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30-567: Mr. Highly Magnified Woggle-Bug, Thoroughly Educated is a character in the Oz books by L. Frank Baum (1856–1919). The character first appeared in 1904 in the book The Marvelous Land of Oz . He goes by the name H. M. Woggle-Bug, T.E. ( Highly Magnified and Thoroughly Educated ). In later books, the hyphen was sometimes dropped: "Wogglebug". In illustrations, he is often depicted wearing bright colors and several pairs of glasses on his elongated proboscis . According to The Marvelous Land of Oz ,

60-682: A gasp and the Tin Woodman stopped short and looked reproachfully at the Woggle-Bug. At the same time the Sawhorse loudly snorted in derision; and even the Pumpkinhead put up his hand to hide the smile, which because it was carved upon his face, he could not change to a frown." Puns have been regarded as a sign of superior education and Baum uses the Woggle-Bug's puns repeatedly to highlight his conceitedness regarding his own education. Later

90-608: A lifelong children's writer, Thompson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . While in high school she sold her first fairy tale to St. Nicholas Magazine to which she continued contributing, along with The Smart Set . In 1914 she took a job with the Philadelphia Public Ledger , writing a weekly children's column for the newspaper. She had already published her first children's book, The Perhappsy Chaps , and her second, The Princess of Cozytown ,

120-464: A mocking of arrogance found in scholars (and also lawyers). The Emerald City of Oz features Dorothy, Aunt Em and Uncle Henry paying a visit to the Woggle-Bug at his academy. In the continuing Oz series, the Professor goes on no more adventures until the last of Baum's books, Glinda of Oz , in which he is given a very harsh description as being so conceited no one cares to associate with him. He

150-410: A quirky and somewhat eccentric personality. He has a love of big words, Latin phrases, philosophy, and colorful puns relating to his immediate situation ("Were I to ride upon this sawhorse he would not only be an animal, he would become an equipage for he would then be a horse and buggy"). These puns cause his companions a great deal of distress, in response to the aforementioned pun, "[T]he Scarecrow gave

180-781: A small kingdom, with a prince or princess who saves his or her kingdom and regains the throne or saves Oz from invasion. Thompson wrote two additional novels in the 1970s which are not included in the "Famous Forty": Yankee in Oz (1972) and The Enchanted Island of Oz (1976), both published by the International Wizard of Oz Club . Illustrator John R. Neill's vision of Oz is more manic than Thompson or Baum's. Houses often get up and do battle, and everything can be alive. His entries take Oz's color scheme (blue for Munchkin Country , red for Quadling Country , etc.) to an extreme, extending it to sky and skin colors. Jack Snow

210-468: A tailor, and after he saved the tailor's life in an unknown way (although a few stories have been written to explain how, including The Wogglebug's New Clothes in the 1987 Oziana ), the tailor made him his very first clothes. He later founded and runs the Royal College of Art and Athletic Perfection, also known as the Royal College of Athletic Arts or the Royal College of Athletic Sciences, which

240-779: Is located in the western part of the Munchkin Country , not far from the Emerald City . In Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz , Woggle-Bug appears as the prosecutor in Princess Ozma 's court. In The Road to Oz , Woggle-Bug is among the guests at Princess Ozma's birthday party. When the Woggle-bug is first introduced in The Marvelous Land of Oz , he is portrayed as having a charming disposition and

270-527: Is no one's favorite in spite of his famous college of athletics. When Ruth Plumly Thompson took over the series after Baum's death, she portrayed him exactly like this. When he sets into motion the plot of The Royal Book of Oz , he accuses the Scarecrow of lacking any ancestry for him to list in the Royal Genealogy . Authors have portrayed him in varying ways ever since, sometimes lovable as he

300-617: Is not directed at children, and contains adult language and content. It is the basis for the Broadway musical by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman . Alexander Volkov was a Russian novelist who published his own series of Oz novels called the Magic Land books, for readers in Soviet Russia, China and East Germany. His first book, published in 1939, was a translation and adaptation of Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , but

330-545: The Oz canon originally established by L. Frank Baum . The novel presents events, characters and situations from Baum's books and the film in new ways, with several differences between the L. Frank Baum series and the Wicked Cycle. These differences arise from the original Oz functioning as a mirror-image of Kansas in a cultural and economic framework: Oz was wealthy, prosperous and had excellent agricultural yields while Kansas

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360-402: The 1970s with her last two books being published by The International Wizard of Oz Club : Yankee in Oz (1972) and The Enchanted Island of Oz (1976); the latter was not originally written as an Oz book. In 1965, Thompson remarked that writing the books "has been an enchanting and wonderful experience, and the children and I have had tremendous fun together." Thompson's contributions to

390-507: The Cherub . Following Baum's death, publisher Reilly & Lee continued publishing annual Oz books, selecting new Royal Historians to record the latest Oz doings. These books, together with Baum's original fourteen novels, form the "Famous Forty", and are considered the canonical books of the series. Ruth Plumly Thompson's style was markedly different from Baum's. Her tales harked back to more traditional fairy tales . She often included

420-450: The Oz series are lively and imaginative, featuring a wide range of colorful and unusual characters. She emphasized humor to a greater extent than Baum did and more specifically targeted children as her primary audience. Scholar Russel B. Nye noted that Thompson's books are "a truer world of fun and fantasy, and a less complex one" than Baum's. In the 1983 Dictionary of Literary Biography , Michael Patrick Hearn wrote, "While her books may lack

450-571: The Tinman even threatens to murder the Woggle-Bug if he does not stop using his puns to show off. He is very proud of his education, and wants to put it to good use. He is always courteous and polite whatever the situation, and clearly cares about the well-being of others. In the Sunday comics series through the following year, the Woggle-Bug is depicted as leading his companions out of trouble, displaying his wisdom, and also doing random acts of kindness for

480-570: The Woggle-Bug was once a regular tiny woggle-bug, about the size of a pea. He lived the life of a normal insect until he crawled into a country schoolhouse (presumably somewhere in the Winkie Country of the Land of Oz ) and listened to the lessons and lectures which the famous Professor Nowitall gave his pupils for about three years. One day the teacher found and caught him, and decided to use him for an impromptu lesson on woggle-bugs. Nowitall put

510-400: The book under Baum's name and claimed that the book was written from Baum's notes, although this has been disproven. Between 1921 and 1939, Thompson wrote one Oz book a year. (Since Thompson was the primary supporter of her widowed mother and disabled sister, the annual income from the Oz books was important for her financial circumstances.) Thompson returned to Oz during her final years in

540-438: The bug under a microscope and projected his highly magnified image onto a screen with advanced technology. The bug was proud of his new size; he bowed to the students, and one unnamed little girl standing on the windowsill was startled and fell backward out of the window. While everyone rushed outside to see if she was all right, the bug secretly jumped off the screen and ran away. He has remained magnified ever since. Later he found

570-411: The canonical Oz texts. In addition to the canonical Oz books, several of Baum's works that are not Oz stories are nevertheless nominally set in the same fictional universe as the Oz books, and include several character crossovers. These are: Queen Zixi of Ix , The Magical Monarch of Mo , The Sea Fairies , Sky Island , The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus , and John Dough and

600-420: The further books that he wrote in the 1960s and 70s were entirely Volkov's invention. Ruth Plumly Thompson Ruth Plumly Thompson (27 July 1891 – 6 April 1976) was an American writer of children's stories, best known for writing many novels placed in Oz , the fictional land of L. Frank Baum 's classic children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels. An avid reader of Baum's books and

630-646: The philosophical and imaginative depth of Baum's best stories, Thompson's tales nevertheless consistently possess a zest, a vitality noticeably wanting in Baum's more somber interludes in his Oz books." Illustrator John R. Neill wrote her on completing the illustrations for  Kabumpo in Oz , "Incidentally, I would like to tell you how much I enjoyed reading the [manuscript] and making the pictures. After illustrating about seventeen Oz books, I think it worthwhile to let you know this with my congratulations on having secured an author of such superior qualifications to continue

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660-505: The poor citizens of America. The Woggle-Bug, like many of Baum's characters, contains many contradictions. He is polite, kind, and courtly while also at times being conceited and uncaring. When he next appears in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz as the prosecutor in Ozma's court, Baum seemingly decided to portray him as more pompous and arrogant, and decidedly unlikeable. Baum was using him as

690-546: The role of Royal Historian. Ruth Plumly Thompson took up the task in 1921, and wrote nineteen Oz books. After Thompson, Reilly & Lee published seven more books in the series: three by John R. Neill , two by Jack Snow , one by Rachel R.C. Payes , and a final book by Eloise Jarvis McGraw and Lauren Lynn McGraw. The forty books in Reilly & Lee's Oz series are called "the Famous Forty" by fans, and are considered

720-456: The work of supplying the 'Oz books.' Every feature of the child appeal is handled with the greatest skill. The whimsical, the humor, the interest and the zip of the book make me think it one of the very best Oz books so far." After a falling out with Reilly & Lee in the 1930s, Thompson wrote articles, stories, and poems for various publications including Jack and Jill , Saturday Evening Post and Ladies Home Journal . In addition she

750-532: Was a Baum scholar, and even offered to take over the series at age twelve when Baum died. Snow's books lack any characters created by Thompson or Neill, although he did create his own. The Expeditioneers, as they call themselves, learn the meanings of these fortunes as they progress through an Art Colony, a Game Preserve, and a long and complex subterranean journey. Some are in line with the originals, while others deviate in various ways. Below are some books that deal with alternate versions of Oz, which do not follow

780-591: Was characterized by economic hardship, environmental difficulties and poor harvests. The social strife described in The Wicked Years indicates that the two series are set in similar and internally consistent but distinctly separate visions of Oz. The novel focuses on the life of the Wicked Witch of the West , whom Maguire gives the name Elphaba . Unlike the popular 1939 movie and Baum's writings, this novel

810-505: Was originally, and sometimes extremely arrogant, and sometimes as just well-meaningly lofty. The Professor has a significant role in John R. Neill 's The Runaway in Oz . List of Oz books The Oz books form a book series that begins with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) and relates the fictional history of the Land of Oz . Oz was created by author L. Frank Baum , who went on to write fourteen full-length Oz books. Baum

840-612: Was pending publication when William Lee, vice president of Baum's publisher Reilly & Lee , solicited Thompson to continue the Oz series. (Rumors among fans that Thompson was Baum's niece were untrue.) Her first Oz book, 1921's The Royal Book of Oz , concerned the Scarecrow's discovery that he was once the Emperor of the Silver Isles. To smooth the transition between Baum's books and Thompson's, Reilly & Lee published

870-488: Was styled as "the Royal Historian of Oz" in order to emphasize the concept that Oz is an actual place on Earth, full of magic. In his Oz books, Baum created the illusion that characters such as Dorothy and Princess Ozma relayed their adventures in Oz to Baum themselves, by means of a wireless telegraph . After Baum's death in 1919, publisher Reilly & Lee continued to produce annual Oz books, passing on

900-467: Was the initial editor of Ace Comics , King Comics and later became also editor of Magic Comics , all for David McKay Publications . In some cases she used the pen name Jo King. Her friend Marge provided illustrations for many of the pieces she contributed. 1965-1970 for Jack and Jill she did the Perky Puppet page. A short collection of Thompson's Oz poetry, The Cheerful Citizens of Oz ,

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