Have you ever read "The Wizard Of OZ"

Not seen the movie it isn't the same thing, actually read the book. The scarecrow of oz is one of the best books I've ever read. I need to go get the entire series and read them all. Get to all the one's I've missed and reread the one's I haven't. You know all of this hoopdy that is going on over Harry potter? That's OZ several years back. Baum was a freeking genius. He managed to create a world that is as fantastic and amazing as a childs imagination and yet as accessable as the grocery store. Talking about it there are a lot of paralells between the stories. The main character uprooted from his mundain world and taken to a world of our wildest dreams is an old old fantasy that most of us share. I wonder if Rowling will be able to go as far with it. She certainly started out well. Those first few books came out like bullets from a gun but lately she's been loosing steam. What's it been two years? I'm worried that the movies will screw things up. I mean the writing in the potter books is by no means high art but there's something about them that grabs you. There is a raw essense that is undeniable. They're fantastic, seemingly not because of great literary skill but because Rowling is deaply in touch with the hidden childish desire in all of us. Everyone wants to go to Hogwarts and hang out with harry. I'm concerned that the movies will create an over consumer atmosephere to them. There's already a problem there since the books are so popular and her editors are likely breathing down her neck. The opportunity for greatness is there and it would be a shame if she where to miss it because we poisoned it. It's like the great cave paintings at lascaux. A fantastic artifact, a monument in the history of art but eventually with so many people walking through them our very breath began to destroy them. To observe a thing is to change it in some way. and these changes are not always good. I think it's not always a coincidence that great artists aren't discovered until after they die.