Lawrence Kestenbaum (any connection??) wrote:

     Actually, it's *cross* of gold and crown of thorns.  Bryan's famous
     speech ended with: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor
     this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of
     gold."

     You're right--I stand corrected.

     The story about everybody reading political parallels into your story
     is wonderful.  Maybe there is something to the political connections
     to the Wizard of Oz.  I do tend to agree that the fact that the story
     as a whole doesn't add up to a consistent political message weakens
     the case.  On the other hand, if what is going on around you gets into
     your writing unconsciously or subconsciously or whatever, it probably
     WOULDN'T add up to a clear political message, since the purpose of the
     writing is not political.

     I found Baum fascinating.  I think of him as something like a computer
     spitting out random numbers--he just kept generating these wild plots
     and characters.  He must have churned all these books out at a
     feverish pace, so maybe they can be read as sort of "stream of
     consciousness" and analyzed that way.  That does seem more likely to
     me.  I always wondered about the transformation of Princess Ozma of Oz
     to a young man and wondered what little kids made of that.

     They are wonderfully entertaining books.

     Marilyn