An audience with Gregory Maguire

Q: What can we expect from A Cowardly War, and how many books will there eventually be in The Oz Cycle?
fabala

Gregory Maguire: The Cowardly War is actually the book that I have re-named A Lion Among Men. From that, we are going to take a long look at the entire life story of the character 'Lion', including the ways that it intercepts with Elphaba's life and some other things that happened that we don't yet know about.

And, since the story ends 18 years after the disappearance of Elphaba, we are able to look back and I will answer some questions that were left unanswered in Wicked!

The 'Cowardly Lion' is doing a mission of deposition. He's taking testimony from the mysterious old lady called Yackle. He'll finally find out some answers to the questions I purposefully left unanswered in Wicked!

Q: While reading the books, I think I have always assumed that Ozians speak English (the Wizard can communicate perfectly well, and Dorothy doesn't seem to have any problems). If this is the case, what language is the Grimmerie written in that the Wizard and Elphaba can understand? Or, what language do the Ozians speak if not English?
fabala

Gregory Maguire: That's a wonderful question! At one point in the second book I have somebody call the language that they're speaking Ozish.

But there's no reason to suppose that Ozish and English are not pretty similar in the way, say, American English and British English are similar. I assume that they are. Why they are, I don't really know.

But, what language the Grimmerie is in is a very important question, and that too is something that will be revealed little by little as the books go on.

But between you and me, and the iVillage audience, my own guess is that the Grimmerie is written in something akin to Anglo-Saxon English, or Anglo-Saxon Ozish, let's say (laughing). It's an older version that only someone with a really keen mind would be able to understand.

Q: I'm sure everyone has wondered about Elphaba's mysterious scar. I got the feeling that Elphaba was never quite happy as a woman. How do you feel about Elphaba's gender, and how did you intend it to be portrayed when writing the book?
fabala

Gregory Maguire: In the same way I said earlier, I didn't want there to be a single answer to the question of whether she was wicked or not and, if so, was there a single root cause. I don't believe in root causes.

Let's, for instance say you have a terrible sorrow in your life. I don't believe it's because your mother dropped a frying pan on your toe when you were four, you know?

That may have hurt, you may remember it but I don't believe that our fates are determined by a single condition.

Therefore, what I tried to do with Elphaba was give her lots of potential conditions, none of which could be, alone, the single reason for why she was the way she was. So she does have that scar, she does have this vaguely hermaphroditic beginning, we think, or some think.

Is it true or just what people say? Even it's just what people say, does that 'scar' hurt too, the fact that they talk about it? I plant the bean of curiosity in the mind of the reader but I purposefully don't answer the question because I want the reader to think about it.

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