Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 09:28:32 -0800
From: Michael Andre-Driussi 
Subject: Re: (urth) FLF: the four and who/what they are

Roy wrote:
>I can't address the OZ stuff, so just a few notations. Pink is often
>mentioned in connection with Candy, especially her hands. She was wearing a
>garish pink robe in the morning before she took Free to breakfast. She
>changed into a pink sweater and black skirt. Her open-toed sandals were also
>pink. FWIW.

Good points.  I took the pinkness of her fingers as pointers to her pale
skin color.  Her pink and black clothes were worn, iirc, when she was "off
duty."  In any event, I believe there are strong connections between Candy
and the color white, just as there are links between the witch and black.

Re Stubb, Roy wrote:
>I took his name to be related to his height. As in stubby.

Sure, that's there.  I didn't mean to exclude it.

>The "hard boiled"
>persona is straight out of old books/movies. IIRC, at one point Stubb even
>recalls one such movie role played by Robert Mitchum.

Odd thing about that movie: I couldn't find it using the very useful
Internet Movie Database.  Sure, Robert Mitchum shows up, but there is no
movie listed with him and "Linda Loring," in fact, iirc, there is no
listing for a "Linda Loring" at all.

From the notes in FLF, one might think that "Hellcats of the Navy" is about
Naval pilots.  It is about a submarine.

I will agree that my accuracy was off in writing that Stubb has an
inability to feel: after all, I previously wrote that he was choleric!  To
ammend it, I would say that Stubb wants to have a "heart," that is, he
should have feelings of a more positive, sanguinary nature; and this
wanting to have a heart is a tenuous link to the Tin Man (who wants to have
all feelings).

>As for assigning OZ roles: there is one point, near the end of chapter 14,
>when Candy and Barnes are together in the hotel lobby, before they have ever
>gone up to Serpentina's room. She had just spoken to Stubb on the house
>phone. She said **to** Barnes: "Seventh floor, room seventy-seven, Ozzie.
>We're off to see the wizard." So how can Barnes be the wizard? Only the
>witch and Stubb were up in the room.

There are several references to the movies (including that one reference to
"The Wiz").  In the case you cite, I think the points are: the witch is a
magic user; they are going to see her.  (If the musical had contained a
song about visiting Glinda, a trip which happens in the book, iirc, maybe
they would have used that song.) The same song is used again, when they
have escaped from Belmont, Little Ozzie sings it to the group (Little
Ozzie, Big Ozzie, Nimo, Stubb, and Candy) and I don't think they are really
going to see a wizard at that point, at all.  (But I do wonder at how this
group might map to Dorothy and her four companions, because Nimo seems to
paint himself as the Scarecrow with his parody of the Scarecrow's song "If
I Only Had a Brain."

Dorothy: Candy
Scarecrow: Nimo the Clown
Tin Man: ?
Cowardly Lion:?
Toto: ? )

As for Ozzie being the Wizard Oz (aside from the name, which is as obvious
as stub = short).  In the land of Oz there are two clear classes of magic:
there is real magic (practiced by the witches, Ozma, and others) and there
is stage magic, i.e., fakery (practiced by Wizard Oz).  While Ozzie's
novelties for sale are mainly pornographic items or toy puzzles, he does
have some of those "practical joke" tricks, like the sneezing powder that
goes off when Proudy grabs him (which causes him to sneeze and contributes
to the accident with the axe: the axe-ident).  This use of simple
dime-store trickery is very much like Wizard Oz in DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD
IN OZ.

Re Ozma and Dorothy, I should point out the details of their hair: Ozma's
hair is, I believe, dark and long (down her back); Dorothy's hair, contrary
to the movie, is blonde and shoulder-length (true, it is in long braids for
the first book, but once Ozma is introduced [book 2], Dorothy's hair is as
I reported above, afaik).  A nice physical match for the crowning glories
of the witch and Candy.

A word about Sgt. Proudy: he is villainous not because he serves the
eviction notice but because he is a corrupt cop --  he bullies money out of
Candy and hits her.  There seems to be more corruption in the 13th
Precinct: that other cop is getting money out of Barney the loan shark.

=mantis=



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