Part 7.
Outside The Gates Of Opar
A.1: Heart Of Darkness
I have covered the notion of ERB as a writer of fairy tales in my analysis of Beasts Of Tarzan, his mythology and psychology throughout my analyses of the corpus. But there is another troubling spot in the stories not adequately covered by myths, fairy tales and psychology and that spot is Opar. Nor is Opar adequately covered simply as a dreamscape. There is a feel to Opar that goes beyond life and death.
Freud said that there are three basic personality types - the Obsessive-Compulsive, the Manic-Depressive and the Schizo-Paranoid. I know that Manic-Depressive is now described as Bi-Polar but I've never heard of a more nonsensical description while it does nothing to dignify the personality type. Everybody, and this means you, is one or the other. One's world view must, of necessity be predicated on one of the three. None are debilitative per se so long as one's manifestation is within the normal parameters. It is only when one slips outside the normal parameters that personality problems arise. The true Liberal is Obsessive-Compulsive. I am of the Schizo-Paranoid type as was Burroughs. Freud himself was of the Manic-Depressive with a heavy accent on the depressive. Hence his scheme works best with the Manic-Depressive. As a Schizo-Paranoid I have to adjust Freud's Manic-Depression to fit my world view.
I'm going to raise a thorny problem but I anticipate it may explain the nature of Opar. The question is, is the personality type due to nature or nurture. Burroughs himself discussed the problem of nature or nurture quite extensively so I'm raising nothing new. I know you'll find this interesting whether you agree with my conclusions- tentative conclusions- or not.
Some ten or fifteen years ago I read the eminent psychologist Stanislav Grof. He conducted an extensive series of experiments beginning in the sixties with subjects under the influence of LSD. I've never taken LSD but from my readings it seems to be a psychosomatic experience. That is, the actual functioning of the somatic processes become
psychically apparent.Grof found that subjects could recall the birth process and that there were five steps in the process that could be remembered. Any one or a combination of the five could affect the formation of the personality type. For instance the friction of the passage causes a burning sensation the reaction to which can affect the personality type. Thus, it is quite possible that the personality type is fixed by the birth process. I don't know whether one would call that nature or nurture.
I had been pondering Grof's ideas for the ten or fifteen years since I read him unable to come to a decision about something that seemed farfetched to me. My own opinion began jelling on April 26, 2006 when I had a dream which I will relate. I don't expect you to believe anything but as Grof did for me I offer you food for thought.
I find it interesting that when my mind interpreted my own birthing process it put the memory into the form of a fairy tale. This may say something about the nature of fairy tales.
To present a background for understanding. I was a big baby- 11 pounds 3 ounces. I went two weeks past term, in other words nine months two weeks. When I was delivered I was nearly too big to pass the cleft whether I turned my massive shoulders or not. I have been told that I lay with the top of my head out for some time. The doctor clamped forceps on my head in an effort to pull me out.
It is true that I was told the above but having been told the memory gradually formed that I was lying patiently on my back waiting, while I also seemed to remember the strain on my neck vertebrae from the pulling of the forceps. I did have a visible depression in my skull front and back from the forceps for years.
On the day of 4/26/06 I had a fairly traumatic discussion with a friend over the care of their very young grandchild who has been diagnosed as Manic-Depressive. As I explained above I don't consider that abnormal per se. I offered advice that might have jeopardized the friendship which caused my some anxiety. But then, that night I had a birthing dream that the discussion provoked the meaning of which I understood as I was dreaming. The dream seems to confirm Grof's studies and may go a little further.
In the dream I had been living in a castle, sanatorium or asylum of some sort where all my wants and needs had been taken care of. I had been treated exceptionally well but even though I wanted to leave I was held back. It was time for me to go so escaping my keepers I went. I was hurrying down a lushly embowered pathway from the castle looking back for pursuit. Then the pathway turned sharply downward and I began to run sensing deliverance. I broke into a shout of joy as my goal was in sight when an attendant of the castle or asylum rushed from the bushes throwing me to the ground. I was then in a struggle to free myself so I could break out. I struggled forward while the attendant held me back. There the dream ended.
Thus my mind put the birthing experience into the form of a fairy tale setting in way of understanding and explanation. The source of my Schizoid-Paranoid personality type is thus explained by the birthing process. It came as my nature rather than caused by my nurture.
Of course I interpreted my nurture through the Schizoid-Paranoid lens without knowing it.In fact, the Hebrew Garden Of Eden story can easily be read as a birthing fairy tale. Adam and Eve are the Anima and Animus of the male writer of the story. They live in plenitude as I did in this magnificent garden where all their wants and needs are supplied. They are quite happy until they are expelled for the commission of a sin. Whereas I was eager to leave the writer of this story was apparently reluctant. To prevent his return, in any event impossible, a figure with a burning sword was placed at the exit which must therefore have been a narrow gate or cleft of the sort Burroughs describes at Par. Adam, or the writer, is therefore Obsessive-Compulsive as is the religion based on this birthing story.
Turning to Burroughs Par seems to be a representation of the womb. The dome, i.e. the belly, and minarets are visible from a distance. This is a fairly witty description of a pregnant woman waiting to deliver. There are no gates to Par which is a very strange situation for a city. The entrance is a narrow cleft requiring the shoulders be turned for entrance. Now, this cleft seems to be a rent in the walls rather than an architectural detail. Nevertheless for some reason a stairway seeming to be an architectural detail was built from the cleft up into a courtyard. Architecturally this makes no sense.
It is very strange that Tarzan can enter and exit at will although he is invariably imprisoned in Par and must escape. He is always chased from Par by the howling Frightful Men. Oddly enough they never place a few men with the heavy cudgels, clubs or knob sticks which figure so prominently in these stories at this narrow exit. The Frightful Men never think to head him off so racing down the steps, neatly turning his shoulder ninety degrees Tarzan bursts into the plain. A perfect birthing story as one could ask for while the imprisonment and pursuit by the howling Frightful men would account for ERB's Schizoid-Paranoid personality type.
I can't surmise the reason for his birthing fairy tale to be cast in this form.
In each story the nature of his Anima, La's, stay outside the Gates Of Par progresses. This one is really spectacular.
2.
Burroughs quite frequently expresses the view that the White Woman seems to be the universal desideratum of the world's men. In this story a Hindu is killed at the very beginning for being unable to control his lust for a White Woman. Two Arabs are killed trying to abduct White Women with another couple killed as accomplices. Finally Kitembo the chief of the Basembos is killed by Tarzan for seizing the White Woman. Obviously ERB takes the matter seriously.
The question is, is the Woman a symptom of the problem or the cause. It doesn't appear that ERB examined this aspect of the problem. I'll confess that I find the average white woman more attractive than the average woman of other species. That may be more because of the similarity of culture to the white woman rather than physical appearance. That the White Woman is the universal feminine desideratum of the world is beyond question.
To think her charms are the principle attraction misses the psychological point. When the Chinese become the dominant people the Chinese woman will be the standard of beauty. As always the true issue is between the males of the species. When the White male subdued the entire world he emasculated the rest of the male world setting himself up as the standard of masculinity. Males cannot abide the superiority of other males whether founded on real or imagined superiority. There must be a reaction to subordination.
If the male is beyond retaliation at any given point the female is not. Thus if the superior man's woman is available to the lesser the lesser man proves his masculine equality by having sexual relations with the superior's woman.
Thus all Africans whether in Africa, America or elsewhere cherish the White Woman. By abusing her they abuse him. It is impossible to read African memoirs or novels without having the writer boast of the number of White women who came crawling pleading and begging to his bed. If only a small portion of such incidents are true the number of White women who make themselves available to Africans is truly stupendous.
In the current situation of the invasion of Europe and America by formerly subject peoples one notes a high incidence of rape and gang rape and mutilation of White women. This is to be expected as these men assert their manhood against that of the White man. It is especially gratifying to them as the White men do nothing but grumble, if that, without retaliating.
The next step , of course, is the direct retaliation against the White Man. Such retaliation is going on in other parts of the world than EuroAmerica. There is nothing more natural.
To take the case of what is called Zimbabwe in Africa. There is no cultural unit called Zimbabwe. The country is merely a geographical entity created by White conquerors in the nineteenth century for their own convenience when they formed the area as Southern Rhodesia. When 'Rhodesia's' independence came about through the abandonment of the White citizens by their Euroamerican fellows there were no Black Rhodesians to pass power to. The area reverted to its former tribal affiliations. The successors to the Whites were the Shona tribesmen and not 'Zimbabweans', however the Shona achieved tribal domination over all the other tribes as well as the Whites. One hundred fifty year old grievances were now to be avenged.My example comes from a document of the Shona elite used for an article in The London Times in 2002. The document in its entirety can be found at:
{ http://www.nationalvanguard.org/printer.php?id=7408 }The Shona reaction to defeat and domination by both Blacks and Whites can be taken as representative. What is happening in Zimbabwe can be projected worldwide. It's up to you boys now; I'm almost out of here.
When the Europeans invaded and conquered Africa the Africans had been exterminating each other from time immemorial. The Shona themselves could only have occupied their territory at the expense of others. Shona predecessors have disappeared from the planet.
At the point at which I begin my example Chaka the founder of the Zulu peoples at that time above Natal in South Africa had occupied newly conquered territories either exterminating or driving away the predecessor peoples. Chaka's rule was offensive so that splinter Zulu groups left Zululand. Of these were the Ndebele or Matabele Zulu. They migrated North into Shonaland - what became a part of Southern Rhodesia and its successor state Zimbabwe.
In the African tradition the Matabele began the extermination of all tribes including the Shona. This is all taking place c. 1850 before the Europeans arrived. Undoubtedly the Shona would have been exterminated, that is the men killed and the women appropriated.
Now, the Arabs were already moving South from Zanzibar and would have confronted both Shona and Matabele enslaving the women and children depopulating the area as they were doing in the Sudan and the Congo but the arrival of the Whites forestalled both the Arabs and the Matabeles.
The Whites, led by Cecil Rhodes who gave his name to the Rhodesias, seized the country of the Shona and Matabele. There were a couple of Matabele wars necessary to subdue that tribe. Thus the Whites did the Shona a favor by eliminating the Matabele as effective competitors while setting themselves up as lamb for the slaughter for the Shonas a hundred or so years on.
The Whites as invaders came with the intent to stay but unlike the African tribes hadn't the foresight to exterminate or drive out the previous occupants.
Thus as the 1960s and the independence of the Africans came about the Shona who had never been defeated by the Whites while the Matabele had, cleverly insinuated themselves into positions to receive the reins of government after the Whites of Rhodesia had been betrayed by their fellows in Europe and America.
Now came the Day of the Shona.
For many years both the Ndebeles and Europeans were living under a shameful illusion that the crimes of their forefathers had been forgiven and forgotten. This was not to be as R.G. (Robert Mugabe), the illustrious man of the Shona people ensured that the two groups pay dearly for the evil deeds of their ancestors. Is it possible that such heinous crimes as those committed by these people against the Shona can just be swept under the carpet because it is politically expedient to do so?No, indeed it is not. The past is not so easily dismissed. It had been better for the Matabele that the Europeans had not interrupted them until the Shona had been exterminated or driven out. It had been better for the Europeans to exterminate or drive out both the Shona and Matabele. Bloodshed is bloodshed. Then it would have been that of the Shona now it is that of the Ndebele and Europeans. Can the Shona forget the crimes and indignities of the Matabele and Europeans? What madness to think so. Read on.Such are our differences that must be resolved not in a superficial manner but in practical terms within such a real concrete context as ours. The redefinition of our relationship with the settlers, black or white, is long overdue! We therefore salute the launch of the third phase of our struggle (THIRD CHIMURENGA) and invite the reader of this article to join us in celebrating the manner in which this fight is being conducted and its guaranteed success in smashing the white economic infrastructure such as farms which facilitated the exploitation of our people.So says Robert Mugabe and so say I. So why is Mugabe a Liberal darling while I'm not? Crazy world.
All the struggles that took place in this country since the 1830s were about dominance. Lessons from these struggles confirm the view that a human social group is either dominant or subordinate when it comes to issues of political power...Have things changed in a hundred fifty years? Not at all.
...in no time ZAPU's political structures were smashed. Liquidation. Within five years, 25,000 Ndebeles had been exterminated in ways that instilled fear in the survivors...The rate of kill was just unbelievable.Remember the Shona are Liberal poster people. Liberals stand and applaud such actions in Zimbabwe while condemning the same actions in Darfur. Apart from the hypocrisy can anyone expect anything different when a oppressed people gain power over their former oppressors. Bedding the oppressor's women is small potatoes compared to exterminating them 'in ways that instilled fear in the survivors.'The consequences of failing in the occupation of conquered territories is appalling. This is serious stuff while Euroamericans teeter on the brink of destruction paralyzed in their actions. As the Moslems say they cannot fight a technological battle so they have to use their reproductive powers to multiply, peacefully infiltrating Euroamerica until they have the power to disrupt society nullifying technological superiority. Did the Shona care that the destruction of European technological achievements plunged themselves into poverty and self-destruction? Not at all. Do the invaders of Europe and America worry about plunging the world into darkness and savagery. No, indeed, so long as they destroy White dominance. Better to be on top impoverished than on the bottom well to do.
Along the way any humiliations they can inflict on Whites they must and will.
One may well ask why the Whites offer no resistance, even encourage the Shona and others to kill them, applaud them as they do it.
The answer is the subversion of Western institutions by alien peoples plus the political and social dominance of the Obsessive-Compulsive personality type.
To deal with the latter first. Freud whose psychological theories arose during the first two decades of the twentieth century observed the three great personality types while organizing crowd psychology coherently in his Analysis Of The Ego And Group Psychology. When I was in college Liberals condemned the notion of group psychology i.e. cultural entities. Their argument then was that if a cultural entity existed then each member would have to manifest the culture in the exact same way. Today when they wish to pursue a multi-cultural program that objection no longer applies. As I have always believed in distinct cultures I have no difficulties with multi-culturalism nor did Burroughs.
As the Garden Of Eden story indicates the Obsessive-Compulsive personality early defined the Hebrew religious approach thereby superimposing an Obsessive-Compulsive character on the whole people. This was done by the most intense conditioning and indoctrination. This is characteristic of the three Semitic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Moslemism. One only has to visualize the Jewish and Moslem children bobbing and weaving as they chant their respective texts. This is intense conditioning, there is no education involved.
The Obsessive-Compulsive personality believes that whatever they think must be true. Their belief is that the word came from god himself. Their god. This is true of Liberals also who are derived from the Semitic religions. All three Semitic religions have the belief that the divine organization leads from God the Jewish, Moslem or Christian and from thence to benighted humanity in general. Liberals share this opinion as regards themselves.
This mentality cannot be reasoned with as they think of themselves as justified sinners carrying out the will of god on Earth as it is in heaven. Hence they can exterminate vast populations, which is the history of Liberalism, without any qualms of conscience because they believe those other people obstruct the will of god on Earth and his representatives. I've said it but I'll say it again, Hitler was a Liberal.
Now, the Jews consider themselves the first men so that everything belongs to them by right of priority. Any reading of the Bible will confirm this. If it wasn't clear from the Adam and Eve story then the story of Noah and the Ark confirms it: All mankind evolved from the Jews making them the first men and this then gives them the right to rule. Any attempt to thwart their will is an evil and misguided act.
To skip a lot of history let us move up to 1492 when the Jews were expelled from Spain. Beginning in 1190 in England, the Jews had then been expelled from France and several of the German States. Thus they populated what would become the Pale Of Settlement under the Russians a few hundred years later. At the time the Pale was a sparsely settled sort of no man's land without a great deal of political organization.
The expulsion from Spain broke the mind of the nation. They vowed vengeance on Europe by befuddling the mind while emasculating them although they didn't use those terms. While Europe was disunited into several States and cultures preventing any unity of will or action the Jews were one unified people distributed internationally through all the States, even where they were excluded. They were hampered by their exclusion from England, France and the Iberian Peninsula but they were readmitted to England by Cromwell in the seventeenth century and France after the Revolution. It is no coincidence that the rise of Judaism began after these dates. In the nineteenth century America became available for colonization by the various cultural groups. While the Jews had tougher going where they had a history in Europe, in America they were welcomed as the Hebrews of the Bible. Thus they became the backbone of the Liberal faith. The Liberals themselves were the descendants of the East Anglian Puritans who were themselves peudo-Hebrews.
As aliens the Jews might have found tougher sledding as aliens but as confederates of Liberals they became the guiding force of Liberalism. As Irving Berlin, the Jewish songster, was to write of the Jewish relationship to the US 'stand beside her and guide her, god bless America my home sweet home.'
There are consequences to being invaded by a people who consider themselves superior. To return to the present day Shona document:
The Shona language has regained its dominant position in our society. It has become the lingua franca of Zimbabwe in the public sector particularly in government departments such as the army, police, hospitals, schools, immigration, customs throughout the country.It should be remembered that the Shona are Liberal darlings. While Liberals enthusiastically endorse such programs in Shonaland they condemn such practices here in the United States favoring several official languages.
One can now authoritatively demand service in the Shona language, even conduct telephone conversation anywhere in Matabeleland without the need to apologize for the use of Shona or without the burden of having to speak Ndebele. National ZTV is completely Shona and does very well to promote and develop our language. This is as it should be since Zimbabwe is a Shona Nation. We should not give room to the languages of invading groups because our intention is to culturally fracture and dislocate them. Let us be reminded that language dominance creates many opportunities such as employment which occurs according to the language spread.It will be remembered that according to the ERBzine Bio Timeline for May 1919 ERB rejected an appeal from the AJC for the legalization of Yiddish as an official language. I believe that was the beginning of his Liberal/Red troubles.
While 1919 was too early for such a demand the current massive invasions of the US by Moslems and Mexicans will raise a demand to make Spanish and Arabic official languages. Spanish is already well on the way to success as signs in public places are invariably in both English and Spanish. If the Shona hope to fracture and dislocate their 'minorities' by insisting on Shona then it is quite clear that the intent is to 'fracture and dislocate' the White population of the US. But...well, never mind.
The ultimate goal will be to displace English as the official language. thus the Anglo-American will be completely emasculated with his culture 'fractured and displaced.' He will have to use Arabic or Spanish rather than his own language. The entire literary history of the world will become a dead language like Latin requiring specialized training to read and study.
The Shona, Mexicans and Moslems are no fools. One wishes one could say the same about Europeans and Americans.
Just as the Matabele and Europeans raised the ire of the Shona who had determinedly sought and achieved political and military dominance exterminating both Matabele and Europeans along the way, in other words thoroughly emasculating them, so the goal of the conquered peoples worldwide has been to emasculate the White or Westerner. On the one hand the goal is to deprive the White male of power and on the other to appropriate his women. This is what ERB is referring to when he says the White Woman is the universal male desideratum.
Along with thinkers like Madison Grant and Lothrop Stoddard ERB is clued to developing trends. This is the reason that Myerian ideologues like Richard Slotkin find ERB so offensive. This is the reason for the campaign to discredit him as a human being. In other words, portray him as a bigot. This is not lightly done and should be stoutly resisted.
The groundwork for disenfranchising White males was begun between the wars by destroying the reputations of such men as Madison Grand and Lothrop Stoddard. They were naturally portrayed as bigots but they were nothing of the kind. They were scholars who were honest decent men.
After WWII the effort to disenfranchise the male White and appropriate his women began in earnest.
Once again the Shona:
Nathan Shamuybrira once observed in the 1979 Grand Plan "the only way to weaken the Ndebele is to deprive him of an education."So with the White male. While after the war the majority of college students were White males by the current statistics the majority of college students are women or so-called minority students who have been given preference over the White male by Affirmative Action. Thus not only are colleges predominantly non-White male but the percentage of White males going on to college and/or graduating has declined. Thus the White male as the Shona indicated has been weakened by a lack of education.For the rest as Liberals control the curriculum and faculty their religious program is taught exclusively so that dissenters if they get a degree have a grade point low enough to exclude them from the prestigious schools.
As the women are elevated over their men they lose respect for them while the hypnopaedic media portray White men as cruel and sadistic to women, vicious criminals or, increasingly as buffoons while 'minority' men are portrayed in a positive light. The Liberals of course deny this but - the Shona Manifesto:
National public addresses at official functions are done in Shona. Being a Shona is now a source of pride particularly in Shona assimilates who in place of that cultural void, have received a reward to fill in the gap as a result of seeking redemption from Shonas. Marriage partner preferences bear further testimony to the superiority of Shonas. Ndebele girls will without exception opt to marry a Shona man given a choice between men from the two groups. This is not without reason.Thus the Shona Liberals darlings state openly what Liberals in Europe and America deny. ERB in centering on this assault on White Women hit at the crux of the problem although in 1930 the course of the assault couldn't be accurately determined.
Ndebele men are often savage and brutal prospective husbands. They are ungiving, unprotective and stingy. Since time immemoral, Shona men have enjoyed the luxury of making Ndebele girls pregnant and then deserting them. There are several benefits from this. The young ladies lose out on education, hence on reliable sources of income, eventually resorting to prostitution. In fact our Shona drama script writers have captured this when invariably all loose female characters playing the role of prostitute or infidelity are given Ndebele names such as Ma Ncube, Ma Khumalo.
Secondly, we have managed to dilute the Ndebeles since children fathered and left by our brothers (illegimates) are Ndebele by name but Shona by blood. This is a legitimate form of struggle. The end justifies the means. The true Ndebele population is shrinking and we can all be catalysts in this.Nevertheless he was fully cognizant of the multi-cultural implications. Whether he read Grant or Stoddard or not he was aware of the threat posed by the Wahabi Moslems. Stoddard knew exactly what the situation was and said so although subsequently being destroyed as a bigot. His exclusion from academic respectability should be debunked.
After the 1965 immigration act Moslems were allowed to flood the United States while at the same time beginning an invasion of Europe encouraged by Liberals. I know that it is common to blame the Jews but their influence shouldn't be exaggerated. The Liberals are the true problem. Nothing works without them. A result was 9/11. Today, 5/4/06 Moamar Qadaffi of Libya smugly informed the West of its predicament. He announced that they have fifty million Moslems in Europe and that within a couple decades Europe would be Moslem. He suggested Europeans prepare to convert to Moslemism or fight the Moslems. Liberals will never allow the latter.
While on the other hand I'm sure the Moslems have been busy since 9/11. If the Euroamericans were to choose to fight the touch of a few buttons would probably send the Western capitals up in flames. I have no idea what has been done but I suspect the major cities have been wired with explosives. Perhaps the sewers, for instance, have been mined. At any rate our silly inept governments have sold us down the river.
Having put the situation into perspective let us now apply our learning to some multi-cultural relationships outside the Gates of Opar.
7. B.
ERB had begun his affair with Florence Gilbert in 1927. In 1930 he was midway between its inception and his abandonment of Emma in 1933. Not unsurprisingly the conflict in his mind is reflected in the this work. One may take Wayne Colt as the Burroughs who married Emma and Tarzan as the man Burroughs wishes to become or believes he has become. Thus one must pay close attention to he relationship between Colt and La and Colt and Zora as well as Tarzan's relationship to the two women. This is a very crucial sequence of episodes.
The name Wayne Colt for his alter ego may be broken down thusly. Colt obviously comes from the Colt revolver- the gun that tamed the West. The Wayne may come from Mad Anthony Wayne the hero of Fallen Timbers. As he was a military commander he would be an appropriate choice. So the name Wayne Colt represents a heroic figure.
This novel is highly sexually charged both on ERB's personal level and his concern for the sanctity of the White female among the other species and cultures. As usual there are layers of meaning. Colt enters the Communist camp just as the Hindu, Raghunath Jafar, is attempting to rape Zora. Colt rescues her but the Hindu (the second chapter is titled: The Hindu) retires into the bush to take a pot shot at the unsuspecting Colt in vengeance. Tarzan who is watching puts an arrow through Jafar's heart. Thus Tarzan kills this first of the violators of White womanhood while he or Colt or La will kill the other three. So, virtually the first thing in this novel the honor of White womanhood is defended
One may ask who the Hindu represents. I suspect he may be combined with Peter Zveri to represent Burroughs old competitor for Emma's hand, Frank Martin. Zveri and Paul Ivitch appear to be duplicates of Nikolas Rokoff and Alexis Paulvitch of the Russian Quartet and those two did represent Martin and his sidekick, R.H. Patchin.
According to Patchin's condolence letter at Burroughs' death the last time he saw ERB was just after the divorce. I suspect that Martin interfered with Burroughs and Emma for years after they were married which may have been at least a partial cause for ERB to flee Chicago for Idaho in 1903 and perhaps also in 1919.
If 1934 was the last time Patchin saw ERB that probably means that Martin lost interest in ERB after the divorce and called Patchin off. The question is how many times did Patchin run into Burroughs between 1899 and 1934. Was he hovering in the background all this time?
I think it likely that Jafar reflects back to 1899 and Martin while Zveri may be a shadow figure of Martin who was keeping his distance while Paul Ivitch is so close in name to Paulvitch that he must represent Patchin.
When Tarzan and La descend from the desert of Opar they enter the lush tropical landscape at the base of the range. This semi-swamp is a symbol of sexual desire. At this point Tarzan and La can be taken to represent Burroughs and Florence.
Tarzan leaves La in a tree as he goes off to hunt up some breakfast. He ranges far. Just as he spots Horta the boar who is a classical figure representing the goddess, in this case Emma unless I'm mistaken, a terrific tropical storm bursts with enormous flashes of lightening, terrific crashes of thunder and a torrential downpour. As this storm breaks Tarzan launches himself from his tree onto the back of Horta who he stabs to death. This scene obviously represents the pent up resentment and hatred of Emma. Carrying the flesh of Horta with him he hurries back to La/Forence.
La discovering Tarzan gone when she awoke assumed Tarzan had abandoned her again. She first bent her steps toward Opar but then turned and wandered toward the conspirator's camp.
When Tarzan returned there was still water running down the trail, in this sexually charged scene. He found La's footsteps leading back to Opar because the storm ended at the base of the mountains. No rain had fallen on the desert of Opar. He lost her spoor on the swampy trail leading into the wide world.
Zora looked up in camp to see this exotic nearly nude White woman appear out of the jungle. In my imagination such a scene as this is very wonderful. These are pictures no camera could record being reserved for the artist's eye. It has to an innocent and not a lustful eye too.
Now, the conspirators had left camp for their second attempt on Opar leaving the Arabs behind who refused to follow Zveri any further. As in all of ERB's stories, as well as in fact, the Arabs are slave traders who know the value of a White woman in the North. They now have the two most beautiful White women in Africa and possibly the world in their possession. Striking camp they destroy all provisions and take the White women with them.
Ibn Dammuk takes a fancy to La taking her from the camp for his own pleasure. This was a very bad mistake. If he had known La's skill with the sacrificial knife and the number of men she had killed with it I'm sure he would have thought twice. I mean, you know, killing men was La's profession. She has no trouble dispatching Ibn Dammuk with his own knife then running off into the jungle.
Zora later escapes being pursued by the head Arab, Abu Batn. He is struggling with her on a jungle trail when Colt happens along at the precise psychological moment to dispatch Abu Batn.
Thus both swarthy violators meet their fate at the hands of Burroughs' surrogates. La, as his Anima figure and Cold as an alter Animus. ERB is in one murderous frame of mind in this one.
So now we have Zora, La, Colt and Tarzan running around in the same few square miles of jungle constantly bumping into each other. Not only that but Tarzan's Anima guardian Jad-Bal-Ja the Golden Lion and his Animus figure Tantor the Elephant are also criss-crossing trails. Little Nkima chips in when he can.
While La is wandering alone she is spotted by Jad-Bal-Ja who immediately recognizes her from eight years before as being under Tarzan's protection and hence his own. He then attaches himself to her to protect her. Either La's memory is not as good or her nose isn't sensitive enough to recognize her old friend. In this fairy tale sort of way the story progresses.
Having rescued Zora from Abu Batn Wayne and she take up a sort of residence in the jungle. This is a story of the first years of ERB's and Emma's marriage. Wayne is ashamed of himself because he is such a inadequate provider not being able to bring home the bacon. He attributes this to inefficiency as indeed so did Burroughs in the first decade of the century.
Replicating Tarzan and La Colt searches far and wide for game. While he is gone Zora comes down from her tree where she is captured by the great ape, Goyat, replicating the capture of Jane by Terkoz in Tarzan Of The Apes.
Tarzan killed Terkoz for Jane back then but in this confrontation Tarzan is no longer willing to kill for Emma/Jane/Zora. Instead the Animus figure of Tantor scares the ape away. The marriage is effectively over.
Zora is too ill to continue so Tarzan very efficiently constructs a shelter for her; very efficiently collects food or her while posting his Animus figure, Tantor, to watch over her as he has business elsewhere in the jungle.
At the other end of the trail Colt having finally made a kill with his last round of ammunition at a nearly impossible distance brings it home to find Zora gone.
In a fictionized manner ERB is probably saying that his last chance in life was writing. In a million to one shot he succeeded selling his second effort, first attempt at selling, A Princess Of Mars. But after a lifetime of failure Emma was no longer sympathetic, at least in ERB's eyes. I don't know that we have a record of what she thought the literary worth of her husband's writing was but if she belittled it in anyway ERB was bound to be deeply hurt and resentful especially as in his eyes he had redeemed his early failures and become 'efficient.'
Thus as the very efficient hunter Tarzan/ERB supplies Emma/Zora's wants.
As a parallel story not unlike Tarzan and Esteban Miranda La nurses Wayne Colt back to health. After finding Zora gone Colt loses all reason dropping his kill which he desperately needed and plunging into the jungle in search of Zora. Starved near to death Colt collapses on the trail where La finds ERB's Anima figure, Jad-Bal-Ja, sniffing him. She rescues Colt nursing him back to health as the Golden Lion hunts for them bringing his kills back to their shelter.
La may be seen here as Florence nursing ERB's battered ego back to health.
Thus as Burroughs says the three monarchs of the jungle - the Lion, the Elephant and Tarzan are working together. Burroughs has appropriated the two undisputed kings of the jungle as symbols for his Anima and Animus.
As Broadhurst and Adams have said as well as myself Burroughs had been aware of esoterica from childhood. Before there was LA there was Chicago. Just as LA has been thought of as the kook capitol of our times so Chicago was in Burroughs childhood. Chicago must have been where Burroughs first became aware of Indian mysticism. He is deep into it now and his interest is Shivaistic. A year from this novel Burroughs will write Tarzan And The Leopard Men, another very important novel, in which he casts Florence in the role of Kali Bwana. Kali is the consort of Shiva. The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, p. 347:
Elephants were ridden by kings and first and foremost by Indra, Lord Of The Heavens. They therefore symbolize the power of kingship, Shiva being titled 'the Elephant' in the exercise of his kingly office. (Compare with the Zulu king Chaka, the great Black Elephant) Since the effects of settled kingship are peace and prosperity, whoever invokes the power of the elephant (matangi) is given their heart's desire.Since Kali Bwana is united with ERB's alter ego 'the Old Timer' then ERB must associate himself with Shiva while he does associate himself with Shiva's symbol, the elephant. As Tarzan rides through the jungle on the back of Tantor while Burroughs muses on the nature of time it should be clear that Tarzan/Burroughs sees himself as a lord of Creation. Tarzan must therefore be a religious symbol.While Burroughs Animus figure is guarding Zora then, ERB's Anima figure is guarding and providing for La and Colt. However both Tantor and Jad-Bal-Ja are males so why would an aspect of ERB's Anima figure be male?
At the risk of repeating myself, back in ERB's third written work, The Outlaw Of Torn, the Prince was playing in his garden supervised by his maid/Anima Maude. Maude allowed herself to be distracted so that De Vac seeking vengeance on the Prince's father, the king, lures the Prince through the gate from the Garden. Discovering this Maude rushes to the rescue but she is brutally murdered by De Vac outside the gate. De Vac then assumes the role of Anima taking the Prince who becomes Norman to London where they live in a house above the Thames in the attic. One can see here the origin of dualism in Tarzan.
For the next several years De Vac dresses as a woman living in the attic with Norman. A house is symbolic of the person while the attic is symbolic of the brain. Thus Burroughs Anima assumes a male identity while looking and acting like a woman and after having murdered the Prince's true Anima.
This corresponds to ERB's emasculation by John the Bully on the streetcorner on the way to Brown School. John terrorized ERB so badly that he killed ERB's Anima replacing it with himself in drag.
This naturally caused ERB serious grief as he struggled to regain a female identity for his Anima. I explained his struggles in my three part analysis of the Mucker Trilogy of 1913-17. At the conclusion of that trilogy in Bridge And The Oskalossa Kid (The Oakdale Affair) Burroughs had managed to reconcile his Anima as a woman in woman's clothes in the character of Gail Prim. Thus Gail Prim may be associated with La of Opar.
Apparently ERB could not totally displace the male element of his Anima so that in 1922 he created Jad-Bal-Ja to replace De Vac/John who he then associated with La of Opar in the Golden Lion. The Golden Lion also disappears from the oeuvre at this time but in Kali Bwana Burroughs unites a male and female image that evolves from Jad-Bal-Ja. Kali is a female goddess while a Bwana is a male figure, a female being a memsahib. So, ERB couldn't free himself of the male aspect on his Anima.
So now in Tarzan The Invincible La and the Golden Lion are united as Anima figures ministering to the needs of Colt/Burroughs while the Tarzan aspect of ERB's Animus has become self-sufficient or, at least, he thinks so.
In 1930 ERB already knows he is going to leave Emma so that while Tarzan takes care of Zora/Emma nursing her he refuses to speak to her during the long convalescence . Without a word to her during weeks he delivers her back at the camp of the conspirators abandoning her.
OK. Emma by 1930 must have been aware that ERB was seeing another woman and she probably knew it was Florence. It was at this time that she sank into alcoholism. If she read ERB's stories before publication it is impossible that she missed the import of this tale.
At the same time as Tarzan returns Zora La leaves Colt who returns to the conspirators. La and Tarzan are then reunited as one imagines ERB and Florence were while Zora and Colt end up together. For the story's sake Tarzan has to return La to Opar but Opar and La are never mentioned again in the oeuvre; instead a year later we are introduced to Kali Bwana in Tarzan And The Leopard Men who is united with Burroughs' alter ego. the Old Timer. So it would appear that La evolved into the goddess figure of Kali Bwana outside the Gates of Opar who in turn represented Old Timer Burroughs new love Florence. Thus Burroughs gets one step further to chucking Emma.
Finally Kitembo crosses the line of desire for the White Woman by seizing Zora for which Tarzan puts an arrow through his heart. All four violators of White Womanhood in the novel were killed by ERB's alter egos while the novel opens with such a killing and ends with such a killing which shows, I think, how strongly he felt about the matter.
At story's end then Burroughs has shuffled through his personal woman problems while issuing a strong statement about what one might call miscegenation. The story within the story, the issue behind the issue having been resolved we can turn in the next section to deal with the ostensible story or issue while reconciling the various elements of the novel.
Part 8
Red, White And Black
Now we get to the ostensible story which is the Red assault on Italian Somaliland. If few people today understand the partition of Africa by the European powers it might be well to recap the situation a little. The two big players in Africa were France and England with Spain and Portugal picking up some early real estate later joined by the bit players Germany and Italy. The German possessions were stripped from them after the Great War and given to England.
This novel takes place in the Horn Of Africa or the Northeast corner facing the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Ocean. The area contained Ethiopia otherwise known as Abyssinia, the only independent State in Africa save Liberia whose independence was guaranteed by the United States.
Ethiopia was bordered by Italian Eritrea and French and British Somaliland on the North, Italian Somaliland on the East, Kenya and Uganda on the South and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan on the West.
The Galla tribe with whom ERB became fascinated had been driven about by the Somals occupying lands mostly in the interior of Ethiopia, after manner of the Middle Eastern Kurds, where they were constantly in conflict with the Ethiopians and the Somals on the border.
The Red camp is located in Ethiopia several days march from the border of Italian Somaliland. Opar which is nearby must now be located in Ethiopia.
The Reds have assembled an international cast of characters or in other words a multi-cultural outfit. Their multi-cultural nature will prove to be a liability rather than an asset as indeed it must in real life.
The organizers are Russian or Soviet Communists of whom there are four, Peter Zveri, the leader, Zora Drinov, Paul Ivitch and Michael Dorsky. they are joined by an American agent acting as a double agent, Wayne Colt.
Burroughs casually mentions that the expedition was put together in the United States by Zveri operating on both coasts. As Burroughs is writing a novel he wisely declines to preach or analyze, he is, as he says, an entertainer. As I who do function as an analyst pointed out in Marcia Of The Doortstep the US had been used as a safe haven by every conspiratorial revolutionary group on the planet. Burroughs is noting the same thing here but only in passing as part of the story. If one is not attuned to such details they slip right by without meaning as do the dots and dashes of the Morse code to the uninitiated.
The group is also composed of a Filipino Red, Antonio Mori and a Mexican revolutionary Miguel Romero. These people form the core group. Affiliated with them are the Moslem Arabs of Abu Batn who appear to have been recruited from the Mahgreb, perhaps Algeria, where some of Tarzan's early adventures occurred. They do not appear to be Black Arabs of the Horn. While appearing to be Communists they remain Moslem Arabs whose real motive is to drive the Christians or Nasrany as they call them out of Africa.
Zveri has also patched on the Bantu tribe of Kitembo, the Basembos. This is because Kitembo has actually been to Opar, the only member of the party who has. Kitembo doesn't appear to be a true Communist but is a former powerful chief from Kenya who had been displaced by the British. He comes from a place on Lake Victoria which should make him a Luo but for reasons perhaps not pertinent I tend to think of him as a Kikiyu probably partly based on someone like Jomo Kenyatta who already had notoriety by 1930 although Kitembo's history is close to that of the Unyoro chief Kaba Rega whose story Burroughs was definitely familiar with from the memoirs of Samuel Baker.
Kitembo is interested only in recovering his past dignity augmented ten fold. All that becomes irrelevant when he deigns to lay his hand on Zora.
We should remember that Burroughs is writing in 1930 and not 2006. so many things that are more or less clear to us now were undetermined at that time while understandings and motivations were quite different then from today.
For one thing Africa was still a land of mystery where one wouldn't have been too surprised if someone had discovered a lost civilization, a strange anthropoid - perhaps the so-called Missing Link - and any number of things. One of the great losses of my childhood was the recognition that Africa was known; that nothing truly wonderful would be discovered in the world again. All was now cataloguing.
Abercrombie and Fitch who had built a very lucrative business on outfitting 'explorers' or safaris, having not yet turned to teen porn, lost its raison d'etre as did all the 'Explorer' clubs where grown men sat around in khaki Safari suits drinking and dreaming. All that was left for me and my generation was Trader Vic's. The miracle is that the National Geographic found a way to survive when they could no longer portray exotic, naked, painted savages. But they did survive and handsomely so.
So, in 1930 Burroughs story still had a degree of probability. Especially in the way he joined contemporary politics to nineteenth century Africa. If one reads closely this is quite a story, a true tour de force.
Not only do the Arabs and the Bantus have their personal motivations apart from Communism, so we learn does Peter Zveri. The streak of individualism is not extinct in his collective mind, he sees the opportunity to make himself Emperor of Africa in Tarzan's stead. Apparently Soviet intelligence has been keeping close tabs on the doings of the Big Ape Man because Zveri knows of Tarzan's 'fool dirigible trip' believing him absent from Africa and possibly dead as no one has heard from him for the past year. This was before Google Alerts too.
Indeed Tarzan drops as from the clouds into a clearing filled with great apes as the story begins. Just coincidentally Jad-Bal-Ja and Nkima happen to be in this exact part of Tarzan's estate of Africa at the same time. Zveri then is very disappointed to learn that his nemesis is back. As well he might because he has engaged himself mano a mano with the Big Bwana and Africa, believe it or not, is not big enough for both of them.
In his examination of Communism, multi-culturalism and human nature Burroughs is at his incisive best. Remember few of these stories go over a hundred ninety-two paperback pages. These are tremendously condensed stories. They're somewhat like a zipped file with megabytes compressed into kilobytes. To really get the stories you have to unzip them and let them expand in your mind. Don't be deceived by their seeming simplicity.
The various cultures involved in this plot are only loosely held together by Communist ideology. The plot eventually falls apart because the cultures see through the phoniness of the Communist ideal. Zveri himself isn't even that sincere a Communist as he intends to use the gold of Opar to make himself a third world power as Emperor of Africa. In the end Communism is a fatuous dream, whether utopian or dystopian is up to you.
Burroughs does not emphasize his opinions, he merely tells his story. My conclusions as to his intent are derived from the results of the story. In the end Communism fails because of internal contradictions while the Big Bwana is invincible retaining his position as Guardian or Emperor of Africa. Not one word of preachment.
Wayne Colt in his rather absurd trek across Africa arrives too late for the first assault on Opar. He does happen into camp in time to spot the shaking tent and rescue Zora from Jafar. After killing Jafar Tarzan turns his steps to Opar where traveling in a bee-line through the Middle Terraces he handily arrives before the expedition which had left some time before him.
Let me take a moment to discuss Burroughs' Africa. In the first place these stories are combination dreamscape, fairy tale, and mythmaking. His Africa bears no more relation to this planet than Arthur's Camelot bore to Medieval England. I find it tiresome for scholars to try to find the 'real' history of Arthur's career. Arthur may have a loose connection to real historical events but the story, a great one, is a projection of psychological needs. There isn't any such thing as a Holy Grail. No knights ever went in a search for it.
In the same way Burroughs' Africa is a psychological projection hopefully leading to his Holy Grail. There are no lower, middle or upper terraces in a nearly uniform jungle in the real Africa. Anyone who tries to find them will be severely disappointed. Such things are merely inventions of Burroughs' dream world. I am glad he shared it with me and the other millions.
The frequency with which the characters run into each other way out there is also impossible but in ERB's dreamworld, his fairy tale, his myth, it happens all the time. There is no sense in arguing the impossibility. If you find it too offensive to your sensibilities then the oeuvre is not for you. One just accepts that these are fairy tales and in fairy tales things like this happen all the time. It's a fantasy. Fantastic things go on.
In the pseudo-serious way ERB presents his stories in this tale the real world and his dreamworld are united. Such goings on are ludicrous and laughable which is why so many readers turn away in disgust but, as ludicrous and laughable are Arthur, Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu, dare I say Jesus the Christ, and a great many others including characters from literary fiction.
I try to fathom the psychological intent so while I may smile and jest at some impossible details it is only at the naive dream details and not the serious intent of the story. In our time these stories would have been taken at warp speed to another galaxy where in that context all things would be possible. But, that would be pure fiction hence unbelievable. I never did take Star Trek seriously, in fact I refused to voluntarily watch it. Burroughs' Africa which can still be located on a map of the world connects psychological reality with temporal reality in a very satisfying blend.
So, as this series is a roman a fleuve or River Story, Tarzan ruminates on his previous visits to Opar as he strides across the hot dusty desert, where rain never falls, toward the fabled gold and red domes and turrets in the distance.
La's love for him which began in Return Of Tarzan has caused dissension between her and her people. She has retained her position only through the active intervention of Tarzan. Defeating the revolution that had ousted her in Tarzan And The Golden Lion the Big Bwana had replaced her on the throne guarded by the Bolgani of the Valley Of Diamonds and the semi-human Gomangani.
As he approaches the city he believes that the Oparians appreciated his defeat of Cadj and that they love and respect him so that his reunion with them will be joyous. Not so. In the interim the Oparians who hate and resent Tarzan have deposed La putting her in a foul prison in the vast underground maze of dungeons of Opar. Passing back through the narrow cleft, bounding up the stairs, Tarzan is surprised to find himself attacked by the howling Frightful Men. The Man of the Steel Pate receives another frightful blow which lays him out.
He wakes to find himself the captive of Oah and Dooth. He is placed in a cell the details of which I have already related.
I haven't plumbed the significance of Tarzan and La being imprisoned together while the city is attacked by the Communists unless the dreamworld of Opar represents a sanctuary that is now invaded in the attempt to destroy Burroughs's literary career. In that event it might be necessary for the Anima and Animus to be together.
In any event the various strange screams and noises from within Opar unsettle the superstitious Blacks and Arabs who lose their nerve refusing to enter Opar. The Blacks believe in Spirits and the Arabs in jinns both of which they fear more than living men. Thus Burroughs is contemptuous of both cultures.
Zveri and his Russians are too cowardly to enter themselves. The only one with the nerve is the Mexican Miguel Romero who gets very good reviews from ERB. Miguel retreats in the face of the horde of Frightful Men but he is very cool about it.
Returning to camp the Arabs are now disaffected having words with Zveri. The arrival of Colt and Mori puts a little heart into Zveri so that a second attempt is made on Opar leaving the Arabs to guard the camp.
Tarzan and La escape from Opar between the two assaults becoming subsequently separated. Zveri takes the Blacks and Communists with him. Being left behind dissolves the Arab affinity to the Cause. Never good Communists, being interested only in ejecting the Nasrani from Africa, they decide to disappear into the desert.
About this time La wanders into camp. Sacking the camp, Abu Batn and his Arabs leave with the two women whose value in the North he knows full well. The Arabs are out of the story. The Communist coalition is breaking up. As Burroughs points out the goals of the two are not the same.
Back at Opar Zveri finds it impossible to force his Africans into service while he and his Russians remain cowards. Colt behaving bravely, as only an American can, along with Miguel Romero, penetrates to the sanctuary where they are faced by the Frightful Men. Perhaps in a comment on American tactics Colt fires over the heads of the Oparians while the Mexican, Romero, fires directly into the mob.
Why when Americans go to war they are reluctant to do the dirty work of killing is beyond me. The reluctance to engage the enemy in Viet Nam cost us that war. The reluctance to do what we have to do in Iraq is costing us that war. Perhaps we think we can hide behind a wall of steel as our technology wars for us while we imagine we can remain safe. Our punishment of our own soldiers for merely humiliating the enemy must be unique in the annals of warfare. And they wonder why no one wants to join the Army.
Romero who shoots to kill is able to escape while the pussy footing Colt is downed by a thrown club and captured. A thrown club! Once again a Burroughs surrogate takes a blow to the head, but how does one survive a thrown club?
Just as Colt and Zora exchange partners in the jungle so now Colt takes Tarzan's place in jail. Here, he is befriended by a nubile beauty, Nao, rather than as La did Tarzan. After killing to free him Nao is left behind as Colt disappears into the dusty desert. Not a very thoughtful thing to do as Nao would certainly be discovered.
Zveri returns to his devastated camp to be handed a letter notifying him that Colt is a double agent. Abandoning any thoughts of Opar the Communists concentrate on their mission which is the simulated invasion of Italian Somaliland.
As they are about to leave Tarzan returns Zora to camp. Coldly dropping her off without a word he climbs onto a branch to spy on the conspirators. His leopard skin shorts are mistaken for the real thing. Here we go again. The shot at the imagined leopard grazes the Big Guy's skull putting him out of commission for a full day. So that is at least two knockouts for Burroughs' surrogates plus this concussion. Tarzan's frequent lapses from attention become more intelligible.
Zveri wants to take advantage of his opportunity and kill Tarzan but Zora intervenes so Tarzan is bound which leads to next day's episode when Dorsky threatens him only to be annihilated by Tantor.
The charming fairy tale between Nkima, Tantor, Tarzan and the Hyena then takes place which is a repeat of the same scene in Jewels of Opar.
Nkima then goes in search of the Faithful Waziri to aid Tarzan while the Big Fella begins his campaign of terror against the Communist conspiritors.
His strategy is to separate Kitembo and his Basembos from Zveri and his Communists. To do this he plays on their superstitious natures. A mysterious voice comes down from the trees, in other words, from the sky, telling them to go back. In the meantime Little Nkima has recruited the Faithful Waziri who arrive to help out not with spears and bows and arrows but modern repeating rifles. Arranging themselves in front of the advancing Communists hidden in the tall grass, this stuff grows over six feet tall - they give the appearance of being many more than they are. Burroughs doesn't make it clear how they can see the Communists through the grass while the Communists can't see them But as Tarzan usually navigates pretty well in total darkness I'm probably making a bigger problem out of it than it is.
Zveri does a rapid advance to the rear which act of cowardice completely destroys his credibility. Dorsky is dead while Romero and Mori renounce their Communism. Zora reveals she's only in it for the revenge because Zveri had murdered her family twelve years earlier in the Revolution while, as we are aware Colt is an American agent. This leaves only Zveri and Ivitch who I believe represent Frank Martin and R.H. Patchin.
Returning to base camp Zveri spots Wayne Colt. Calling him a traitor he fires point blank missing while the bullet grazes Colt's side without breaking the skin. That's a close one. Before Zveri can fire again he is brought down from behind by Zora. Burroughs replays scenes like this over and over with different variations. Just as the constant bashings on the head his surrogates take reflect his own experience in 1899 so must all these conflicts between his surrogate and another man and his surrogate woman reflect his situation with Frank Martin and Emma. In each instance in one way or another the woman rejects the other man. Thus Burroughs' 'fictionizes' his own situation.
So now Zora kills Zveri so that she and Colt can bridge that gap.
As a sidekick, Ivitch/Patchin is allowed to leave Africa. In point of fact Martin died some time before Burroughs although I do not believe at this time while Patchin survived both.
Tarzan in the meantime escorts La back to Opar where he reinstalls her on the throne this time doing the sensible thing of eliminating Oah, Dooth and all their sympathizers. One must believe there will be no more trouble in Opar. In any event Opar disappears from the oeuvre.
Tarzan then returns to the camp to dispense justice as becomes the Lord Of The Jungle.
As the story ends the 'invincible' Tarzan seems to have solved all the problems confronting he and Burroughs in 1930. The Big Fella has not only thwarted Zveri but defeated Stalin and the whole Soviet Empire.
As the exchange between Zveri and Romero explains it: pp. 183-84:
"Which proves," declared Zveri, "what I have suspected for a long time; that there is more than one traitor among us," and he looked meaningly at Romero.Thus Tarzan not only defeats Zveri, Stalin and the Soviets but he disproves the whole Communist ideology as a harebrained theory.
"What it means," said Romero, "is that crazy, harebrained theories always fail when they are put to the test. You thought that all the blacks in Africa would rush to your standard and drive all the foreigners into the ocean. In theory, perhaps, you were right, but in practice one man, with a knowledge of native psychology, which you did not have, burst your entire dream like a bubble, and for every other harebrained theory in the world there is always the stumbling block of fact."On top of that the Invincible One restored order in Opar while putting his personal life to rights by separating out Colt and Zora or Burroughs and Emma and Tarzan and La or Burroughs and Florence.
The succeeding novel Tarzan the Triumphant - Invincible, Triumphant - will rescue the Russian situation while its successor Tarzan And The City Of Gold disposes of Emma/Jane/Zora/Nemone by her self-immolation while its successor Tarzan And The Leopard Men bring Kali/Florence and Old Timer/Burroughs together. The series climaxes with Tarzan And The Lion Man when Burroughs 2 kills his early self, Stanley Obroski, or Burroughs 1 to come into his own, or so Burroughs supposes. The rest of the series is playing out the aftermath of the divorce from Emma and the marriage to Florence.
As could have been predicted the marriage to Florence was less than satisfying.
So, perhaps, Burroughs' solution to his personal dilemma is based on a harebrained theory itself which fell to earth on 'the stumbling block of fact.'
For the moment however Tarzan has saved Africa from the Communist menace and perhaps the World.
All pagination 1964 Ballantine Edition
|
Introduction Time On His Hands |
Through The Dark Continent With ERB Multi-Culturalism In Tarzan The Invincible |
Six White Men In Search Of An African Empire Inside the Gates of Opar |
Outside the Gates of Opar Red, White And Black |
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a. Politics: The Entertainer |
b. Religion: Standing On Promises |
c. Love is a Huring Game |
Tarzan the Invincible |
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