Tarzan
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Cheesy, but light. More like Swiss cheese rather than cheddar.
But gotta give the book some excuse. It was written way back when, before Macho Muscle Men and Beautiful Blondes in Distress became a plague to avoid in the literary field. You've got Tarzan all strong and handsome, and you've got Jane whom you only have to remember as the one who gets saved by Tarzan every time. They're typical, but only because we've seen it so many times. Who knows? Maybe for Burroughs' original audience, this stuff was super cool and hip.
Besides, ignoring all the cliches, Burroughs' detailed descriptions alone were enough to impress me . . . the jungle in which Tarzan lives, the wild animals and the savage cannibals he encounters, and the 'civilized' Europeans who show him a whole new world out there. It all feels so real as I turn the pages of his book. The characters? Sure, they feel a bit limited in character growth and all that good stuff. And yeah, if we're talking absolute reality, Tarzan probably would've died in his first month out in the wilds with an ape as a mother.
But psha. We all know we're not looking for a great philosophical discovery about the human existence here (And then again, maybe if you look really really hard you can find some statements about man, beasthood, the nature of man, blah blah blah). It's all about taking this ridiculous idea of an ape man and making it seem like it could actually happen.
But gotta give the book some excuse. It was written way back when, before Macho Muscle Men and Beautiful Blondes in Distress became a plague to avoid in the literary field. You've got Tarzan all strong and handsome, and you've got Jane whom you only have to remember as the one who gets saved by Tarzan every time. They're typical, but only because we've seen it so many times. Who knows? Maybe for Burroughs' original audience, this stuff was super cool and hip.
Besides, ignoring all the cliches, Burroughs' detailed descriptions alone were enough to impress me . . . the jungle in which Tarzan lives, the wild animals and the savage cannibals he encounters, and the 'civilized' Europeans who show him a whole new world out there. It all feels so real as I turn the pages of his book. The characters? Sure, they feel a bit limited in character growth and all that good stuff. And yeah, if we're talking absolute reality, Tarzan probably would've died in his first month out in the wilds with an ape as a mother.
But psha. We all know we're not looking for a great philosophical discovery about the human existence here (And then again, maybe if you look really really hard you can find some statements about man, beasthood, the nature of man, blah blah blah). It's all about taking this ridiculous idea of an ape man and making it seem like it could actually happen.
And believe me, this is the kind of book where you know that this can never ever ever happen! . . . but you believe it can happen anyway.
It got pretty real, in a sense that it didn't gloss over any of the disgusting jungle sanitary conditions, or the wild jungle beasts that do not befriend you on sight like so many cartoon, bipedal creatures are prone to do. While Burroughs doesn't forget to add fantastical elements to the story to give it a bit of flavor, he explains the events of the story in such a logical sequence, and with such flawless reasoning, that I could almost swear that it's possible in real life to survive in the jungle like Tarzan did.
It got pretty real, in a sense that it didn't gloss over any of the disgusting jungle sanitary conditions, or the wild jungle beasts that do not befriend you on sight like so many cartoon, bipedal creatures are prone to do. While Burroughs doesn't forget to add fantastical elements to the story to give it a bit of flavor, he explains the events of the story in such a logical sequence, and with such flawless reasoning, that I could almost swear that it's possible in real life to survive in the jungle like Tarzan did.
I'm sure everyone is familiar, or has at least heard about, the Disney movie Tarzan. I'd just like to take this moment to declare: the book is 100% better, for sure. While the apes in the Disney version are perfectly human-like and interact with Tarzan as intellectual characters, the apes in the book are clearly 'beasts,' with a prominent instinct for survival and very little communication skills. I personally felt that this added to the realism of the story, and didn't hinder the plot sequence at all. Likewise, the violent tendencies of the cannibal tribe serves to heighten the tensions as the story reaches its climax, and makes the reader think, "go on, Tarzan. Beat them all up till kingdom comes." The jungle animals and the jungle natives both help characterize Tarzan as a clever, brave, and noteworthy main character.
Well, perhaps a little too much. He just comes off as this perfect dude. Or as perfect as someone raised by animals can be.
Well, perhaps a little too much. He just comes off as this perfect dude. Or as perfect as someone raised by animals can be.
I felt that the author does the opposite for Jane. She comes off as imperfect, even though she was raised in civilized society. She can drink tea, be pretty and white, be, uh, beautiful, but that doesn't count for much when gigantic pythons are about to swallow her whole. In fact, she's just plain weak.
WEAK.
But you get the feeling that's her allotted role. Poor gal. She gets attacked--she freezes. She gets kidnapped--she faints dead away. She sees her rescuer--she's scared out of her wits. She's surrounded by fire--she doesn't know what to do. All because her character's got to wait for good old Tarzan to swing to her rescue (actually, most of the time he doesn't swing on vines. He sneaks through the undergrowth or overhang, uses bows and arrows, spears, tricks, all sorts of things. I mean, if you take a minute to think about it, what kind of idiot would enter an enemy encampment swinging from a vine, yelling "AHHHHH" at the top of their lungs? Spear fodder, that's what that is. The book's Tarzan shows a bit more aptitude than that).
WEAK.
But you get the feeling that's her allotted role. Poor gal. She gets attacked--she freezes. She gets kidnapped--she faints dead away. She sees her rescuer--she's scared out of her wits. She's surrounded by fire--she doesn't know what to do. All because her character's got to wait for good old Tarzan to swing to her rescue (actually, most of the time he doesn't swing on vines. He sneaks through the undergrowth or overhang, uses bows and arrows, spears, tricks, all sorts of things. I mean, if you take a minute to think about it, what kind of idiot would enter an enemy encampment swinging from a vine, yelling "AHHHHH" at the top of their lungs? Spear fodder, that's what that is. The book's Tarzan shows a bit more aptitude than that).
Her entirely 2-dimensional personality can get on the nerves of the 21st-century female audience, but I say, deal with it. It's a well-written narrative, and I think that counts for something. Even if the author had meant to diss his female readers, I still don't see how that makes this a bad piece of literature in terms of quality.
Overall the book brings me to satisfaction.
I found myself fully emmersed in the world that Burroughs created, breathlessly following the crazy adventures that Tarzan encounters. I was even a bit relieved that the book was a bit short, since I couldn't make myself put it down and was really worried that I'd have to stay up all night to finish it (as it was, I finished it in a couple of hours). I'd reccomend it to anyone with a couple hours to spare...and even to people without a couple hours to spare. It will make you want to read all of its sequels . . . and there are a lot of them.
I found myself fully emmersed in the world that Burroughs created, breathlessly following the crazy adventures that Tarzan encounters. I was even a bit relieved that the book was a bit short, since I couldn't make myself put it down and was really worried that I'd have to stay up all night to finish it (as it was, I finished it in a couple of hours). I'd reccomend it to anyone with a couple hours to spare...and even to people without a couple hours to spare. It will make you want to read all of its sequels . . . and there are a lot of them.
Happy reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment