DeShon Smith

21 March 2004

                              Research Review of articles on Edgar Rice Burroughs:

Articles Reviewed:

(1) “The Undisciplined Imagination: Edgar Rice Burroughs and Lowellian Mars” by Richard D. Mullen, from SF: The Other Side of Realism: Essays on Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction, Ed. by Thomas D. Clareson, Bowling Green University Popular Press (1971), pp. 229-247.

(2) “The Prudish Prurience of H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs (Part II)” by Richard D. Mullen, from Riverside Quarterly 6 (1974), pp. 134-146.

Summary:

In the first article we have nothing more than a classic comparison of science vs. imagination as it relates to the planet Mars. The second article reviewed was a comparison of sexual and racial views in their writing between Burroughs and Haggard.

Points of Interest:

·        Mullen comes right out and says that Burroughs has an “undisciplined” mind.

·        Mullen asserts that Burroughs read the wrong material before writing and should have read Lowell’s books. Lowell was an astronomer, and had knowledge of canals that were on mars hence his interpretation called “Lowellian Mars”.

·        Mullen says, “to praise him for much anything else is surely to talk nonsense of the most arrant kind”.

·        Many references made to people/creatures’ skin color.

Discussion Questions:

Why do you think Mullen slams Bourroughs so much? From the moons of mars to what the inhabitants may look like. After all he was just writing a story.

Do you think there is a relation to the time period of the production of these works and their racist and sexist ways?