The witch is home. Today, I walked into the forest and stumbled upon a small cottage tucked away between the trees. It had an eerie aura about it, with its crooked roof and windows that seemed to stare back at me. The door slowly creaked open, revealing a dimly lit room filled with potions, herbs, and a cauldron simmering over a crackling fire. Inside, I saw her. The witch, sitting hunched over a dusty book, her long gray hair falling loosely around her shoulders.
What makes the viral campaign to associate the real death of Mrs. Thatcher with the fictional liberation of the Munchkins from the tyranny of the Wicked Witch of the East still more complex is that the “Wizard of Oz” film was adapted from a children’s book that has been read as an allegory of late-19th-century American politics.
Littlefield wrote in The Wizard of Oz Parable on Populism, an essay published in 1964, after the film version had displaced the book in the popular imagination, the original story was written in 1900 by L. On the right, the editors of The Daily Mail attacked the BBC for caving to a campaign by left-wing agitators by playing even a few seconds of the song.
The witch, sitting hunched over a dusty book, her long gray hair falling loosely around her shoulders. Her piercing eyes met mine, and for a moment, I could sense the power that emanated from her. She was ancient, ageless, and captivating.
BBC Won’t Ban ‘Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead,’ Adopted as Anti-Thatcher Anthem
Last Updated, 6:13 p.m. The BBC on Friday rejected loud calls to ban the song “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” from its airwaves after the apparent success of a Facebook campaign to celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher, the divisive former prime minister, by driving sales of the tune from “The Wizard of Oz” up the British singles chart.
Ding Dong!… is at #Number3 on today’s #OfficialChart sales flash: //t.co/658OSIP0lj It is 12,000 copies behind the #Number1
— Official Charts (@officialcharts) 12 Apr 13
In a statement, the controller of BBC Radio 1, Ben Cooper, said that while he found “the campaign to promote the song in response to the death of Baroness Thatcher as distasteful as anyone,” the channel’s weekly review of the most popular singles could not simply “ignore a high new entry which clearly reflects the views of a big enough portion of the record-buying public to propel it up the charts.”
By way of compromise, Mr. Cooper said he had decided “that we should treat the rise of the song, based as it is on a political campaign to denigrate Lady Thatcher’s memory, as a news story.” So, he said, the BBC “will play a brief excerpt of it in a short news report during the show which explains to our audience why a 70-year-old song is at the top of the charts.”
While acknowledging that the broadcast could offend Mrs. Thatcher’s family and supporters, Mr. Cooper added, “To ban the record from our airwaves completely would risk giving the campaign the oxygen of further publicity and might inflame an already delicate situation.”
Mrs. Thatcher herself made famous use of the same metaphor in 1985, shortly after the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 by Islamist militants, when she argued:
We must try to find ways to starve the terrorist and the hijacker of the oxygen of publicity on which they depend. In our societies we do not believe in constraining the media, still less in censorship. But ought we not to ask the media to agree among themselves a voluntary code of conduct, a code under which they would not say or show anything which could assist the terrorists’ morale or their cause while the hijack lasted?
In a television interview on Friday, one of the organizers of the Facebook campaign, Mark Biddiss, said that for many people, buying the record was “a very cathartic experience,” even if it also enriched the corporate owners of the rights to the “Wizard of Oz” soundtrack.
An interview with Mark Biddiss, one of the organizers of a Facebook campaign to buy the song “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” to celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher.
Other supporters of the campaign noted with satisfaction that the lyrics to the “Wizard of Oz” soundtrack were written by E. Y. Harburg, an American songwriter best known for his Depression-era classic “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” Mr. Harburg, who died in 1981, was blacklisted in the 1950s for his left-wing politics.
Harburg, who had been a member of several radical organizations but never officially joined the Communist Party, was named in Red Channels. This pamphlet, distributed to organizations involved in employing people in the entertainment industry, listed 150 people who had been involved in promoting left-wing causes. This, along with his affiliation with the Hollywood Democratic Committee, led to his blacklisting by the film industry as well as the revocation of his passport.
He was not helped by the failure of his next project with composers Sammy Fain and Fred Saidy. “Flahooley” opened on Broadway in 1951 to negative reviews. Set in a toy factory, Harburg parodied the rabid anti-Communist sentiment and witch hunts that pervaded 1950s America.
While the Yip Harburg Foundation does not own the publishing rights to the “Wizard of Oz” soundtrack, a spokeswoman confirmed on Friday that it would get a small percentage of profits from the recent sales.
Yip Harburg singing his “Over the Rainbow” in 1979.Asked what his father might make of the controversy, Mr. Harburg’s son, Ernie Harburg, said on Friday that he would have been amused by it. In a statement sent to The Lede, he wrote:
Yip Harburg, lyricist of “The Wizard of Oz” film, would have been amused that “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” rose to the top of the charts when Margaret Thatcher died. W. S. Gilbert and George Bernard Shaw taught Yip Harburg, democratic socialist, sworn challenger of all tyranny against the people, that “humor is an act of courage” and dissent.
Those who sang the song “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” in the film “The Wizard of Oz” celebrated the end of tyranny at the hands of the Wicked Witch of the East. That celebration was not in L. Frank Baum’s book. Yip’s artistic leadership put it into the film. (Yip also brought the rainbow, also not in the book, into the film.)
Yip said, “Humor is the antidote to tyranny” and, “Show me a place without humor and I’ll show you a disaster area.” Yip believed tyranny is caused by the policies of austerity, imperialism, theocracy and class supremacy, which deny most people human rights and economic freedom from poverty and want. A song — music and lyrics — allows singers and audiences to “feel the thought” of the lyric. “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead” is a universal cry against the cruelty of tyrants and a protest against the ban on laughter at that cruelty. For the 99 percent, laughing and joy are required at the funeral of a tyrant. According to Yip, humor gives us hope in hard times.
A 1966 cover of “Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead,” performed by Barbra Streisand and Harold Arlen, who composed the music.
In Britain, where Mrs. Thatcher’s supporters are still fuming at the taboo on speaking ill of the dead being flouted, the BBC’s attempt at compromise predictably inflamed partisans at both ends of the political spectrum. On the right, the editors of The Daily Mail attacked the BBC for caving to a “campaign by left-wing agitators” by playing even a few seconds of the song.
Mail: BBC ‘Witch’ song insult to Maggie #tomorrowspaperstoday #BBCpapers //t.co/B0ZNE9aDeb
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) 11 Apr 13
From the left, there were accusations that the BBC had, in fact, caved to pressure from outlets like The Mail by declining to play the whole song.
Disappointed that the #BBC is letting itself be censored by the #DailyMail over #DingDong. No longer about Thatcher. #Gonernmentbydailymail
— robert howell (@roberthowell) 12 Apr 13
Still, some conservatives — including Louise Mensch, a former member of Parliament, and Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party — agreed with the argument that banning the record would violate principles of free speech and might prolong the argument over the song.
No song should be banned by the BBC unless its lyrics are pre-watershed. Thatcher stood for freedom. She’d have hated #Leveson
— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) 12 Apr 13
Farage: ‘If you suppress things then you make them popular, so play the bloody thing. If you ban it it will be number 1 for weeks’ #dingdong
— James Chapman (Mail) (@jameschappers) 12 Apr 13
Others, like the writer of the political blog Guido Fawkes, supported a late effort to drive another song, the punk anthem “I’m in Love With Margaret Thatcher,” to the top of the singles chart.
Am sceptical 24 hours to go > @simonharley
♬ iTunes: //t.co/seLAVTFCsK
♬ Amazon: //t.co/s6CP8zssJo
♬ Play: //t.co/kwoYDddz8U— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) 12 Apr 13
What makes the viral campaign to associate the real death of Mrs. Thatcher with the fictional liberation of the Munchkins from the tyranny of the Wicked Witch of the East still more complex is that the “Wizard of Oz” film was adapted from a children’s book that has been read as an allegory of late-19th-century American politics.
As Henry M. Littlefield wrote in “The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism,” an essay published in 1964, after the film version had displaced the book in the popular imagination, the original story was written in 1900 by L. Frank Baum, a journalist whose fairy tale might have been inspired by debates over American monetary policy and imperialism at the time.
In the book, Mr. Littlefield observed, “Dorothy sets out on the Yellow Brick Road wearing the Witch of the East’s magic Silver Shoes,” which he interprets as a parable about the use of gold and silver as money. (In the film version, the shoes were made ruby instead of silver.) The Emerald City, he suggested, “represents the national Capitol. The Wizard, a little bumbling old man, hiding behind a facade of papier-mâché and noise, might be any president from Grant to McKinley.”
Despite the warnings and tales told about witches, I couldn't help but be fascinated by her presence. There was an air of mystery and wisdom surrounding her, drawing me in like a moth to a flame. I cautiously approached her, trying to mask my fear with curiosity. She looked up from her book and smiled, her lips curling into a knowing grin. Her voice was soft yet commanding as she spoke, sharing stories of her journey through time and the secrets she had uncovered. She spoke of her connection with nature and the forces that governed the world, her words filled with a deep sense of reverence and respect. As I listened, I began to realize that the witch was not the evil sorceress I had imagined her to be. She was a guardian of ancient knowledge, a healer of both body and soul. Her extensive understanding of herbs, potions, and spells had been passed down through generations, preserving the wisdom of the past. She had chosen to live in solitude, away from the prying eyes and judgment of the world. The isolation allowed her to delve deeper into her craft, honing her abilities and strengthening her connection with the natural world. In her seclusion, she had become a source of solace and guidance for those brave enough to seek her out. As I bid her farewell and stepped out of the cottage, I couldn't help but feel a profound respect for the witch. She had taught me that appearances can be deceiving and that one should not judge based on hearsay or stereotypes. The witch was not an embodiment of darkness but a beacon of knowledge and understanding. Her home in the forest was not a den of evil but a sanctuary of wisdom. And as I walked away, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the encounter and the lesson it had taught me. The witch was home, and in her presence, I had found a renewed sense of wonder and appreciation for the mysteries of the world..
Reviews for "The Witch's Toolkit: Exploring the Tools and Symbols of Witchcraft"
1. John - 2 stars - I found "The Witch is Home" to be an incredibly slow and confusing movie. The plot was all over the place and it was hard to follow what was going on. The characters were also not well developed, making it difficult to connect with any of them. Overall, I was disappointed with the film and would not recommend it.
2. Sarah - 1 star - "The Witch is Home" was a complete waste of my time. The story was uninteresting and the acting was subpar at best. I couldn't wait for the movie to be over as I found myself bored and unengaged throughout. I don't understand the hype around this film, as I found it to be dull and uneventful.
3. Michael - 2 stars - I had high hopes for "The Witch is Home" but was ultimately let down. The pacing of the movie was painfully slow and there were long periods of nothing happening. The ending was also anticlimactic and did not provide any resolution to the story. While the cinematography was beautiful, it was not enough to save the film from its lackluster plot.
4. Emily - 1 star - "The Witch is Home" was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The storyline was confusing and disjointed, with no clear direction. The acting was dull and uninspiring, and I found it difficult to care about any of the characters. I cannot understand how this film garnered any positive reviews, as it was a complete disappointment in my opinion.
5. Mark - 2 stars - I was expecting "The Witch is Home" to be a thrilling horror movie, but instead, it turned out to be a slow and uneventful film. There were moments that had potential for suspense and scares, but they were quickly overshadowed by long periods of nothing happening. The lack of character development also made it hard to connect with the story. Overall, I was underwhelmed by this movie.