Whatever the Color, Follow the Money

[peristaltor]

For too long now, I have been remiss in a promise I made to alobar. For too long, I have been contemplating writing about L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the money parables others have found in it, but not writing it. So, fresh from a road trip to the Oregon Country Fair, today I sat down to actually write it . . . and found out that

Comments

[sealwhiskers]

I can't really say if Baum was a democrat/populist or not, I'd have to read quite a bit more on the subject to figure that out, but I do know a bit about how things were written in the 19th century and both earlier and later (as I've had to learn how to research and read contemporary documents of various times). After reading the poem and the piece you are linking to, where David B. Parker is in doubt about Baum's affiliations because of it, I have to say that I'm agreeing with him, unless there is further evidence, simply for the reason that ironic quotation marks didn't start to appear in text until well into the 20th century. It would have been very pioneer like indeed of Baum to use them in the way you think they are. And what's more, most who read it would certainly not get it

[peristaltor]

Interesting. I've read quite a few period pieces myself, but mostly pre-Victorian where the odd capitalizations can throw one off. That's a bit easier to deal with than odd punctuation