The Lion and the Unicorn

Hastings, A. Waller.
Worshiping at the altar of Oz
The Lion and the Unicorn - Volume 21, Number 2, April 1997, pp. 281-283

The Johns Hopkins University Press

A. Waller Hastings - Book Review: Worshiping at the Altar of Oz (Review of Paul Nathanson, Over the Rainbow: The Wizard of Oz as a Secular Myth of America) - The Lion and the Unicorn 21:2 The Lion and the Unicorn 21.2 (1997) 281-283 Book Review Worshiping at the Altar of Oz A. Waller Hastings Paul Nathanson. Over the Rainbow: The Wizard of Oz as a Secular Myth of America. Albany: State U of New York P, 1991. MGM's 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz enjoys an unusual, if not a unique, status among the artifacts of American popular culture. Even now, nearly sixty years after The Wizard of Oz was released, images of the oddly mixed quartet of adventurers traveling down the Yellow Brick Road, of the Wicked Witch of the West plotting her revenge on the innocent girl, of the fraudulent wizard ensconced in his glistening castle appear repeatedly in the most unexpected contexts. When something strange and unexpected happens in the otherwise mundane world, someone is sure to say, "Toto, we're not in Kansas any more"--and everyone within hearing will know precisely what is meant. Comic strips, print and television ads, movies and television shows, novels and...