John Carter :: All Things Andy Gavin

Archive for John Carter

A Princess of Mars

Jun20

Love the 1917 cover

Title: A Princess of Mars

Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs

Genre: Science Fiction

Length: 81 pages

Read: June 16-19, 2012

Summary: Pulp fun

Watching John Carter got me to reread A Princess of Mars. I barely remembered anything of the book, and it’s only 81 pages, plus the Kindle version was free!

It’s definitely superior to the film, and good campy pulp fun. Plus, when you take into account it’s 1917 publication date, it’s actually pretty impressive!

This was the cover I had as a kid

The writing itself is fast and clean, even if the sentences include copious subordinate clauses, high falutin vocabulary, and the occasional archaic turn of phrase. Like “fetich” which my Kindle dictionary informed me is a dated spelling of “fetish.” The style suffers a little — by modern standards — from an overabundance of “tell.” The book moves rapidly and the narrator tells you in a straightforward first-person past what happened. He doesn’t illustrate the points by action, but calls it as he sees it. Even the action is given to narrative summary rather than blow by blow description. This is compact and functional but feels dated.

The plot is a straightforward adventure. Our protagonist, who is pretty much great at everything, hurls himself from one predicament to the next, all the while extracting maximum drama and showmanship. Things rarely go badly for him, and there is little subtly of choice. I can see how significant an effect Burroughs had on mid century pulp Science Fiction masters like Phillip Jose Farmer or L. Ron Hubbard (I’m ignoring the religion and talking about the writer). Farmer adventures like Dark is the Sun, World of Tiers, or The Cache feel like direct descendants of A Princess of Mars.

For 1917, the world building is fairly extensive. There aren’t too many outer space adventure novels before this, so he must have invented a lot of the tropes. There are flying craft, exploding bullets, terraforming machines, and all sorts of goodies. And all in an era when the biplane was the height of aeronautical tech.

Every decade has it’s variant

The book’s biggest weakness is the utter lack of subtlety. John Carter is able to instantly read into alien situations and ferret out the meaning — even when he can’t understand the language. He is an instant master of the new tech, a perfect navigator, etc. The solution to his problems are usually readily available. Burroughs resorts to certain devices — like convenient eavesdropping — multiple times. The “romance” between Carter and Dejah Thoris is formulaic at best. Still, she is described repeatedly as gorgeous and nearly naked, which sets the standard for pulp heroines.

As a student of media conversions, I continue to wonder at the bungles in the recent film adaptation. Read my thoughts on the John Carter film here, but while they borrowed most of the characters, situations, and feel from the novel, they made many plot changes for the worse. Some of the camp factor does come from the source material, and there would probably be a need to simplify the action, however this doesn’t excuse the addition of multiple prologues, and ridiculous meta-villains. Pulp action is pulp action. Dressing it up with an extra layer of plot complexity doesn’t change that.

For more book reviews, click here.

Or read about my own historical fantasy novel here.

By: agavin
Comments (2)

Posted in: Books

Tagged as: A Princess of Mars, Book Review, Dejah Thoris, Edgar Rice Burrough, Fantasy, John Carter, Princess of Mars, Pulp magazine, Science Fiction

John Carter and Writing Don’ts

Jun15

Title: John Carter

Cast: Taylor Kitsch (Actor), Lynn Collins (Actor), Andrew Stanton (Director)

Genre: Science Fiction (liberally)

Watched: June 9, 2012

Summary: Dull and overdone (4/10)

When I first saw the trailer for John Carter I was intrigued and full of questions.

What is this? How do those late 19th century western images fit in with the “other world” and alien thing? I liked the music. Somehow I felt I was supposed to know who the hell John Carter was. I didn’t. It took me months to find out.

And the irony is that I’ve actually read A Princess of Mars, albeit nearly thirty years ago, but failed to remember the hero’s name. Perhaps a hint that this even was Mars would have helped.

In any case, none of that affects the film itself.

I’m not going to describe the plot, but instead talk about what works and doesn’t. Fundamentally, I think it could have been a great movie — but it’s not. In fact, only the effects make it vaguely watchable.

The writing is a mess. We have about four different beginnings. The opening prologue is set on Mars with the bad guy (sort of) that is totally useless and out of place. This is an “earth man goes to other world” story and by opening with the other world completely pops the mystery bubble. I’ll try to delete that scene from memory. The next is better, a bit of prologue presumably borrowed from the book’s attempt at verisimilitude where we learn that the titular John Carter died and left his estate to his nephew. This includes a journal of his adventures. Then we cut back to said adventures a decade earlier. In a fairly useless bit of Western which attempts to introduce our protagonist (in our third segment!) he illustrates that he is a jerk, belligerent, and manages to get himself teleported to Mars via Arizona. From there there the real story begins.

Several basic rules of straightforward writing are violated: 1. Start with your protagonist. 2. Make him or her likeable.

Plus, the direction is forced and hamhanded. In an early scene on earth, JC is “shows” he is resistant to authority by repeatedly (and foolishly) trying to escape the US army officers who merely wish to talk to him. This is done in a series of cuts. I know what the director was going for, but he fails utterly. The sequence comes off as forced and cheesy. In general, the over bombastic John Williams style score tries to sell a level of drama that the script does not create. The net effect is that you know how you are supposed to feel, but don’t: Melodrama.

This is not helped by the “additions” to the original novel’s plot. For some reason, a bunch of manipulating shape-shifting priests of undetermined origin and purpose are working behind the scenes to manipulate the moderately byzantine political landscape of Barsoom (aka Mars). This does nothing but make the principal villain seem lame and stupid. In short, a tool. Scenes feel rushed and suffer from a level of hamminess reminiscent of 1960s epic films. The actors who played Julius Caesar and Mark Antony in the excellent HBO Rome reprise their roles as campy Martian versions of the same part. In every scene they seem to be winking at the camera, all while wearing diapers and leather straps.

Even the effects and sets, as gigantic as they are, seem recycled. Part of this is a form of reciprocal IP theft between Edgar Rice Burroughs, George Lucas, and the producers of this film. Lucas lifted all sorts of feel and elements from the original novel for the Star Wars universe, and the John Carter producers felt the need to emulate much of the visual style he created. I don’t blame George, his world is a unique vision build from the parts of pop and pulp Science Fiction. But despite the extraordinary influence of A Princess of Mars, the John Carter film adds nothing to the genre.

That is not to say that it’s bad looking (diapers aside). The effects are well executed and the big open Western-style spaces impressive and moody. It’s just that without any real connection to the cardboard characters, it’s hard to care.

For my review of the original 1917 novel, click here.

For more Film reviews, click here.