Brain Furniture
In Oz, land of golems, character's histories often include accounts of the way they received their brains (the Scarecrow, Bungle the Glass Cat). We witness the creation of one such: Scraps, the Patchwork Girl of Oz, is one of many oz golems born into slavery. The (physically) crooked magician Dr. Pipt has spent six years brewing a powder of life with which to animate a serveant for his wife, Marglotte. Marglotte has formed Scraps out of a crazy quilt, saying that if she tires of the doll's brightly patched face she can always whitewash it. Reminded by a munchkin boy to add brains, she exclaims:
"I am glad you reminded me of them, for it is not too late to supply them, by any means. Until she is brought to life I can do anything I please with this girl. But I must be careful not to give her too much brains, and those she has must be such as are fitted to the station she is to occupy in life. In other words, her brains mustn't be very good."
According to L. Frank Baum, the "furniture" of a brain are:
"Obedience," "Cleverness*," "Judgment," "Courage," "Ingenuity," "Amiability," "Learning," "Truth," "Poesy," "Self Reliance."
Marglotte furnishes Scraps with only Obedience, some Cleverness, Amiability, and Truth, but when her back is turned Ojo the Unlucky, the munchkin boy, sprinkles a bit of each other quality. The Patchwork girl awakes jolly, highly clever and somewhat nuts. She speaks in uninspiring rhymes:
"Yoop-te-hoop-te-loop-te-goop!
Who put noodles in the soup?
We may beware but we don't care,
And dare go where we scare the Yoop."
Baum is an awful writer, but he excuses himself through his characters, who frequently remark on Scrap's "overdose" of poesy.
*"Let's see," she remarked; "I was about to give my girl a little 'Cleverness,' which is the Doctor's substitute for 'Intelligence'--a quality he has not yet learned how to manufacture."
"I am glad you reminded me of them, for it is not too late to supply them, by any means. Until she is brought to life I can do anything I please with this girl. But I must be careful not to give her too much brains, and those she has must be such as are fitted to the station she is to occupy in life. In other words, her brains mustn't be very good."
According to L. Frank Baum, the "furniture" of a brain are:
"Obedience," "Cleverness*," "Judgment," "Courage," "Ingenuity," "Amiability," "Learning," "Truth," "Poesy," "Self Reliance."
Marglotte furnishes Scraps with only Obedience, some Cleverness, Amiability, and Truth, but when her back is turned Ojo the Unlucky, the munchkin boy, sprinkles a bit of each other quality. The Patchwork girl awakes jolly, highly clever and somewhat nuts. She speaks in uninspiring rhymes:
"Yoop-te-hoop-te-loop-te-goop!
Who put noodles in the soup?
We may beware but we don't care,
And dare go where we scare the Yoop."
Baum is an awful writer, but he excuses himself through his characters, who frequently remark on Scrap's "overdose" of poesy.
*"Let's see," she remarked; "I was about to give my girl a little 'Cleverness,' which is the Doctor's substitute for 'Intelligence'--a quality he has not yet learned how to manufacture."