Talk:Land of Oz

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I removed the fictional category template becuase Oz is technically not a country, its a region containing countries.--The_stuart 17:55, 30 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I think that's incredibly silly of you. Oz matches most of the criteria for what a typical person would call a fictional country. The categorization scheme is not meant to be an exact scientific tool, it's meant as a reference guide. Would you remove zuchinni and eggplants from the category of vegetables, because technically they're fruit? Suit yourself, I think the way categories currently function on Wikipedia is too confused anyway for me to expend much energy on questions like this, but I think if anything should be in the category of Fictional Countries, Oz is a prime example. --Woggly 07:29, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

To answer your question yes I would remove zuchinni and eggplants from the category of vegtable because they are technically fruit or at least make a very clear point some where in the article of this fact. If you want to categorize Oz as a fictional country go ahead, but it's misinformation.--The_stuart 16:31, 31 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Actually, Oz, IS a country. The four "countries" are equivalent to US states, with the Emerald City as its capital. Ozma rules ALL of Oz. Remember, Baum was creating an American fairy tale, and based Oz upon the United States's layout. If each "country" was a seperate nation, why would Ozma rule over them all? --[[User:JonMoore|—JonMoore 20:24, 29 May 2006 (UTC)]] 05:38, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Agreed. According to wiktionary, a country is "a nation state, a political entity asserting ultimate authority over a large geographical area," which is definitely Oz. There's also a definition that says "a former independent nation state (e.g., England or Scotland)" so perhaps that's what Munchkinland etc. are, but just because Wales and Scotland are countries doesn't mean that the U.K., by the first definition, is not.--Signor Giuseppe 15:12, 23 July 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 Wikipedia:WikiProject Oz 2 Origins of name 3 Is the Emerald City emerald? 4 Wiki style guide not followed.... 5 Geology

[edit] Wikipedia:WikiProject Oz

I have created a new WikiProject about Oz: WikiProject Oz. I hope to create a community to help guide the continued development of the articles about the series and its authors, characters, etc. toward even more quality articles. If you are interested, please add your name under the "Participants section" and please leave any comments or questions on the project's talk page or my user talk page. [[User:JonMoore|— —JonMoore 20:24, 29 May 2006 (UTC)]] 23:50, 12 August 2005 (UTC)

urrh...

"Perceptive cartographers will notice that on some maps of Oz, the west is drawn on the right-hand side of the map, and the east is drawn on the left-hand side, though north is still at the top and south at the bottom of the map. The compass rose on these maps is adjusted accordingly. "

This text appears directly below a map with the inverted east-westness, but NOT the inverted compass rose.

Someone may want to deal with this. I don't want to. However, for one opinion, Robert Heinlein suggests (claims, really) in his novel The Number of the Beast (which includes a jaunt to Oz in the storyline) that the directions really ARE reversed, and that east is west and west is east. Of course, this would just mean that Oz-Planet rotates the opposite direction from Earth (but would contradict suggestions that Nonestica is on Earth).

Dodger 23:11, 10 September 2005 (UTC)

Does it matter? The purpose of catagories is to make articles easier to find, not to satisfy the OCD compulsions of editors.

[edit] Origins of name

This version of Ozian history is problematic in that the Wizard named the country after himself even though it had been known as Oz and its rulers had been named Ozma for perhaps millennia. It is more likely that the story of the Wizard naming the land after himself is a type of retroactive continuity or revisionist history that attempted to explain the etymology of the name without a complete previous knowledge.

It's been a while since I read it, so I may be misremembering, but doesn't this get discussed in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz? If I recall correctly, the explanation there is that the Wizard thought he'd named the country after himself, but it was actually a coincidence. Daibhid C 23:05 17 December 2005 (UTC)

Another note by someone else: I'm not familiar with the Oz universe, but it seems to me that the renaming of Oz is more accurately described as a backronym, not as an example of retroactive continuity or revisionist history. --MikeBob 07:33, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is the Emerald City emerald?

I love this article - came across it via Clifford Pickover's site. One point, though: In the first book, the Emerald City is not really emerald, but merely appears that way because the Wizard obliges everyone to wear green glasses. In subsequent books, however, it seems pretty clear that the city really is emerald. Should this be mentioned in the article? Adambrowne666 21:58, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wiki style guide not followed....

I love Baum's books as well as anyone else here, but there's a definite problem with the fact that this entry is completely written in-universe. It's written as if Oz is a real place several times throughout the article. If you feel I'm just blowing hot-air, please refer to WP:WAF. WAF has several good examples of how this should be written, but I'd also like to point out one article, Bulbasaur, part of another project I've been working on. That is how you talk about fictional characters and places, not this. Any comments? Zappernapper 22:42, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Yes, this needs a total rewrite to conform to that standard. Goldfritha 00:50, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Geology

Not only is this entirely in universe -- is any of this in the books, as opposed to being speculation? Fun though it may be to treat the work as if the world-building is good and needs only to be explained, it is not suitable for Wikipedia. Goldfritha 00:50, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

this is actually why i've been unwilling to do anything major, even ignoring it for a while. There is so much that would have to be cut becuase i don't really have the sources to back anything up. -ΖαππερΝαππερ ^Babel_Alexandria 19:39, 25 November 2006 (UTC)