QOTD

[randy_byers]

The proud spirit of the original owners of these vast prairies inherited through centuries of fierce and bloody wars for their possession, lingered last in the bosom of Sitting Bull. With his fall the nobility of the Redskin is extinguished, and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced; better that they die than live the miserable wretches that they are. History would forget these latter despicable beings, and speak, in latter ages of the glory of these grand Kings of forest and plain that Cooper loved to heroise. We cannot honestly regret their extermination, but we at least do justice to the manly characteristics possessed, according to their lights and education, by the early Redskins of America.

-- L. Frank Baum, editorial for the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer, December 20, 1890

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was published ten years later on May 17, 1900.

Comments

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

We're talking joyful and triumphant.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

Well, triumphant anyway.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

As Sellar and Yeatman would say, "Wrong but Wromantic." He'd exterminate these remaining wretches for the aesthetic purpose of exalting their ancestors!

Yep, this was a guy who was better off writing fiction, where'd he be less likely to harm somebody.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

If anybody needs evidence of the link between the Noble Savage myth and genocide ...

[scream4noreason.livejournal.com]

Thank god he's not in Kansas anymore.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

You win the thread, dude.

Wizard of Oz (1925)

[(Anonymous)]

The first Wizard of Oz film, from 1925, is awesomely racist. A black farmhand was added for the sole purpose of being a watermelon-eating, English-mangling fool. The VHS packaging comments that it is "slightly different than the MGM version starring Judy Garland". Indeed.

Re: Wizard of Oz (1925)

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

There are actually earlier film versions of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The earliest I'm seeing on IMDb is from 1910. Baum himself directed His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz in 1914. I've seen The Patchwork Girl of Oz from 1914, and my memory is that it was pretty interesting.

Re: Wizard of Oz (1925)

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting. (Shoulda thought of IMDB myself...) The VHS packaging refers to it as "This original 1925 film", which I read as "first". The nuanced language of marketing is always entertaining. I suppose they were distinguishing it from those knock-off 1925 films one sees everywhere.

-- Denys

[mcjulie.livejournal.com]

Yowch.

I'm so glad the editions of the Oz books that I read did have the fabulous art nouveau illustrations and did not have any additional commentary by Mr. Baum.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I haven't read much of his fiction, but I don't remember any of this "exterminate the savages" business showing up in what I've read.

[richardthe23rd.livejournal.com]

"Genocide would just be doing them a favor!"

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

"This is for your own good."

[richardthe23rd.livejournal.com]

"Extermination is too good for them! No, really!"

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

"We had to burn the village to save the village."