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02/14/12--18:18: Comment on Jane Carver of Waar by Nathan Long by Jeddakakalaky (chan 1794053)

I meant to say pretty much in print for a hundred years.


02/14/12--19:01: Comment on Jane Carver of Waar by Nathan Long by David Marshall (chan 1794053)

It's true that ERB has probably proved to be one of the most popular of the pulp writers. In Tarzan, he created an iconic figure in a fantasy world he called Africa. Like Barsoom, this is a not intended to be the real jungle just as John Cater does not go to the real Mars as understood by astronomers of the day. In the first novel Tarzan fights a tiger but there are no tigers in the African jungle. But all that means is ERB was happiest when creating fantasy. As an author, he was not interested in researching the facts. The work of many who wrote in the early part of the last century suffers from a number of problems. The first and most obvious is the focus on "adventure", leaving little or no room for characterisation. We can explain this away by dubbing these writers "natural storytellers" but the truth is that readers of the day simply wanted escapist fiction and authors like ERB supplied it in bulk. Second, this is the age of the fix-up where publishers rammed short stories and serials together into a package they called a novel. This often means there's little or no continuity between elements in the book. They are inherently episodic. Third, the books reflect the prejudices of the age. In some countries, reprints of work written contemporaneously to ERB is only offered for sale wrapped in cellophane with warning notices that modern readers may find some scenes offensively racist. The fact the work of ERB has not suffered this indignity does not mean he was free of racism. He institutionalises the racism by having different races with different characteristics, some good, some less good. Finally, the different races on Mars are all indelibly warlike. This is used to enable Carter to kill any one of them without penalty. The morality of this is fascinating in modern terms. Here's a stranger in a strange land who can just pick up a sword and slaughter a few of the natives and be accepted into the local culture. I could go on but all I would do is demonstrate that we see different things in the same material.


02/16/12--03:08: Comment on The Great Queen Seon Deok or Seondeok Yeo Wang — episodes 33 to 40 by Jeremy Realon (chan 1794053)

Helow..Im d # 1 fun of Queen Seon Deok,i watch this hystorical dramatic from GMA kapuso on year 2009(Philippines).I watch this in the bginning the end of this show..Wow im so amazed and i wish n sna mau lit pa i2..great!!!


02/16/12--04:33: Comment on The Great Queen Seon Deok or Seondeok Yeo Wang — episodes 33 to 40 by David Marshall (chan 1794053)

You are right. This is one of the best of the sageuks.


02/16/12--21:47: Comment on Jane Carver of Waar by Nathan Long by Jeddakakalaky (chan 1794053)

I think anyone who sees racism in Burroughs work may be reading some of there own sensibilities into the stories. Because honestly, when I read these books for the first time the idea that Burroughs was racist or that he was presenting one race as better than another or that he was presenting John Carter as the great white hero who is better than all these savage primitives never occurred to me. If anything it seems to me that Burroughs was trying to demonstrate just how ridiculous racism is by turning it on it's head and even that is a stretch, I think he was just trying to tell a rousing good adventure with a lot of wild over the top fantastical elements. The First Born(Blacks) consider themselves the highest and best of all the races on Mars. The Thurns(Whites) are the mostly lowlife manipulators. Hardly a shining example of racial superiority. You believe that Burroughs made the Barsoomians warlike just to give Carter an excuse for killing them? It's a dying world. Barsoomian society has declined to the point of a few surviving nations struggling for limited resources. I think it's reasonable to assume that a society might become overtly warlike in those circumstances. And Carter doesn't just go around slaughtering anyone and everyone left and right. He never kills anyone without a darn good reason. Of course all of this means lots of adventure, you're right about that. That's what readers wanted and that's what Burroughs gave them but I think the fact Burroughs has survived and most of the others(And from what I've read there were a LOT of them) haven't says something about his abilities as a story teller. The article doesn't make you sound like you're much of a Burroughs fan.


02/16/12--22:12: Comment on Jane Carver of Waar by Nathan Long by David Marshall (chan 1794053)

You seem to be approaching this on the basis that racism is only about white supremacy. Your sentence says it all, "The First Born (Blacks) consider themselves the highest and best of all the races on Mars. The Thurns (Whites) are the mostly lowlife manipulators. Hardly a shining example of racial superiority." Actually, this is a shining example of racial superiority. The moment one race asserts that it deserves different (not necessarily better) treatment than another race based solely on the basis of race, this is racism. I read ERB extensively back in the 1950s and, in terms of the cultural standards then applied, I considered him good entertainment. Sixty years later, I consider him a product of his time. We have moved on. By definition, his work cannot. That means the prejudices that informed his work are all the more apparent to us now. In more general terms, this means I can no longer read many of the books of the late Victorian, early Edwardian era without shuddering. Even some of the work in the period 1930 to 1960 is showing its age and growing increasingly unreadable. Indeed, I find myself quite embarrassed by some of the authors whose work I read when young. For example, the misogyny and racism of Lovecraft underpins his notions of horror. Sadly <a href="http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Creation_of_Niggers" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Creation_of_Niggers</a> is typical of the racism at the time ERB published his first Barsoom novel. When you have lived a few more years and read more widely, you too will probably develop different sensibilities.


02/17/12--09:02: Comment on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) by bbaz28728 (chan 1794053)

Reblogged this on <a href="http://beddyburc.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/tinker-tailor-soldier-spy-2011/" rel="nofollow">beddyburc</a>.


02/20/12--06:55: Comment on Carpathia by Matt Forbeck by More Carpathia Reviews | Forbeck.com (chan 1794053)

[...] At the Opinionator, David Marshall enjoyed the book. He writes: Forbeck imparts a pleasingly relentless quality to the narrative as the humans slowly realise they may just have been demoted in the food chain… Carpathia is a stripped-down thrill ride as humans and vampires are set on a collision course thanks to the accident of an iceberg. It’s well worth picking up. [...]


02/20/12--12:00: Comment on Enormity by W G Marshall by New review of ENORMITY – check it out! | wgmarshall (chan 1794053)

[...] http://opionator.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/enormity-by-w-g-marshall/ Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. [...]


02/21/12--08:57: Comment on Enormity by W G Marshall by A Review: Enormity at Night Shade Books (chan 1794053)

[...] “For once, I’m going to start off with a headline. Enormity by W G Marshall (Night Shade Books, 2012) is wonderful! No matter what your prejudices against science fiction or fantasy, you can’t beat a book that takes a theme and then explores all the implications with a detailed eye. That this happens to start off with a 1950’s film trope is just one of those accidents of nature no-one can predict nor control once they occur. Think of this as a tsunami of weird with a wave height that just seems to get bigger as the book goes on. For this book, I think we probably need a new label. Thanks to China Miéville we got New Weird. Perhaps this should start off überweird. Actually, I’m cheating a bit on the weird front. The problem is the alternatives that immediately spring to mind like wacky and goofy lack the necessary gravitas. If you’re going to spawn a new subgenre label, you want it to sound impressive. Somehow a genre named after a Disney character (ignoring the copyright issues for now) fails to inspire. Screwball seems to have been appropriated by the film industry. Absurdism is too academic. This is definitely not whimsical. All suggestions will be gratefully received.” You can find the full fantastic review at Thinking About Books. [...]