The final story in the 2001 issue of Oziana is "Dearest Mother: The Last Letters of the Slave of the Magic Dinner Bell" by, appropriately enough, J. L. Bell. It is, as one can guess from the title, a series of letters from Ginger, the slave of the Red Jinn's magic dinner bell, to his mother. Jinnicky is trying some new tricks to show off to the Wizard of Oz, and in the course of things gets trapped in his own jar, with the lid staying on very solidly. Meanwhile, Ginger is resenting his position at court more and more, not liking having to serve his master at any whim. So, Ginger quits! This puts Jinnicky in a sticky situation, and as a result he promises Ginger some reforms and a new title, as well as the occasional weekend off to see his mother. Oh, and also Jinnicky's lid comes unstuck. It's a fun little look at the Red Jinn's court and some of the people who work there, and also retcons some of the problems many modern readers have with how it is presented.
Although this is, technically, the last story of the issue, next week I'm going to go back and finally discuss this issue's first story, and explain why I read them out of order.
1 comment:
This story was indeed an attempt to deal with Thompson's depiction of Ginger as a racist stereotype and Jinnicky as a happy enslaver. Thompson herself had played down those details in Yankee in Oz, but they were front and center in The Silver Princess of Oz.
Post a Comment