Book Talk discussion

Seems like a long shot, but since I'm reading it and I've always like ERB...I thought I'd add it.

what's ERB?

Sorry, I'm such a geek. I should have said "Edgar Rice Burroughs."

Okay, here is my first comment on this book. It is not a spoiler, as it concerns the forward by Ray Bradbury...who I now hate!! I hit a paragraph in the forward that made me so mad, I not only stopped reading the forward, I tossed the whole book on the shelf and turned out the light and went to sleep! Aargh!! Is Ray Bradbury (RB from now on) a super jerk? Does everyone but me know this already? Or am I misjudging him? And this is unfortunate, because I have not yet read Dandelion Wine, which many people have recommended to me.

So the next night, I decided to read the forward, because perhaps I was overreacting...I was really tired after all, and maybe was looking for a reason to just go to sleep and not read. So here is the paragraph that chapped my ass, in its entirety:

I don't know how many girls read Burroughs. They don't need him. Girls enjoy knowing that they create the universe, which indeed they do. They birth it, nurse it, teach it, marry it, and birth it again. The great cycle is theirs. Conversely, boys a long way from manhood are loose cannons. They are born directionless, early on not knowing where to go. Burroughs points a direction: Mars itself, and all the fabulous creatures there.

I don't know where to begin with all the different offensive and idiotic notions wrapped up in that one little paragraph. First off, you obviously didn't bother to do much research RB, because I am under the impression that ERB was quite popular with female readers. And what is all that crap about "the great cycle" and girls don't need anything else? What? Oh...and they create the universe do they? And then they marry it? So apparently "the universe" is man? And that's man the gender, not man the species. And girls I guess are predestined to be mommies, and don't need any guidance or inspiration in their lives. And oh those poor directionless boys shouldered with such a burden to find their paths in life. Puke. I hate you RB.

Okay. So. I made myself finish the introduction because all right! RB is a sexist douche bag. But maybe the rest of the intro will be interesting and pertinent and - no wait! RB goes on to insult and belittle ERB as a writer! He has all these snarky little backhanded compliments...and basically says that the worth of ERB as a writer is that he inspired boy genius Ray Bradbury to take up the pen!!! YYUUUUUUCCKKKKK!!!

So I finished the book and returned it to the library. It was a bit of a mixed bag. Most of it was really fun and interesting, some a bit dull. ERB often has the ability to infuse goofy romantic Drama with some pretty interesting moral/social ideas that give you something to ponder while the hero duals the bad guy. And that certainly happened a number of times in this book, but it was somehow not as captivating as I usually find it. Maybe my experience with the forward left a bad taste in my mouth? Also I keep forgetting this thing was written in 1917...that impresses me. There was a lot of neat martiany stuff going on, and while I enjoyed all the creativity involved, there was some weird stuff, too. In particular a bunch of references to communism that are so laughable they completely took me out of the story.

It did bother me that sometimes John Carter is very reluctant to harm anyone (especially good fighters, apparently...well, he recognizes he has a ridiculously unfair advantage over everyone on the smaller planet) and yet other times he runs in and kills a bunch of people for almost no reason. Bit confusing, that.

And poor Dejah Thoris has almost no personality. She is beautiful and regal and apparently smoking hot as everyone wants to mate with her....I gotta say, I did want to know more about procreation on that planet. I think the green martians more or less spawned like fish? Or maybe it was all test tube fertilization. They could physically mate, but chose not to (because they are communists...wtf?) It was implied that actual physical sex was used as an act of violence against prisoners. Or perversion…something was going on with the green ruler guy, and it wasn’t pretty. But what about the red martians? The ladies were egg layers…but John Carter was too gentlemanly to say any more. I assume the red eggs are fertilized by copulation…woah, sidetracked. Anyway, I like a lot of the mariany stuff. But DT was kinda ho-hum. At least she wasn’t annoying, so I did not dislike her.

There were other cool martian critters, Woola – the centipede/dog thing – probably would win every “favorite Princess of Mars character” poll ever conducted. And I did like that John Carter treated his vicious animals with kindness and respect, and suddenly they became not so vicious. And instead of having the “violent green martians” be outraged and upset – most of them asked for lessons in his methods! Which brings me to another thing I like about ERB in general. He has a fairly unique way of telling a story - while the outcome is not surprising, the path to getting there often twists around in a way I don't expect. Things that seem like a huge stumbling block that will turn into a significant adventure are often resolved almost immediately. And then something odd will wing in out of left field and change the trajectory of the narrative. That is enjoyable.
I would recommend the book to any sci-fi/fantasy buff, but other than that...not so sure.