A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Princess of another land, Helium, is captured by the tribe but Carter falls for her. He essentially fights his way to respect and friendship of the chief (Tars Tarkas). He meets the green Tharks – a nomadic warrior tribe. Indeed, the thing that stuck me above all else when reading this is the violence! Carter finds that he has great strength and superhuman agility on Mars, or Barsoom as the natives call it. Even when the inevitable barrier to true happiness is raised by Burroughs, it is only by death and violence can Carter win the maiden’s hand. Once on Mars a series of adventures ensues as Carter meets the various races of Martian, learns the language and culture, beats on everyone he meets to get his way, and falls in love. Hiding in a ‘sacred cave’ he witnesses his prone body (some form of out of body experience) before being mysteriously transported to Mars.

When prospecting in Arizona he strikes gold but immediately runs into trouble in the form of Apaches. It is set just after the American Civil War – Carter is a Confederate veteran. He is no gentleman by my understanding of the word, but then, this was written in 1911 when the world was ever in conflict. Who is John Carter? He describes himself as a Gentleman from Virginia. All introductory passages and notes, as is routine, were ignored. It includes 4 – which I think is a very disappointingly small number – of terrific illustrations of John Carter by Frank E Schoonover. My copy is the 2003 Modern Library Edition. It was later revealed to be A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs when it was finally published in book form in 1917. Called Under the Moons of Mars it was printed in The All-Story.

Norman Bean published a serial story from February 1912 through to July that same year. Science fiction is about what it means to be a human being living in a particular instance in time. It awakens my consciousness to certain aspects of reality and it sparks my imagination in different ways than say horror or fantasy. So why I am exploring what is and isn’t science fiction throughout the history of the genre? Well, because it means something to me. Boundaries blur and as said by Kazuo Ishiguro, are all but marketing artifice in any case. The definition of science-fiction, and pretty much any genre, is purely subjective.