14 July 2011

Heil Ozma

The Daily Ozmapolitan unearthed this story from the Hays (Kansas) Daily Times about a new novel: Adolf Hitler in Oz, by Sam Sackett.
"It is an Oz Book, so it is a children's book, but it isn't for children," Sackett said. "It doesn't have sex or anything in it, but it deals with philosophical themes, political themes and psychological themes. All of this could be completely lost on a kid."

In the book, Hitler rallies portions of the Oz population to his side. After becoming the Reichschancellor of Oogaboo, he turns its people into a military unit. He incorporates the people of Runnymead, who like to run, into his Panzer unit and incorporates the winged monkeys into his Luftwaffe division.

"He has a pretty formidable army for Oz by the time he gets to the Emerald City," Sackett said.
The fictional Hitler’s minions also include Laurel and Hardy.

Is this the work of some juvenile whippersnapper who doesn’t understand Hitler’s symbolic weight (not to mention Laurel and Hardy’s)? Actually, Sackett is a retired professor. His article “The Utopia of Oz,” published in The Georgia Review in 1960, was one of the earliest academic studies of the Oz mythos.

Sackett has built his story on L. Frank Baum’s Oz books, not the MGM movie. He published through Xlibris, so the sample chapter is our best clue to the book’s entertainment value.

5 comments:

Glenn Ingersoll said...

Sadly, it doesn't look like it's going to be Funny.

J. L. Bell said...

Would a funny Hitler really be better? Or a serious Hitler in a funny Oz?

Glenn Ingersoll said...

Imagine the hilarity of the munchkin death march across the deadly desert, the blind obedience of the Winkie Youth, the Night of a Thousand Emerald-Studded Knives, the lightning invasion of Bunbury!

David Lee Ingersoll said...

Nazis in Oz isn't new. I wonder if Mr. Sackett has read Oz Squad?

J. L. Bell said...

Well, Adolf Hitler isn’t just any Nazi.