So actually none of the male characters in the book have any real magic powers. So we have three deficient male characters going to see the Wizard, hoping that they will get these things, but the Wizard turns out to be a fraud. One of them lacks courage, one of them lacks brains, and one of them lacks heart. They go with Dorothy because each of them feels he lacks something. They are the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow. LetвЂ™s look at the male people in the book. TheyвЂ™re definitely in the book, illustrated, they look sort of like drum majorettes. Margaret Atwood unpacks the essays, speeches and appreciations in her deep and deeply entertaining new nonfiction collection, вЂBurning Question.вЂ™ Remember them?Д«ooks Margaret Atwood is not your вЂelderly iconвЂ™ or вЂwitchy granny.вЂ™ SheвЂ™s better than that

Then thereвЂ™s also the girl soldiers in the Emerald City. The other magic person, once she gets the slippers, is Dorothy - also a female person. But I was on stage with him and I did my witch voice and he said, вЂњDonвЂ™t do that! DonвЂ™t do that! That really scared me as a child.вЂќ YouвЂ™ll notice that heвЂ™s channeled it quite a bit in some of his own writing, most particularly вЂњ Coraline.вЂќ Anyway, thereвЂ™s these four witches, and two of them are good and two of them are bad. And one of them is the Wicked Witch of the West who appears in the film with a green face and apparently scared the pee out of Neil Gaiman as a child. And what does вЂњThe Wizard of OzвЂќ have in it? ItвЂ™s got four witches, who have real witchy power. It was written around the time that rights for women was a real issue. So letвЂ™s think about what itвЂ™s got in it. ItвЂ™s a very iconic and interesting story, which of course I read as a small child.

Frank BaumвЂ™s вЂњ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,вЂќ offering a typically nimble riff on its expression of anxieties over feminism and what she calls the вЂњwoman question.вЂќ The conversation has been slightly edited. In the course of speaking to The Times about her fearless opinions for a feature profile, the author of вЂњ The HandmaidвЂ™s TaleвЂќ explained her preoccupation with L.

Next week sees the publication of вЂњ Burning Questions,вЂќ a new collection of nonfiction pieces by Margaret Atwood.

The wizard of oz