Oz book with enchanted doorknobs is _Lucky Bucky_. As for another
book, maybe not "so much" magic, but "Lewis Padgett"'s _The Fairy Chessmen_
opens with the line, "The doorknob opened a blue eye and winked at him."
(At least, I think that's the book - one of the Kuttner/Moore "Padgett"
books, anyhow. I could look it up if anyone cares.)
 
 >* Pompa and Peg are said to set up house on Sun Top Mountain, though we
 >next see them in PURPLE PRINCE at Pumperdink [291].
 
It's more logical that they live on Sun Top Mountain, since Peg is the
ruler there and Pompa just the heir apparent in Pumperdink (and "heir
apparent" in Oz can be a -very- long-term position). Maybe they were just
visiting at the beginning of _Purple Prince_, though it's not explicit.
 
David Hulan

From: Ozmama at aol.com
Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 18:35:42 EDT
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 05-26-99
 
Ruth:
<>
Boy, I was.  I wanted the Wizard to figure something out, I guess, and
was peeved when he washed out.  LOL!
 
Nathan:
<<On a different note, however, an important theme throughout
the Oz books is that one's natural form is the best.>>
The flipside of that is used a lot throughout the series.  Think how
many ie's are based on the concept of people trying to make the wandering
protagonists conform to local appearances and/or
behavior: Dunkiton, Foxville, Torpedo Town, IllmiNation, etc., etc.
--Robin

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 15:02:12 +1000
From: Gehan Cooray <calamity at eureka.lk>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 05-26-99
 
Nathan:
_Silver Princess_ is a good title. But I dont think _Kabumpo_ sounds very
nice,unless the reader knows who the title reffers to.
Maybe Ruggedo sat on a rather giant doll chair in _Kabumpo_ or maybe he
found a bit of magic to increase its size so that he could sit on it. He
cant be just one foot tall anyway.....
 
--Gehan

Date: Thu, 27 May 99 10:14:53 CST
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: The Beast in Oz
 
J.L. Bell and Nathan DeHoff: The transformation of Peg into a "real"
princess -- you've discussed the meanings of beauty as a (prejudiced)
pre-requisite to marriage and as a preference for "natural" form.
There's another meaning, too, though, which to some extent
contradicts or at least undercuts the beauty-as-prerequisite meaning.
Peg becomes beautiful, in terms of the literal narrative, because she
gets disenchanted.  But she becomes beautiful, also, because she is
perceived as beautiful.  The people one loves are beautiful, regardless
of their physical appearance, and Peg's disenchantment is a
sex-reversed version of such stories as "Beauty and the Beast" and
"Riquet with the Tuft," with Pompadore as the Beauty and Peg as the
Beast/Riquet.
 
David Hulan: I think you're right that the Deerstalker's name had two
p's, as I've recently seen it spelled that way in other contexts.  My
memory insists that it was one p -- which I assume means simply that I
spent a lot of time re-reading Oz books.  (I did read "The Last of the
Mohicans" in high school, but I think it was on a list of books to
choose from, and was not a course requirement.  I never re-read it or
read any other Cooper.)
 
Ruth Berman

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 11:20:05 +0100
From: David Hulan <davidhulan at ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 05-26-99
 
Ruth:
 >Nathan DeHoff: I took another look at the 4'/4 times his size passage,
 >and I think you could be right in taking it to mean that Ruggedo was
 >only foot high.  (Actually, he'd have to be a little more than that, as
 >Peg doesn't start from zero when she shoots up 4'.  If she's a 12" or
 >18" doll, she winds up 5' or 5-1/2' expanded.)
 
Actually, now that I checked the passage myself, Thompson is explicit that
Peg started as 10 inches high and shot up four feet, meaning that she was
4' 10" at the time she was four times Rug's size. If we take that as volume
then we need Rug to be the cube root of 1/4 x 4'10" tall... or just over 3
feet.
 
David Hulan

Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 20:53:11 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at compuserve.com>
Subject: revising Oz
 
Thanks to Ruth Berman and David Hulan for responding to my question, "Is
there any other book in the known universe besides these two [KABUMPO and
LUCKY BUCKY] that sees so much magic in doorknobs?" I was impressed by how
they could latch onto that opening and, with a bolt of inspiration, turn up
other stories that hinge on knobs.
 
Tyler Jones wrote:
<<I liked the idea of Ruggedo as a revisionist historian: Writing his
history in rocks, yet leaving out all of the unpleasant parts (sort of an
Anti-Baum here)>>
 
This remark unfortunately triggered one of my pet peeves. All history is
revisionist! If a historian doesn't put together new evidence or
interpretation that makes us see the past in new ways, she's not doing her
job. "Revisionist history" has become a convenient catch phrase for folks
who don't like what others reveal about our past. Rather than refute
historians with actual evidence or argument, they try to dismiss them out
of hand. By using the phrase "revisionist history," however, they reveal
the weakness of their own historiographical understanding.

   Ruggedo's history in rocks isn't especially revisionist history; it's
just bad history! Even Wag knows it's incomplete.

   Okay, I feel better now.
 
Speaking of Ruggedo, Peg Amy's remark on first seeing him after she's been
made Trot-size and brought to life looks like another clue to how big
Thompson pictured him: "I could pick him up with one hand!" [127].
 
Tyler Jones wrote:
<<One thing I disapproved of, however, was the fact that the Emerald City
people seemed to completely fall apart when the Palace vanished. Granted,
there would have been shock, but RPT made it seem like the people were
completely unable to function without Ozma around.>>
 
One of the pitfalls of Ozma's concentrating power at the top--no one else
is prepared to exercise it. [Wouldn't have happened if Jenny Jump were in
town.]
 
J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at compuserve.com

Date: Tue, 1 Jun 99 10:32:29 CST
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: oziana in oz
 
J.L. Bell: Hmmm, yes, the "one hand" remark does sound more like an
idea of Ruggedo as around 1' than around 3'.  Or maybe not, I
suppose, depending on how strong Peg is and how much of a load
she can pick up one-handed.
 
Ruth Berman

Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 11:45:28 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at compuserve.com>
Subject: supply of OZIANAs
 
Ruth Berman wrote:
<<the "one hand" remark does sound more like an idea of Ruggedo as around
1' than around 3'.  Or maybe not, I suppose, depending on how strong Peg is
and how much of a load she can pick up one-handed.>>
 
And how much motor control and perspective she had in her first minute
after being re-animated. Nonetheless, putting all the textual hints
together, I think Nathan DeHoff is quite correct that in KABUMPO Thompson
thought of Ruggedo as the size of a garden gnome rather than a Nome. That
would also help to explain how a rabbit's tunnel would be big enough for
the ex-king.

   Since Ruggedo's activities below the city were secret, and since the only
witnesses to them--Wag and Peg--themselves experienced some disorienting
growth, we can choose to believe that the Royal Historian probably had
limited information and made a faulty assumption. That seems more likely
than a real change in Ruggedo's height (as opposed to his girth).
 
Ruth Berman wrote:
<<There's another meaning, too, though, which to some extent contradicts or
at least undercuts the beauty-as-prerequisite meaning. Peg becomes
beautiful, in terms of the literal narrative, because she gets
disenchanted.  But she becomes beautiful, also, because she is perceived as
beautiful.  The people one loves are beautiful, regardless of their
physical appearance, and Peg's disenchantment is a sex-reversed version of
such stories as "Beauty and the Beast" and "Riquet with the Tuft," with
Pompadore as the Beauty and Peg as the Beast/Riquet.>>
 
KABUMPO definitely stands in that traditional fairy tale pattern. And like
those earlier stories, by depicting psychological transformations as the
start of a physical transformation, it can be read to imply that new
perspectives aren't enough. Pompa changes how he views Peg Amy and the
world, and Peg Amy changes how she views herself. But once Pompa proclaims
his fondness for a wooden doll, he never has to marry that doll or even see
her again. In other words, it's a challenge to kiss a frog, but a real
commitment would be agreeing to wake up next to that frog every morning,
reminding yourself that inside he's really quite charming.

   After seeing Cocteau's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, Greta Garbo is said to have
remarked, "Give me back my beast." That brings up another potential problem
with the KABUMPO resolution: What if Pompa actually looks back and prefers
Peg as the wooden doll he fell in love with?
 
J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at compuserve.com

Date: Mon, 7 Jun 1999 09:46:32 +0100
From: David Hulan <davidhulan at ntsource.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 06-02-99
 
A few remarks about _Kabumpo_ before that book ceases being the BCF:
 
As a sidelight, Marcia and I used the "forever and even longer" phrase from
this book as part of our wedding ceremony, and also had it engraved - in
Cirth runes from _Lord of the Rings_ - on our wedding rings. (Obvously it
won't be forever, much less even longer, unless we can contrive to emigrate
to Oz, but it's lasted 25 years by now with no signs of fracture.)
 
I don't recall anyone mentioning that the illustration on page 25 (in a
mid-'40s R&L edition, thus probably in all earlier ones as well, though
without checking I'd guess that BoW corrected it in their edition) is
upside down.
 
King Pompus and his counselors seem irrationally certain that Faleero is
the "proper fairy princess." They light on her without the slightest
consideration of the fact that Oz seems to be full of fairy princesses. At
least Kabumpo shows a certain amount of common sense on that issue, though
he doesn't rate high on it otherwise.
 
I never bothered to look up "cottabus" in a dictionary when I was a kid,
thinking it was just a word Thompson had coined. Then I ran across it
recently in one of the Roman period mysteries I've read - I think one of
Lindsey Davis's, though it might have been one of Stephen Saylor's - as a
game played by the ancient Greeks and Romans where people tried to throw
wine from a distance into a container. ("Cottabus" is the Latin version of
the original Greek "kottabos.") I would seriously doubt that Thompson ever
encountered the game itself; I wonder where she ran across the word?
 
I've never cared for Thompson's treatment of Scraps. Baum has her
irrepressible, but not irresponsible, and while she speaks in bad verse a
great deal of the time she doesn't, to the best of my recollection,
"scream" with no provocation as she does on page 96 and often elsewhere in
Thompson's books. She isn't important enough in _Kabumpo_ for this change
to be much of a problem, but in later books where she plays a major role,
like _Gnome King_ and _Ojo_, it's grating. And Neill makes her even worse.
 
Peg's memory of Rug's finding the box of magic before she was reanimated
gives further credibility to the theory that inanimate objects in Oz are
able to perceive and remember things that happened before they were
animated.
 
That's as far as I've gotten in my current rereading; I may have a few more
comments when I've read the rest, if we're still on _Kabumpo_ by then.
(Since no date has been given yet for starting the _Cowardly Lion_
discussion we probably will be.)
 
David Hulan

Date: Thu, 10 Jun 99 17:27:06 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47 at mindspring.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
 
_KABUMPO_ AND BCF:
I have a question before we depart the _Kambumpo in Oz_
discussion: Many of you have on diverse occasions have cited a
certain incident in our current BCF as "proof positive" that any story
involving Ozma and Cupid would be the greatest piece of vile demonic heresy
since a certain Turkish-descended hippie started ranting about dinosaurs
being hot-blooded. :)  So I find myself asking, why the hippikaloric did
Ruth Plumly Thompson open that can of worms in the first place?  Why
did she ever have *anyone* propose to Ozma?  Many of you have said that
Neill's later, more voluptuous depictions of Ozma were in response to the
marriage proposals concocted by RPT (I'm speaking on an Oz-as-Lit. level
of course).  But why didn't she just take it for granted that Ozma
*was* a "little girl after all"?  If she had, Neill would never have
drawn such alluring pics of Ozma, I would have had to find some other
way of entering puberty ( Polychrome? :) ), and the writing of an
Ozma love story would never have entered my mind.  ( So, Dan-haters,
the emerald buck stops with RPT and Neill, not me! :) )
 
My "Oz-as-History" explanation you'll find out when my book is
published.  My "Oz-as-Literature" conjecture is that fans were
writing in asking for an Ozma love story and she was so appalled
she felt inclined to insert that "sermon" dismissing the posibility
into _Kabumpo_.  All I'm doing is granting all those Oz fans' wishes,
just about 80 years too late.  (Like Lucy Van Pelt, I embrace this
theory because it can't be proved one way or another.) :)
 
                              -- Dave

Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 10:26:57 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at compuserve.com>
Subject: Ozma implications
 
About Ozma's romantic prospects, Dave Hardenbrook wrote:
<<why the hippikaloric did Ruth Plumly Thompson open that can of worms in
the first place?  Why did she ever have *anyone* propose to Ozma?>>
 
Remember how much Thompson relies on "proper" fairy-tale plots, and how
often she makes her characters follow those conventions. To her more
tradition-oriented characters, such as Kabumpo, a beautiful young princess
living in a palace must be marriageable; in a "proper" fairy tale, a queen
can't be happy just by herself, ruling her country in her own right. And
who better to be her Prince Charmant, those characters wonder, than me (or
my pal here)?

   For almost all her other princesses, Thompson did indeed supply such
suitors. She shied away from doing so for Ozma. Indeed, she presented the
suggestion of a husband for Ozma as a fate we should root against (JACK
PUMPKINHEAD), or at least as a bad plan for characters we like (KABUMPO).
That strongly implies that Thompson knew most readers did *not* welcome
that prospect.

   Incidentally, in my months on the Digest, I've never seen anyone
criticize your ideas about Ozma's interests and eligibility in terms as
harsh as those you use yourself.
 
David Hulan wrote:
<<Marcia and I used the "forever and even longer" phrase from [KABUMPO] as
part of our wedding ceremony, and also had it engraved - in Cirth runes
from _Lord of the Rings_ - on our wedding rings.>>
 
Cute. Was it hard to find a Cirth engraver?
 
J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at compuserve.com

From: Nathan Mulac DeHoff <xornom at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Ozzy Digest, 06-10-99
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 10:27:48 PDT
 
David Hulan:
 >King Pompus and his counselors seem irrationally certain that Faleero is
 >the "proper fairy princess." They light on her without the slightest
 >consideration of the fact that Oz seems to be full of fairy princesses. At
 >least Kabumpo shows a certain amount of common sense on that issue, though
 >he doesn't rate high on it otherwise.
 
Another interesting consideration is that Ozma and Faleero are actual,
physical fairies, while Peg Amy doesn't seem to be.  Perhaps she's just a
fairy princess because she lives in a fairy country.  (In _Emerald City_,
Baum mentioned that all of the inhabitants of Oz are "fairy people.")  This
would mean that the "proper princess" could have been any princess in Oz,
though.
 
Nathan

Date: Mon, 14 Jun 99 08:35:33 CST
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: upsides in Oz
 
David Hulan: Took a look at the upsidedown illo on p. 25 you
mentioned, and sure enough, it's upsidedown.  Quite obviously so,
once it's pointed out, but I don't know that it's been pointed out
before.  (The BoW edition left it as it was.)
 
Ruth Berman

Date: Wed, 16 Jun 99 10:40:14 (PDT)
From: Dave Hardenbrook <DaveH47 at mindspring.com>
Subject: Ozzy Things
 
J.L. Bell ( A friend too, just not on *this* issue :) ) wrote:
 >For almost all her other princesses, Thompson did indeed supply such
 >suitors. She shied away from doing so for Ozma. Indeed, she presented the
 >suggestion of a husband for Ozma as a fate we should root against (JACK
 >PUMPKINHEAD), or at least as a bad plan for characters we like (KABUMPO)...
 
But as Ozma herself says, she "hardly knew" Pompa, and the other marriage
proposals she's received were hardly from ideal husbands.
 
 >That strongly implies that Thompson knew most readers did *not* welcome
 >that prospect.
 
Thompson *assumed* that... She didn't *know*...  We don't yet *know*
what general audience reaction will be if Ozma recieves a proposal from
someone who has proved himself worthy of her. (But we will!)
 
 >Incidentally, in my months on the Digest, I've never seen anyone
 >criticize your ideas about Ozma's interests and eligibility in terms as
 >harsh as those you use yourself.
 
You weren't around in the early days when I first proposed this story.
I really got it with both barrels then.  Nowadays, I think the most vicious
attackers have got it all off their chests and now the debate is more
*intellegent and reasonable.*  ( That was a hint to all those who want
this current round of the debate to continue :) )
 
I think this debate should exist... I just don't understand why some
insist on making it into such a polarizing issue.
 
FWIW, I consider you, John, to be my most worthy and respected opponent
on this issue because your arguments are based on intellegent and much-
believed-in principles.
 
And just so there's no misunderstanding, I do *not* think Robert Bakker's
theories are "heretical"...  :)
 
                              -- Dave

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 13:13:48 -0400
From: "J. L. Bell" <JnoLBell at compuserve.com>
Subject: Fairies cross the Mersey
 
Dave Hardenbrook wrote:
<<Thompson *assumed* that [her readers didn't want Ozma to marry]... She
didn't *know*.>>
 
As I recall, my remark was in response to a half-serious suggestion that
Thompson received letters from actual readers asking for Ozma to wed. That
supposition seems far less grounded than the belief that she, an
experienced writer for children, was aware of her audience's desire for
consistency.
 
J. L. Bell                  JnoLBell at compuserve.com

Date: Mon, 21 Jun 99 08:17:28 CST
From: "Ruth Berman" <berma005 at maroon.tc.umn.edu>
Subject: animals in oz
 
Dave Hardenbrook: I can't see any point to discussing "the
controversial subject (of Ozma's marriage and/or marriageability)" (in
J.L. Bell's phrase).  If one insists on the "Tin Woodman" view of no-
aging-in-Oz-at-all, then there's some small point to asking if Ozma is
old enough to get married, but on the RPT view of "aging-in-Oz-on-
demand," even that detail is pointless, because Ozma could choose to
grow a few years older if she wished to.  The general theoretical
question of "Could characters like Ozma, Polychrome, Glinda, or the 3
Adapts be imagined as getting married?" has a simple answer: "Yes.
Baum's Gayelette did, after all."  The real question isn't theoretical but
practical: "Would readers like a a story about Ozma in love?"  And that
question can only be answered with regard to specific stories.  Until
your (or anyone else's) Ozma-romance-story is published, so that
readers can read it and see how they like it, there's not much use to
going over the question of whether the readers who think they
wouldn't like such a story could be talked into thinking that they might.
No such argument would change minds.  It's a proof-of-the-pudding
situation, and the pudding hasn't been published yet.
 
Ruth Berman