I’ve never read the Wizard of Oz and I’ve always assumed that I knew the story.  It turns out, and this shouldn’t surprise me, that there’s a lot more to the story than what made it into the movie.  There are back-stories for the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow and the Tin Man. 

In church today our pastor told us about the Tin Man’s story.  Apparently the Tin Man was the son of a Woodsman who himself became a Woodsman when he grew into a man.  He met and fell in love with a young lady and asked her to wed him.  The girl said yes and the Tin Man set to work earning the money, preparing to take care of his bride.

The woman’s mother opposed the wedding and went to the Wicked Witch.  The Witch put a spell on the young woodsman’s ax.  Every time he swung the ax at a tree the ax would swing wildly.  Before long the ax took off one of his legs.  Refused to admit defeat, the woodsman went to the tinsmith who fashioned a leg for him.

The woodsman continued to work with his enchanted ax and took off his second leg and then an arm.  Each time, for each limb, he would visit the tinsmith and have a new limb fashioned.  It was only a matter of time until the ax cut into the woodsman’s chest. 

Now made entirely of tin, the woodsman took on a new moniker, The Tin Man, and continued to work, cutting down trees in the forests of Oz.  He no longer had a reason to work though.  His bride was gone.  With nothing else to do, the Tin Man worked even harder.  He didn’t even stop to oil his joints. 

And this is how Dorothy found him.  He was completely seized up with rust and within reach of the oil but unable to grab it.  He was unable to help himself. 

After Dorothy helped him the Tin Man said the following (and I’m paraphrasing):

The greatest loss I have experience was the loss of my heart.  For one cannot love who has not a heart. 

Last night I picked up a copy of Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs.� I’ve read it before but it’s been a long time.� There was a passage that I’m sure I would have been unmoved by when I read it the first time but on this reading it really stood out.�

Do you remember that old TV series, Get Smart?� You remember at the beginning where Maxwell Smart is walking down the secret corridor and there are all these doors that open sideways, and upside down and gateways and stuff?� I think everybody keeps a whole bunch of doors just like this between themselves and the world. But when you’re in love, all of your doors are open, and all of their doors are open.� And you roller skate down your halls together.

The last few weeks have been hard but I wouldn’t give them up for anything.� I opened my doors and though there was no roller skating, I did let someone walk down my corridor.� In the end I didn’t have what she was looking for and that makes me sad but it was nice to have someone check the place out again.�

Peter Merholz has a review of Douglas Coupland’s newest novel jPod on his blog.? If you’re in to Coupland, which you should be, its worth a read.

Wired has a brief article on Douglas Coupland thats worth a read for fans.? I’ve posted about Coupland before and I’m sure I will again with the publication of JPod.

A few years ago Bill Bryson wrote a book called A Brief History of Almost Everything. It sounded interested so I got myself added to the waiting list at the library and picked up a few of his other books to pass the time.

I’m not going to go into all my thoughts on Bill Bryson here. I will say that while I like most of his works, I don’t think I’d like him as a person very much. He seems arrogant and prejudice and can’t keep his politics to himself. But I do keep reading him because of jewels like this:

Only the day before in Maine I had seen a sign in a McDonald’s offering a starting wage of five dollars an hour. Harvey must have been immensely moronic and unskilled - doubtless both - not to be able to keep pace with a sixteen-year-old burger jockey at McDonald’s. Poor guy! And on top of that here he was married to a woman who was slovenly and indiscreet, and had a butt like a barn door. I hoped old Harvey had sense enough to appreciate all the incredible natural beauty with which God had blessed his native state because it didn’t sound as if He had blessed Harvey very much. Even his kids were ugly as sin. I was half tempted to give one of them a clout myself as I went out the door. There was just something about his nasty little face that made you itch to smack him. - Bill Bryson, The Lost Continent, pg 165