On My Shelves: The Patchwork Girl of Oz

 

After The Emerald City of Oz, Baum originally intended to end the series. But both his tendency to spend money, and insistent legions of fans, showed this to be as futile an attempt as that of Conan Doyle to kill off Sherlock Holmes.

As he had deliberately had Oz sealed away from contact with the outside world, Baum showed one of his whimsical attempts at maintaining consistency in the introduction of The Patchwork Girl of Oz, stating that he had managed to establish a wireless (radio) link with Oz (with the Wizard and Shaggy Man providing the technological capability on the other end) so that he could continue to provide them with accounts of the adventures in that land.

Ojo, nicknamed "The Unlucky", is a young Munchkin boy who lives with his extremely laconic and elderly uncle "Unc Nunkie", also called "The Silent One", in a very remote corner of the Munchkin country. When their farm is failing, the two finally resolve to leave and seek another place where they can live.

On the way, the two stop by the only other living people within a considerable distance: the Crooked Magician, Dr. Pipt, and his wife Margolotte. The Crooked Magician is the inventor of a number of powerful magical charms, including the Liquid of Petrifaction and the awesome Powder of Life (from this we also can deduce that Pipt was the magician that old Mombi visited, way back in The Marvelous Land of Oz).

Dr. Pipt is engaged in making a new batch of the Powder of Life (which takes him six years of nigh-constant work), for the purpose of being able to animate a servant for his wife, so she doesn't have to keep doing all the work around the house. Margolotte has meanwhile been making the servant's body from a patchwork quilt, effectively making a full-sized cotton-stuffed figure of brilliant patchwork in the shape of a girl in a dress.

Pipt completes the Powder, and the next day uses it to bring the Patchwork Girl to life; but she moves suddenly, startling both Margolotte and Unc Nunkie into jumping back, upsetting the Liquid of Petrifaction onto both of them. With horror, Ojo sees that his uncle has been turned to pure marble, along with Dr. Pipt's wife. Moreover, the remaining Powder of Life was wasted, knocked aside in the same accident, and it cannot be used to bring the petrified people back to life.

 

Dr. Pipt tells Ojo that there is only one way to break the spell of the Liquid, made from five very rare ingredients: a six-leaved clover, three hairs from the tip of a Woozy's tail, a gill (a quarter of a pint) of water from a dark well (one that remains untouched by natural light), a drop of oil from a live man's body, and the left wing of a yellow butterfly. Ojo agrees to search for these ingredients, while Pipt begins the six-year process of making more Powder of Life, in case Ojo fails.

So begins another adventure-cum-travelogue in the land of Oz, but this one with a more serious object, and some very interesting characters. Ojo is the most serious, and even at times morose, major character we have yet met in the Oz novels. He believes his sobriquet of "The Unlucky" is a deserved one, and attributes any misfortune to his presence. A large part of the book is devoted to Ojo's determination to succeed in his quest and his development of attachments to his companions.

And odd companions those are. Initially Ojo is accompanied by the Glass Cat, the original result of Dr. Pipt's experimentation with the Powder, and the Patchwork Girl, now named Scraps. The Patchwork Girl is an impulsive, boisterous force of nature, due to her magical brains having been made far more capable – and perhaps a bit mixed – by Ojo; the boy had seen that Margolotte only intended to give her characteristics such as "Obedience" and "Amiability" and felt that was unfair, so added a large number of others ranging from Cleverness and Judgment to Poesy, Self-Reliance, and Courage.

Scraps is one of the most dynamic characters in Oz, and makes a perfect contrast to Ojo; she is an indomitably cheerful and optimistic, if occasionally scatterbrained, companion who is usually smarter than everyone around her when she chooses to be, spouting random verses of doggerel that actually have meaning, and with considerable physical energy. She has a tendency to steal the show whenever she's present; I suspect this is one reason that Baum actually used her sparingly in other books.

Ojo's journey across Oz is more than travelogue, although there is a lot of that as well. In his travels, he meets with new companions, and passes through threats both physical and moral.

One of the new companions is the Woozy, a very peculiar creature that is all rectangular blocks in design – legs like skinny rectangular blocks, a massive block for a body, a square block for a head – with only three hairs at the end of its tail; these are of course needed for the cure Ojo seeks. Fortunately, the Woozy is of a cheerful and kindly disposition and willingly offers the use of the three hairs – if they can get the hairs out, something not nearly so easy as it appears, as the Woozy has incredibly tough skin and the hairs are just as tough.

The travelers are captured by beautiful but carnivorous flowers later in their travels, but fortunately they are rescued by none other than the Shaggy Man, who is quite willing to escort them to the Emerald City. Along the way, Ojo discovers through conversation that picking a six-leaved clover is currently forbidden by Princess Ozma.

When Ojo spots such a clover at the roadside, he surreptitiously picks the plant, as he is afraid that Ozma will not grant him an exception. Unfortunately for him, this action is observed from afar (through Ozma's Magic Picture) and he is arrested for violating the law upon his arrival in the City.

 

(An amusing aside: This book caused me to ask my father if there were really clovers other than three-leaved, to which he replied that I should look and see. Searching for multi-leaved clovers turned into a minor hobby of mine and I got extremely good at it; my record was 54 four-leafed clovers, four five-leaf clovers, and one six-leafed clover found in a space of 5 minutes in one large, incredibly dense patch. I did find two seven-leafed clovers over the years I looked. I still occasionally survey clover patches even today.)

Baum shows us a rather different view of prison, however; the Prisons of Oz are pleasant places, with the only negative being that you may not leave until released. These jails or prisons are designed with the philosophy that those who commit crimes didn't do so because they were inherently evil, but because something caused them to be worried, unhappy, or otherwise desperate enough to commit a crime, and it is thus the job of the prison to try to rectify this and make the prisoners as happy as possible.

Despite a quite creditable attempt to defend Ojo in court by the Patchwork Girl, Ojo's guilt is established; however, Ozma pardons Ojo for his crime, and as the clover is already picked, allows him to retain it. Dorothy and the Scarecrow decide to accompany Ojo on his remaining quest; the Woozy and Glass Cat remain behind.

Shortly after their departure from Oz, the adventurers enconter one of Baum's more unfortunate creations, the dark-skinned playful childlike Tottenhots (for those unaware, "Hottentot" was a term for the Khoikhoi people of southwestern Africa and often used in a denigrating fashion). They serve little purpose in the narrative other than a momentary obstacle.

Another momentary obstacle has somewhat more long-term import; the caged yet still dangerous giant Mr. Yoop, a twenty-one foot tall monster who does indeed eat people if he can catch them; the Scarecrow figures out a way to get past him.

The party next encounters the Hoppers and Horners – underground peoples of generally kindly disposition who happen to have a dispute between their towns. The Hoppers are human except for the fact that they have a single powerful leg instead of two, and thus move by hoppy; the Horners have, of course, horns on their heads. The Horners are also fond of wordplay and jokes, while the Hoppers tend to be straightforward and not terribly good at getting jokes – which is the actual cause of the current crisis.

This section of the book is more interesting for the modern reader because it preserves a rather interesting, and very short-lived, period of history. The Hoppers and Horners live in a very radium-rich area, and mine and refine the metal. Most of their buildings and decorations are made of radium, and they ascribe all manner of benefits to the presence of this metal.

This was actually a current belief in the early part of the 20^th century, shortly after the discovery of the radioactive metal. Radium tonics, radium baths, all of these were thought to confer great benefits – ironically and tragically, of course, because as we know now, additional exposure to radium is not helpful, but damaging and even lethal.

In the deep radium mines of the Horners, Ojo finds the Dark Well he has been seeking. Now he had three of the five things he needs, and the group proceeds – through a few other obstacles, most prominently a tricky river that likes to reverse its flow regularly – to the Winkie country and the palace of the Tin Woodman.

An astute reader will have already anticipated that "a drop of oil from a live man's body" could be easily obtained from a Tin Woodman who oils himself frequently, and so it is that Ojo obtains the fourth of the ingredients of his quest – and instantly encounters an impassable barrier to obtaining the fifth and final ingredient.

For the Tin Woodman, upon hearing that the last ingredient is the wing of a yellow butterfly, absolutely forbids the maiming of a living creature within his domains, and of course no butterfly of the color yellow can be found outside of the Winkie country.

Fortunately, however, when the party returns to the Emerald City it is clear that Ozma has anticipated this, and Glinda and the Wizard are able to break the charm and free Unc Nunkie along with Margolotte – and renaming Ojo as Ojo the Lucky in the bargain.

The Patchwork Girl of Oz is certainly superior to The Road to Oz and a few others, but despite some strong virtues (not the least of those being the Patchwork Girl herself) is definitely in the second tier of Oz novels. The sudden deus ex machina solution, after cutting our hero's quest off at the knees, is rather jarring.

The resolution of the Crooked Magician's work is also somewhat disturbing; he was apparently taken from his home, all his work destroyed and brought to the palace. He's not apparently a prisoner, but it's still disturbing, as is the fact that he is then deprived of magic (although he is simultaneously cured of his nigh-crippling crooked frame).

To his credit, it seemed that Baum at least recognized how some of Ozma's policies might cause problems and addresses this to some extent in later books. This is the first book in which Ozma's decree is shown to be in force, and to be enforced; later stories will show how this directive of hers causes difficulties of its own, despite the fact that it was intended to remedy other problems.

An inconsistency with the Glass Cat is also introduced – her Pink Brains are said to have been replaced, making her more quiet and modest, but all future appearances of the Glass Cat show her as she was when we knew her earlier.

Mr. Yoop, of course, is relevant to Polychrome, as we even meet him, or what Mrs. Yoop makes of him, in that novel. I'll discuss that, though, when we actually reach the book in which Mrs. Yoop herself appears.

Otherwise, however, there is little in this book that has much affect on my work. The character of the Patchwork Girl, on the other hand, continues to be a bright spot in the Land of Oz, and so for that alone The Patchwork Girl of Oz is well worth a read!