A couple of weeks ago, I received an email that began, “Only in crazy academia land” . . .
And then today I was reading an article by David Denby in the New Yorker about the director of The Wizard of Oz, and came across this:
Academics have told me [Denby] that “Oz” is a mythic structure, a descendant of the Odyssey or the Aeneid, but they look at me blankly when I say that the movie is also a summa of nineteen-thirties show business.
What kinds of academics was he talking with?? I’m no expert, but even I know that Dorothy’s sidekicks were old vaudevillians.
Denby goes on about how great The Wizard of Oz is. I think it’s ok, but I bet that much of its fame arises from it being shown once every year on TV. When we were kids, we would watch it every year. I’m guessing that there are a bunch of other movies made around the same time that are just great, but they didn’t get that kind of exposure.
"I'm guessing that there are a bunch of other movies made around the same time that are just great…"
1939 was a good year for movies. Check out http://www.popculturemadness.com/Trivia/Oscars/To…
Outstanding production nominees (GWTW won)
Dark Victory (Warner Bros.-First National)
Gone With the Wind (Selznick; MGM)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (MGM)
Love Affair (RKO Radio)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Columbia)
Ninotchka (MGM)
Of Mice and Men (Hal Roach; United Artists)
Stagecoach (Walter Wanger; United Artists)
The Wizard of Oz (MGM)
Wuthering Heights (Goldwyn; United Artists)
Personally, I think I will read all of your books twice before I read another Denby article.
To answer Andrew's two questions:
1. Academics are almost as fun as political pundits as a source of humorous quotes.
2. The academics to whom Denby spoke were presumably either (a) not American, or (b) the kind of academics who study pop culture without actually partaking in it.
There's an extensive debate in academia about the allegorical nature of Oz. Googling for <site:.edu "wizard of oz"> is illuminating. For instance, you can combine econ and lit crit in poli sci journals (e.g. ‘The “Wizard of Oz” as a Monetary Allegory).
There's even a market in 'customized' Oz-as-Odyssey term papers.
Bob: I wouldn't let Denby off the hook that easily. His implication was that academics are ivory-tower types, unlike real-world people such as himself who know about gritty things such as vaudeville. But what I got out of it is that he hangs out with the wrong sort of academics and doesn't even realize it.