Question for my Friendslist on reading...

[seawasp]

As many of you know, I've been writing (and am about one chapter from finishing) an Oz homage/pastiche called "Polychrome". I'm curious about the proportion of people who would actually have any "connection" with it, so:

0) Before I mentioned it, how many of you were familiar in any way with the Land of Oz OUTSIDE of the movie starring Judy Garland?

1) How many of you had read any of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum?

2) How many of you read more than the first book ("The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", sometimes just "The Wizard of Oz")?

3) How many of you knew -- without being told, or without googling -- who Polychrome was?

4) How many of you have read or watched other Oz-related material NOT of the original Baum books (others of the Famous Forty, "Wicked", "Tin Man", etc.)?

5) For the last group, do any people who have watched or read this other material have THEIR impressions of the land of Oz more from these secondary sources than from the original?

My guess is that even in the group of my friendslist -- which of course will be disproportionately weighted towards readers of SF and fantasy -- it will be a pretty small minority who would answer "yes" to even question 0. And that there may well be at least a few people whose impressions of the Land of Oz will have come from (A) the Judy Garland movie, and (B) other pastiche works such as Wicked and Tin Man.

[EDIT:] So far, rather as I expected. A fair number who really don't know much beyond the Garland film, quite a few who've read two or more of the books, a smaller number who remember Polychrome directly, and a couple who've formed their impressions primarily from secondary works.

Comments

[rezendi.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes; no, no, no.

[patricksmalone.livejournal.com]

0) Yes
1) Yes
2) Yes
3) No
4) Yes
5) No

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

0) Before I mentioned it, how many of you were familiar in any way with the Land of Oz OUTSIDE of the movie starring Judy Garland?
Yes.

1) How many of you had read any of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum?
Yes.

2) How many of you read more than the first book ("The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", sometimes just "The Wizard of Oz")?
Yes.

3) How many of you knew -- without being told, or without googling -- who Polychrome was?
No; but it's been some time since I read any of the books.

4) How many of you have read or watched other Oz-related material NOT of the original Baum books (others of the Famous Forty, "Wicked", "Tin Man", etc.)?
No.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

0) yes
1) yes
2) no
3) no
4) no
5) no

-- Steve'll confess that it's been so long since he's read Wizard of Oz that his recollection of it is likely highly influenced by the much-more-recently viewed movie. Haven't read it since childhood...

[tamahori]

0) Yes ... in fact I've never _seen_ the movie.

1) I think I've read all of them, but it was a long while ago, so memories are vague.

2) See above. When I was a kid I sat down and worked my way though all of them.

3) I have no idea ... too long ago that I read the books.

4) I've seen Tin Man, keep meaning to read Wicked one of these days.

5) I think my impression is mainly based off the original books. Tin Man was a fun series, but different enough from the core concept that it occupies a different 'slot in memory' as it were.

-- Brett, off to goggle Polychrome.

[seawasp]

"Goggle" Polychrome. An apropos choice of word, if one that could be a bit dangerous.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

0. YES.

1. Yes.

2. I've read all of the Baum books and used to own all but one.

3. I LOVE Polychrome, always have. One of my favorites.

4. All of the Baum, some of the Thompson, one(?) Reilly, both Snow, no to 39, yes to 40. Read Farmer's Barnstormer, and a very odd recent book starring Ozma with a Parrot-Ox (I know) which gave a good shot at reconciling conflicting canon(s) via quantum theory.

5. I consider Magical Mimics (Snow) part of my personal canon/fanon, as well as parts of Ojo in Oz. Other than that, Baum books only.

[sub-musashi.livejournal.com]

All "no" for me.

[elainegrey.livejournal.com]

0) Before I mentioned it, how many of you were familiar in any way with the Land of Oz OUTSIDE of the movie starring Judy Garland?
Was familiar

1) How many of you had read any of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum?
Raises hand.

2) How many of you read more than the first book ("The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", sometimes just "The Wizard of Oz")?
Raises hand. I think i've not read the first book, actually, just The Marvelous Land of Oz

3) How many of you knew -- without being told, or without googling -- who Polychrome was?
*looks around & trundles off to Wikipedia*

4) How many of you have read or watched other Oz-related material NOT of the original Baum books (others of the Famous Forty, "Wicked", "Tin Man", etc.)?
I think i've seen shorts, but i don't think i've seen any feature length work.

5) For the last group, do any people who have watched or read this other material have THEIR impressions of the land of Oz more from these secondary sources than from the original?

[von-krag.livejournal.com]

Yes to all 5 for me. I've passed down all me copies of the books to my grandkids, miss'm I do.

[seawasp]

Yes to ALL of them? You've read all the books but you form your impressions more from the secondary sources? :)

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the books or seen the movie. Nor am I familiar with the other stuff.

(It's a lot more popular in the US than outside it, although I may be an outlier in not even having seen the Judy Garland film.)

[missingvolume.livejournal.com]

Yes, Yes, yes up to book book 8, she sounds familiar but I didn't bother to google, no,

[nwhyte]

0) Before I mentioned it, how many of you were familiar in any way with the Land of Oz OUTSIDE of the movie starring Judy Garland? Me!

1) How many of you had read any of the Oz books by L. Frank Baum? - Yes, read the first book earlier this year.

2) How many of you read more than the first book ("The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", sometimes just "The Wizard of Oz")? - no.

3) How many of you knew -- without being told, or without googling -- who Polychrome was? Not me.

4) How many of you have read or watched other Oz-related material NOT of the original Baum books (others of the Famous Forty, "Wicked", "Tin Man", etc.)? Only the Heinlein stuff in Number of the Beast.

5) For the last group, do any people who have watched or read this other material have THEIR impressions of the land of Oz more from these secondary sources than from the original? No, I take Baum as original.

[tachs.livejournal.com]

yes, yes, no, yes (Tinman, Heinlein's number of the beast, PJF's Barnstormer in Oz), yes

[dsrtao]

0 Yes
1 Yes
2 Yes -- four or five or so.
3 No
4 Yes
5 No

[elainegrey.livejournal.com]

Nice Polychrome icon!

[seawasp]

Thank you. I have several, looking for more.

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of the existence of everything you've mentioned (plus some stuff you didn't like the recent comic adaptations), but all I've read/seen was Judy Garland.

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

Oh wait...
4) I have read all of Cheshire Crossing (that's available so far).

5) But that seems to stick pretty close to Judy Garland.

[hallerlake.livejournal.com]

0: of course!
1 and 2: I seem to recall there being fourteen or so of them; loved 'em as a kid.
3: oh sure, rainbow faerie
4: Yeah, but most of 'em don't hold up.
5: Heck no. Despised "Wicked". "Tin Man" was unmemorable.

[kayshapero]

0 yes
1 yes
2 yes
3 yes
4 yes
5 no

[oneminutemonkey.livejournal.com]

Yay Polychrome!

I own the original thirteen, and either own or have read a number of the remaining Famous Forty, thanks to reprints encountered along the way or my great-aunt's collection (which I yearn to acquire someday...). And I've stumbled across various other homages/pastiches/inspired bys, including the much-derided but strangely-fascinating Return to Oz.

Does your work have the Shaggy Man? :>

[seawasp]

Shaggy's not really in it. He'll likely be mentioned in the last chapter I'm writing, but of the Oz (and related lands) characters directly involved for any significant length of time, the only ones you'd know would be Polychrome, Ruggedo and Kaliko, Inga of Pingaree and Rinkitink, and in short sections Ozma, plus the main villains Ugu and Mrs. Yoop (though she's changed her name).

[shana.livejournal.com]

yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no.

[randallsquared.livejournal.com]

yes, yes, no, no, no, --

[kira-snugz.livejournal.com]

0. the first book i ever read on my own was a comic version of 'the return to oz' i was about five.
1. yes
2. yes
3. nope, its been ages
4. wicked and Tinman
5. nope. my impression is from the comic, then the movie, though i do like the Tinman 'verse. mostly because of the outfit they put CKR in.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Mm, let me see. 0, yes.

1, yes; I think I'm around five or six Baum-written Oz books read.

2, yes. I'd have to dig around my boxes of books to say exactly which ones, mind, but I usually figure it out pretty soon if I pick one up in the bookstore and leaf through trying to figure if I've read it before.

3, yes, more or less. Although I believe you're responsible (through Usenet chatter) for the first time I heard of her, I don't believe I put any particular weight on the mention; I'd subsequently encountered Polychrome and remembered you going on about her.

4, yes, particularly Wicked, Return To Oz, and how would you count the Muppets Wizard of Oz? Not to mention that little stretch in the late 70s/early 80s when every Hanna Barbera cartoon felt the need to do an Oz story for some reason. (My guess would be the original book falling out of copyright.)

5, well, yeah, my initial impression is from the 1939 movie; it's been supplemented by the original books and by other people's takes on it. I don't believe my impressions of the Real Oz are affected by Wicked or Philip Jose Farmer or so (of course, who can say for certain?), but I do recognize some of Return To Oz and those Baum-financed silent movies in it. And then there's some bits from pastiches/homages people in text-based online roleplaying games put together. (Including, come to think of it, one person whose character dressed as Polychrome for a Halloween party.)

[meril.livejournal.com]

My answers would be yes to every question except for #5.

...I almost played Polychrome in one of those LJ-based freeform fanfic RPGs, btw. I just had an absurd time trying to find something for an icon, so I didn't do it. :(

[seawasp]

Took me a while to find the icons. One of them I scanned from the book in order to have it.

[purplekitte.livejournal.com]

0) yes
1) yes
2) yes, if not all of them
3) no
4) Wicked books and musical, Tin Man
5) mostly from the Judy Garland movie. Visiting my family all my childhood meant there were only four video tapes available and Wizard of Oz was one of them.

My roommate on the other hand once spent a night and took up half our wall making a detailed map of Oz in post-it notes, superimposing original, Wicked, and Tin Man canons.

[seawasp]

Now THAT'S dedication. Or OCD, I'm not sure which.