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Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
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Author:  The Bard [ June 30th, 2011, 11:28 am ]
Post subject:  Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
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.
Author:  Varon [ June 30th, 2011, 5:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Burroughs is the pulp king? I thought that went to Lester Dent (aka Kenneth Robeson, author of almost all of the 100+ Doc Savage novels).
Author:  The Bard [ July 1st, 2011, 3:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
I call him that because he is the most renowned of the pulp writers. Most people you talk to and say "pulp fiction" and the reply's "what's that?" What works the best most of the time is to say "like Tarzan."
Author:  Varon [ July 1st, 2011, 4:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Oh. I'd say like Indiana Jones.

EDIT: Never mind, I forgot Burroughs also wrote The Land that Time Forgot and a bunch more.
Author:  The Bard [ July 3rd, 2011, 8:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Yes he wrote more than 100 books! (I can't even finish one yet!)

I have never considered Indiana Jones in the light of pulp fiction before...I don't think I would call it such at all mainly because it is a movie and pulp fiction is only applied to books.
Author:  Varon [ July 3rd, 2011, 1:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
There's a movie titled Pulp Fiction, and pulp even made its way into tv series. It's grown a lot from just cheap books.
Author:  Aragorn [ July 17th, 2011, 12:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
I liked many of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels, especially the Mars series and the Venus series. His plots were very formulaic, but he tossed in lots of unique ideas to make them interesting. However, I didn't like the Tarzan series, which was his most famous, primarily due to it sometimes lacking the moral clarity of most of his other works that I have read.
Author:  The Bard [ July 17th, 2011, 12:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Ah yes Tarzan. I too didn't care for it much. I thought almost all of his other works were better. I only read the first Tarzan book and didn't have any desire to keep reading the series.
Author:  Varon [ July 17th, 2011, 4:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Disney's making a movie from the John Carter books.
Author:  Aragorn [ July 17th, 2011, 4:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Yeah, the first trailer came out this week.
Author:  Varon [ July 17th, 2011, 4:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
It looks interesting.
Author:  The Bard [ July 17th, 2011, 9:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
I saw the trailer. It looks like it's going to be awesome!
Author:  Varon [ July 18th, 2011, 8:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Yeah.
Author:  Airianna Valenshia [ July 19th, 2011, 6:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Link, link?
Author:  Aragorn [ July 19th, 2011, 7:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Here's the link to the John Carter trailer. As a warning, there is quite a bit of immodesty. Also, fans of the book may want to brace themselves since some things don't seem quite right... ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8xblwyKtfo&feature=pyv
Author:  The Bard [ July 19th, 2011, 8:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
There's not that much there that you can see what they changed or not.

It's a lot more modest than the book. At least they have some clothes on ;)
Author:  Airianna Valenshia [ July 19th, 2011, 11:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Thanks, Jonathan.
Author:  Aragorn [ July 19th, 2011, 11:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
You're welcome!
Author:  Varon [ July 20th, 2011, 7:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Some of them have enough tattoos, it looks like they're wearing a full set of clothes.

It looks like Avatar meets Prince of Persia on Mars with Superman's early powers, only with swords.
Author:  The Bard [ July 20th, 2011, 8:00 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
I really like the look of the clothing.
(The costume designer is the same as Avatar's.)
Author:  Varon [ July 20th, 2011, 8:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Author review: Edgar Rice Burroughs
I wonder why that doesn't surprise me.
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