A few people have asked me about the subtitle to Finding Oz, wondering whether it would be more accurate to say that L. Frank Baum "created" the great American story rather than "discovered" it. The question gets to the heart of invention and imagination.

Baum himself noted that he did not actively set out to create The Wizard of Oz, even though in a sense you could say he was searching for it his whole life. "It was pure inspiration," he once said. "It came to me right out of the blue. I think that sometimes the Great Author has a message to get across, and He has to use the instrument at hand. I happened to be that medium."

His sudden discovery of a story that had been brewing for many years is consistent with what many great artists have related in describing moments of inspiration.

For instance, Paul Simon has said that his most inspired songs were not actively created. "If I make it up, knowing where it's going, it's not as much fun," he tells Paul Zollo in Songwriters on Songwriting (2003). "It may be just as good, but it's more fun to discover it ... in the underground river of the subconscious ... it comes to the surface occasionally and you have to capture it when it happens." Then he switches metaphors. "It comes through you, but you don't possess it. You can't control it or dictate it. You're just waiting ... waiting for the show to begin."

Stephen King, in his memoir On Writing (2000), reveals something similar about his story generation process. "My basic belief about the making of stories is that they pretty much make themselves," King writes. "Stories are found things, like fossils in the ground ... stories are relics, part of an undiscovered, pre-existing world. The writer's job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox to get as much of each one out of the ground as intact as possible."

So which is it? A divine message? A signal from space? A river of dreams? A buried treasure? It's whatever works. But if I had to pick one word for the process, I would say 'discover' fits a bit better than 'create.'

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Just back from a special Valentine's Day class of Power Yoga focusing on the opening up of the heart. So what's the connection between Oz and Yoga? yoga0724.jpgWell, I remain a beginner at yoga, but listening to the teacher, Becky, and knowing Oz, it's clear that both are about self-discovery, about finding inner strength, and about realizing that home is really a state of being. As readers of Finding Oz know, these and other spiritual concepts informed L. Frank Baum in the years leading up to his creation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.



While living in Chicago in the early 1890s, Baum joined the Theosophy movement. And spiritual awareness in the city reached new heights during the 1893 World's Fair. The surprise sensation of the enormous expo was a guru from India, Swami Vivekananda, who introduced Eastern thought to the West and spoke of the Four Yogas: meditations on wisdom, compassion, courage and inner peace. These four paths would suggest the journeys of the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, the Lion and Dorothy in Baum's novel. To this day, the Swami's electrifying speeches
swami vivekananda way.jpgat Chicago's Art Institute are commemorated with a street naming, a reminder of the spiritual enlightenment that the Swami brought to America... Namaste.
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Now that James Cameron has surpassed himself with a new all-time global box office champ, a lot of people are calling Avatar "the most popular movie of all time." At first glance, it seems so.

But seriously, it's not even close. Not by a long-shot. Adjusted for inflation, it currently ranks #25, about even with Grease, according to boxofficemojo, with 1939's Gone With the Wind still fluttering at the top. But in terms of total number of viewers, that other film from 1939 takes the cake.

CBS calculated in 1983 that a billion people worldwide had seen The Wizard of Oz. The Library of Congress has called Oz the most-seen movie of all time. Estimates now range from Two to Three Billion viewers, including old-style network TV and home video.

By comparison, about 200 Million people have seen Avatar so far (if average ticket prices are $10). So it's the Munchkins over the Na'vi, as the film based on L. Frank Baum's novel seems fairly secure as the reigning champ of our collective consciousness.

In related news, Cameron tells NPR's Terry Gross that The Wizard of Oz is hands down his favorite film.

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"You're not in Kansas anymore," declares the pumped-up colonel dude in AVATAR. And so the action begins, with the biggest blockbuster (so far) of the 21st century invoking the best-known movie of the 20th century. Already, an argument has broken out about James Cameron's epic, between those who believe the film is a masterpiece and those who only love the spectacular visuals yet don't care for the story and its message about destroying what we don't bother to see. But this forced split between the special effects and the movie's meaning misses the entire point, not just of AVATAR but of storytelling itself. avatar4.jpgAVATAR takes place in the year 2154, when the Earth is dying or dead, and when a corporate-sponsored colonel marshals troops and technology to conquer planet Pandora and its blue natives, the Na'vi, in order to obtain the ultimate MacGuffin, a precious mineral called "Unobtainium." There are sly references to the war in Iraq, including a "shock and awe" line. More generally, the parable alludes to the mindset that goes along with any conquest, especially America's own conquest of the Native Americans in the 19th century and European mining of Africa. Through his avatar body, the main character, ex-Marine Jake Sully, experiences a glowing landscape and meets its nature-bound people before the destruction is to commence. And we are transported to this wonderland along with him. That is why the story and the spectacle cannot be separated. They go hand in hand. The visuals were created so we can enter this world, so this exact tale can be told.

Thumbnail image for avatar.jpgThe message of the movie is not subtle. AVATAR is a direct strike at the arrogance of human greed and militarism and how it is accelerating the destruction of our planet. Why do this, many are asking? Why not use the stunning visuals to tell a different story, a more comforting one, so I can simply just be entertained? 
The answer is because James Cameron is a great storyteller in addition to a great filmmaker. He taps into the symbolic dream language we all share (see Jung post below), and he does it for a purpose.

Like The Wizard of Oz, AVATAR is a transformation of consciousness story. Whereas Oz points to a new way of thinking about one's self and one's own happiness, AVATAR points to a new way of thinking about other civilizations and the majesty of nature. Granted, the plot line draws on prior myths (see Pocahantas). And other films (like Oz) enlighten and entertain with far more humor. But in today's climate, maybe Cameron felt he didn't have the luxury of being gentle. After all, we're running out of time.
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I've been fascinated by the release of Carl Jung's long-hidden Red Book, an illustrated diary that the great psychologist kept to explore his own psyche. What he found was that his tormented inner journey reflected the archetypes, the symbolic dream language that forms the basis of all mythology. But what does any of this have to do with the story behind The Wizard of Oz ?
RedBook.jpg
an illustration from "The Red Book" by C.G. Jung
Well, as readers of Finding Oz know, I quote Jung as well as his disciple, mythologist Joseph Campbell, at certain points in the narrative, as a way to highlight L. Frank Baum's struggles and triumph. In forming the Land of Oz, Baum had to tap into what Jung later called the "collective unconscious." In this symbolic realm, melting a wicked witch serves much the same purpose as slaying a dragon. In many ways, Finding Oz is about finding that place we all share, the land of the hero and his (or her) mythic adventure.

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In a town called Orange that actually has a street called Yellow Brick Road, the library hosted our literary and musical revue, billed as "Secrets of Oz: from Baum's Classics to Wicked." We had a great turnout and the librarian called it the most fun and successful event of the year. So what went on between the stacks?
secretsofoz-20091112-orange-pub-library-oz-presentation.jpgThis was a reprise of the program we all did in Peekskill in September, but now the act is more together. In 90 minutes, we cover over a century of storytelling and song.

audience-orange-pub-library-oz-presentation.jpgMy talk about L. Frank Baum and his inspirations was followed by Carol de Giere's presentation about the making of Wicked, as told in DEFYING GRAVITY, her biography of composer Stephen Schwartz. Then came the music, from a pair of true talents: Carole Demas (the original "Sandy" in Grease) performing tunes from the 1939 classic film as well as rare numbers from the 1902 Oz stage musical, and Lara Janine ("Elphaba" from Wicked in Japan) singing "The Wizard and I" and "Defying Gravity." Add a sing-a-long, a book signing, some coffee and cookies, and you end up with a magical night at the library.

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The thing about LA is that you're always competing with celebrities. For my reading at Book Soup, I was listed on an event schedule along with heavyweights such as Hulk Hogan and Al Gore. But on my side I had the story of L. Frank Baum and The Wizard of Oz.  So, how'd it go?
evan reading.JPGWell, somehow, we managed to draw enough people and sell enough books to land on the store's weekly bestseller list, edging out Alicia Silverstone's diet advice. I say, "take that, Mr. Five Time WWF Champ."

Book Soup - Hardcover Non-Fiction Bestsellers (Nov. 1 - 7, 2009)

1. Life as a Visitor by Angella M. Nazarian
2. Priceless Memories by Bob Barker
3. High on Arrival by Mackenzie Phillips
4. Cornflakes with John Lennon by Robert Hilburn
5. Finding Oz by Evan I. Schwartz
6. Enemies of the People by Kati Marton
7. Canyon of Dreams by Harvey Kubernik
8. Fierce Style by Christian Siriano
9. The Kind Diet by Alicia Silverstone
10. Miss O'Dell by Chris O'Dell
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'Twas a Great & Powerful "Oz-tober" weekend in Chicago, where a tour bus morphed into a time machine, whirling us back to the days of L. Frank Baum & the origins of Oz.

Oz Park Tin Man 1.JPGWe gathered around the Tin Man and visited the Scarecrow on our walk in Oz Park, as captured by WGN-TV. All in all, the Chicago History Museum did a fantastic job organizing, hosting and promoting the weekend.

Oz-tober in Chicago - 11.jpg

The sold-out Oz Bus Tour featured a journey to the only remaining fairgrounds building from the 1893 Columbian Expo, the place that inspired Baum's conception of the Emerald City.


Oz-tober in Chicago - 44.jpg Oz-tober in Chicago - 19.jpgThis plaque marks the Chicago corner near Humboldt Park, where Baum lived when he wrote his original Oz novel in 1898-99.

For more photos, please join the FINDING OZ group on Facebook.


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I'm heading to Chicago to lead the celebration of OZ-TOBER with the CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM. In 1893, L. Frank Baum attended the glimmering Columbian Exposition here, a majestic city-within-a-city that miraculously rose up on the waterfront. The jaw-dropping World's Fair would draw one in four Americans and would inspire Baum's conception of the Emerald City of Oz.
Chicago_Columbian_Exposition_.jpgThe festivities kick off on Thursday evening at the Music Box Theatre, where I'll introduce a special screening of the Judy Garland classic, continues on Saturday with some magical history, an Oz Bus Tour to the places in town that figured in Baum's life and sparked his imagination. On Sunday morning, we'll walk Oz Park, and finally on Sunday afternoon, a FINDING OZ book talk and signing at the museum. Please tell your Windy City friends, and if you're in or near Chicago, please join us.

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Yours truly is quoted saying this in a fun BBC America segment of "Talking Movies." Host Tom Brook gives proper due to L. Frank Baum and notes that The Wizard of Oz was named by the Library of Congress as the most-seen movie of all time. With appearances by the surviving Munchkins, a hot-air balloon and Dorothy and Toto, too.
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