Of late I have been reading a quite a few books by the king of Pulp fiction himself Edgar Rice Burroughs. I little thought that I would like anything as cheap and silly as pulp fiction but I found out after reading Tarzan of the Apes that perhaps pulp fiction was not as bad as I thought it would be.
But years went by and I still hadn't read anymore pulp fiction, sure Tarzan was alright but it was probably the only one. Then one day not too long ago I heard about Andrew Stanton of Pixar fame was directing a movie called "John Carter of Mars." I proceeded to look up John Carter and found that it was based off a Burroughs novel.
So I read the first three books of the Barsoon series and really liked them. So I kept reading and have read a dozen or so books by him.
Some are better than others, some are down right bad! And some are very good. If something was popular he would keep writing about the same thing till people were tired of it so some of his stories are very far fetched.
He was not one of those writers who write for themselves he was a business man who happened to be a good writer. This is illustrated by this quote of his I found that was very amusing.
Quote:
"...if people were paid for writing rot such as I read in some of those magazines, that I could write stories just as rotten. As a matter of fact, although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a whole lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines."
He was a very diverse writer and wrote everything from science fiction to westerns, to historical novels.
Many of his plots are very similar. And his main characters are usually a soldier or something of that sort. All his stories have heroic men who protect the damsels in distress. Many now laugh at this kind of story but I find it very refreshing.
His plots are not what makes his stories interesting though it is mostly his situations and places. In the jungle, on Mars, at the center of the earth, on a islands full of dinosaurs just to name a few.
Edgar Rice Burroughs stories have made a impact on our culture and Tarzan (his most popular work) is still popular to this day.
