Empathy for Weak Magic

“Here’s a mountain, hard of hearing, That’s sad-hearted and needs cheering, So my duty is to listen to all sounds that nature makes, So the hill won’t get uneasy – Get to coughing, or get sneezy – For this monster bump, when frightend, Is quite liable to quakes.” L. Frank Baum, The Scarecrow of OZ, p.93, 1915 Books of Wonder, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, NY ---------- EMPATHY FOR WEAK MAGIC is part of my ongoing photo project: On my Way to OZ — Contemplations of a Lady Traveller. Photos were taken 2014 in Yellowstone National Park, during my stay abroad in the United States 2013-2017. EMPATHY FOR WEAK MAGIC depicts fumaroles, “openings in the earth’s surface that emit steam and volcanic gases, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. They can occur as holes, cracks, or fissures near active volcanos or in areas where magma has risen into the earth’s crust without erupting.” https://www.usgs.gov/news/earthword-fumarole Inspired by L. Frank Baum’s fictional land of OZ (1), I play with the idea of a powerless sorceress, which travels through North America to find sanctuary in nature’s enchanted wilderness. She is wandering around, discovering rugged landscapes where magic unfolds in its natural way. - OZ - In 1900 L. Frank Baum created a magical country, the Land of OZ(1), which is described in his children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of OZ” and its thirteen sequels. In this book series young readers are invited to discover a hidden fairyland cut off from the rest of the world by a natural barrier, known as the Deadly Desert. Baum characterized OZ as a real place, an alternative dimension, invisible to the human eye. Ruled by female sorceresses and good witches, OZ could be seen as a kind of a feminist utopia. In all aspects, geographical and sociological, OZ should be seen in relation to the United States. (2) “All the magic isn’t in fairyland,” he [the Shaggy Man] said gravely. “There’s lots of magic in all Nature, and you may see it as well in the United States, where you [Betsy] and I once lived, as you can here.” L. Frank Baum, Tik Tok of OZ, 1914, p.161; Books of Wonder, Harper Collins Publishers, New York, NY ---------- (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_of_Oz (2) “Schematically, Oz is much like the United States, with the Emerald City taking the place of Chicago: to the East, mixed forest and farmland; to the West, treeless plains and fields of wheat; to the South, warmth and lush growth, and red earth.”