Adult issues in Oz

[Amy Z]

Dave wrote on the main list:

>Although extremely charming, imaginative, and
>well loved by people like me, the fact remains that
>Oz (save for the wrtitings of "heretics", like me) is a
>world in which all the conceivable "adult" issues have
>been totally expunged -- There is no death, no "finding
>one's hormones", no Voldemort-like villians (only the
>ranting, moustache-twirling variety), and certainly no
>complex people like Snape or Crouch, Sr. (i.e. everyone
>is either all-good or all-evil).

Ive only read one Oz book, myself (The Land of), but a huge Oz fan in my 
church gave a sermon on Oz in which he talked about Baums life and 
convictions, and connected them very convincingly to various passages in 
which such things as prison practices are satirized:  amusingly, but, to an 
adult ear, very sharply.  I cant cite chapters or even books, but I was 
quite convinced.  I imagine his 6-year-old son misses many of the 
references, but that they sink in, the same way Vernons rant about hanging 
em all at the start of PoA plants an anti-death-penalty seed in the minds 
of young Sirius fans.

Also, re: scariness and such, I only saw the movie, didnt read the book(s) 
it was based on, but in Return to Oz, the Nome King, Momby, and most 
especially the Wheelers were some of the scariest things Ive ever seen (MAN 
that was a scary movie).  Are the books tamer than this movie suggested?

Amy Z

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