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Volume7397

A REVOLUTIONARY INTERPRETATION OF
THE WORK OF ERB IN GENERAL
AND THE WORLD OF BARSOOM IN PARTICULAR
Part II
By Cristian Sildan

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2. THE PROBLEMS POSED BY THE POINTS DISCUSSED…

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After the above listing of the points I’m interested in, I will now tell what bothers me about them. It may look like I’m repeating myself, but I didn’t want to jumble things too much. It seemed to me clearer to first list the aspects to be discussed and then to show the problems they pose. So here they are again, with comments:

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POM

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C11 So men don’t kill women, even among the Greens… so far so good, but we’ll see this idea contradicted later…
The old catastrophe and the subsequent birth of modern Barsoomian culture dates from 100,000 years ago – but as we’ll see, this is repeatedly relativized by different information…
So telescopes see blades of grass upon Earth – how come then life upon Thuria is invisible?

C13 – Radium use – that and the various ‘’rays’’ we hear about, it’s all Unobtanium and Unaffordium, a bit…

C17 – Dejah is the last of the line? How on mars? The royals should be hundreds of thousands if not millions – we’ll address in due time the egg demography of the superior class!

C20 – the atmosphere factory, again the use of rays – we’ll address why it is a problem in itself, more than the feasibility of the physical principle itself
the system of state management of the water and the lease of the agricultural domains to the nobility, together with the slave labor and state owning of the farms and mines; the high celibacy tax – we’ll show this is problematic… BARSOOM SEEMS TO BE THE POSTER-CASE OF HYDRAULIC DESPOTISM!
The surprising welcome for the total stranger that is JC by the brothers Ptor; how on mars is he given personal credentials, letters of recommendation and all, from their family?! Especially since he looks different and they cannot read his thoughts?!

C21 – the root irrigation and the extreme refinement of the food – as I’ve already said in my older works, that would mean plenty of food for billions – we’ll treat that separately too…
The population seems to be against a war of expansion, has admiration for the enemy, is against its own ruler – pretty far from ‘’fighting to death for the scant resources of dying Mars’’, if you want my opinion…
no thiefs, but plenty of assassins – but why?! Nobody delved deeply into that, so I’ll do it…
radium and rays for flight – why are they not an intergalactic civilization?

The jeddak prefers death and disaster to dishonor – yet so many of them are cowardly, tyrannical and inclined to compromise as we shall see…
Dejah ready to sacrifice herself…(or maybe the groom to be is not that bad?…)
first flight 900+ years ago – how are the Black Pirates immemorial then?
many ships used for transport and travel – apparently much travel going on, but is it only internal?

C22 – Dejah quite unmistakably radiant, which is a bit weird as our colleague Woodrow Nichols has pointed out...
The jeddaks of Zodanga are not that expansionist either, apparently – just as non-Darwinian as their subjects…
Shortly after, Dejah appears miserable – complex behavior, very womanly after all

The custom not to wed the assassin of the husband or fiance – maybe one of the reasons for the existence of the assassins…?
Psychologists can question the dead, but people can close down their mind and hide their thoughts… hmm, how do assassins operate then?!
How come JC does not even have the name changed, although that would be quite easy –  Jan Kar Tur?

C23 – even simple subjects prefer death to dishonor – but are they always that adamant? As we’ll see later, Phao gets raped and doesn’t commit suicide…
The Zodangan jeddak is quite easy on imparting vital secrets to barely known people – no wonder he loses…

C24 – no guards on the walls of Zodanga – the wonder is not that it fell, but that it didn’t fall sooner…

C11,C24 – flush – means red skin is not very red – the texture of it is fundamentally Caucasoid

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GOM

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C3, C4 – Therns first mentioned, first shown; the Therns make slaves out of the pilgrims, apparently only from them since they don’t do raids; they are only known as sorts of gods, never seen – but then how do they happen to go to Okar and Kaol in the open later in the Opus, and how is their appearance known in Manator? And how do they manage to obtain work out of slaves which are, the great majority of them, at the end of their lives?
Their secret network of temples – how do they manage to lie so much, upon a planet of non-lying telepaths? Holy Therns have jewels like the ones from the Air Factory – did they have access to it? How come they didn’t open it when the planet was about to die?

C5 – Therns very caste-like; they respect (worship?) the banths – is there some link to the Komal cult of Lothar?
Black pirates first mentioned, the Therns fear them

C6 – JC never saw them, never talked to one who saw them; they appear only at long intervals; but they raid the Therns more than once a year or so; apparently the Therns are at their mercy; the raids are for slaves and loot – yet the Therns still somehow see themselves as the top predators?

C7 – black supremacy – one wonders about the economy and the politics of that, as we shall see…

C8 – the sea of Omean; blacks supply the planet’s water… so, why not simply enslave the dam’planet?

C9 – blacks have plenty of slaves – from where? From among the Therns yes, obviously, but the rest? Especially the princesses – there is no account of jeddak courts looted…
Apparently both Therns and Blacks swim in gold and diamonds – how come these items still hold value upon Barsoom? Especially after their defeat by JC when, presumably, they were looted, or at least opened to the rest of the world?

C10 – Blacks are not telepaths – so how are they so cunning? Maybe for this very reason?

C11 – Blacks are even more dependent upon slave labor than the Therns; it is again specified that many slaves come from jeddak courts – how? There’s no mention of that before, the looting of such a court should be much more mentioned, especially since there’s no more than several dozen of them? Besides,  even if they get some Reds from the Therns these should be mostly old people towards the end of their 1000 years; their slaves should be like 95-99% Therns

C13 – confirmation of the fact that the Therns were never seen by the public… big problem later, for the logic of WOM
Blacks loot everything they need, including the royal houses – again, we didn’t see that mentioned before, JC never saw or heard of that; no tributes mentioned to sail down the Iss either, nor fortunes taken by the pilgrims with them, no young slaves forced to take the pilgrimage with their masters, no mention of Egypt-like ‘’divine presents to the gods’’…  anyway it is impossible to live just from loot for millions of people, and luxuriously at that – unless they would be the elite of the whole planet, its nobility and royal houses… this should be easy to achieve, if they had airships before the others, and the mastery of the water supply…

Flier confirmed stolen from Helium; blacks mass-kill their wives. Once again, how did they loot Helium without Heliumites mentioning it? As for the demography of egg-laying, we’ll come to that…
Hint of possible immortality for Barsoomians – NOT true: Issus, Phor Tak, Ras Thavas, Xaxa and I-Gos DO get old; besides, these 1000 years, how long are they really? We get repeated hints of not-so-long, or not so surely known, time frame throughout the cycle

C17 – Zodangan nobility behind the Heliumite jed, and quite influential, despite annexation of Zodanga to Helium – well, that one sounds pretty close to European feudalism, but still, these recently conquered enemies are too influential at the court of their conquerers… especially for a ‘’hydraulic despotism’’ type of absolute monarchy as are the societies of Barsoom…

C20 – Barsoomians are good at deciphering stuff – that means they know how to solve riddles! And still they mass-fell to the Iss thing?! And they are on the whole quite a naïve bunch?
JC forgets that the Mars year is 687 days long – proof that Burroughsian time frames are not very reliable? There are other instances similar to that…

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WOM

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C1 – Carthoris is interim jeddak; Xodar is jeddak of the Blacks but under Thark occupation; Therns appear to be still ruled by Matai Shang from the shadows
Anyway, how do both whites and blacks live now, without loot and slaves?!
There are some polities loyal to old faith – hmm, after literally millions of witnesses of the debunking -  I mean the soldiers implied in the fights and afterwards the liberated slaves?

C3 – the door functions by photoelectrical stuff – yet no electronics, no microphones, no cameras upon Barsoom…

C4 - 6 nations still cling to the Iss faith… why did Thurid not go to Kamtol?

C5 - no trade between nations; the Kaolians know how the Therns look; roads and canals are defended by the nobles – very important as we shall see; the guy from Kaol is skeptical of the old religion, so all are not that naïve, despite the telepathic consensus;
Kaol has no navy and is defended by its big trees – that means no incendiary bombs, no parachutes, no very strong guns; yet equilibrimotors are mentioned in MMM, and incendiary bombs too, in SMM; we see big control at the entry of the cities – yet the Greens almost got inside Kaol

C6 - occasional alliance between some nations; the jeddak knows personally the Thern and the Black - hmm, how does he not connect the dots towards debunking the faith? Think of it, the white god just became visible and the black is a proof in himself that blacks are Martian, and the two of them together strongly imply that the ‘’black Iss rumor’’ is true;
All Barsoomians seem very naïve… but then they don't lie… but then, how did Therns lie all this time, again?

The Kaolian caravan-embassy is made of tens of thousands – yeah, very romantic and spectacular but… draft animals? For such a long and dangerous journey? Such a waste of time and such a pointless risky venture… I know, Kaolians not having fliers, they probably have no airports… still, since these two states had long-term relations, they could have arranged one for their only friends… to go such a long way by using animals is long and dangerous… plus the presence of women and kids… kids? But they almost don't exist upon Barsoom... Carthoris is almost an adult from all points of view at only 10 (earthly) years after breaking his shell… so, what freakin’ kids are we talking about? Being a kid should be, if anything, a very short and transitory phase of the Martian humans and almost unseen in their streets therefore. Maybe like 1-2% of all people. And, you don’t take such as them in long and potentially dangerous trips.
Barsoomians are a ''social, pleasure-loving people’’- hmm, and the mass assassinates? Plus as we shall see, hydraulic absolutist societies are not very sociable, in general…

C7 - info has a very big difficulty in traveling across Barsoom, even if it’s the giant news about the fall of the Iss cult
Apparently there is a Thern leader allied to JC – yet we never hear of him again…
More than 15 years pass between two visits among jeddaks – it may have been so upon Earth in pre-modern times, but upon Barsoom it’s a bit uncanny…

C8 - who goes north disappears, it’s a forbidden land… ok, it may be so in a pre-modern society, but in one which has airships and radio and such for centuries it should have led to ground expeditions long ago… especially since we’re talking about the freakin’ polar area, you know, the place from where everybody takes the vital resource called water…
The apt is sacred to the Yellows – hmm, would that be a counterpart to the old cult of the banth in the south?

The glass cities - how did they survive until they invented/built them? Or if they had them from the beginning, why were they running from the Greens? Such technology and such capabilities should have been easily used to destroy them… and why not planetary Yellow supremacy? And why were they not imitated by others? Why did they not have fliers when they did have gliding cars? They have their own atmosphere factory... another thing that should have been imitated by the other societies… and another proof they should normally have ruled the planet…

And Kadabra! It appears to be much bigger than Helium – it appears to have about 20 km in radius compared to Helium’s about 13-14…
So there’s little intercourse between the cities of the same nation? hmm... totally un-hydraulic…
And the magnetic pillar - since when does it exist if airships first flew only 1000 years ago?

C10 – again, as it was for the Blacks, there’s plenty of elite prisoners in Okar – how did they end there?
JC appears very easy on getting jealous/doubtful of Dejah… is he being just very naïve and impulsive? Or does he just have insecurities, as big a fighter as he is? Or did she give him some reasons to be a bit jealous or unsure? We’ll never know…

C11 - chains of gold? gold is awfully soft…

C14 - Red women are not trained for war – yet this information is a bit contradicted on occasion… besides, in a world of widespread and mass assassination it should be compulsory… especially since women seem not to have restrictions of circulation, no gender seclusion upon Barsoom

C15 - Whites seem to keep the lowest profile, they don’t even have a boss named for them; yet as I said, they have their network of temples and stuff… they at least have the connections and access to the flow of information… Blacks don’t have any, they were just parasitizing the Therns… and as I said they seem to have been even more dependent upon the slave labor, which has logically ended since GOM; yet they seem to fare much better. And this is not the only problem concerning them…

C16 – it seems like there are about 40 sovereign jeds and jeddaks upon Barsoom – info which will help us later with some ideas; I had said about 15-20 jeddaks and 100 jeds in an older essay… but then not all of the latter are sovereign, some being vassals to some jeddaks.
JC seems easily induced to doubt his friends, like he easily doubts Dejah

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TMM

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C1 - Issus still mentioned – is there already some spiritualized interpretation of her?
Thuvia maid again... despite the indignities of the Therns… for 16 years… but it just seems that, in the BU, the principal female characters just can’t be defiled… Thuvia has been upgraded to female lead, so her past must be ignored…
Peace and trade between Ptarth and Dusar; fear that a war would upset the balance of power – hmm… it looks like ‘’real-politic’’ to me, no bravado, no honor to the death, no Darwinian struggle with no prisoners… quite like here upon Jasoom…
Electronic-like stuff for navigating fliers, quite complicated – looks like the beginning of a technological revolution upon Barsoom; true, we’re told it is so, and that it is due to JC and his kin; nevertheless, it’s mind boggling that the Barsoomians didn’t get through that without this exterior help: it’s not like they didn’t have science before, and a scientific mindset does NOT stop once started
C2 - there are ambassadors in the Barsoomian capitals despite the dominant isolationism, they all have their offices in one building, but each has his palace – that’s quite respectful and stately for something that is otherwise described as uncommon…
We get a very bourgeois, high-tech and busy image of Helium - almost nothing realistic by Barsoomian standards, I wrote about that at length in ERBzine 1518.
c1 and c2 - quite easy to enter in the service of a Big House - no wonder assassinates happen even among big shots...

C6 – Lothar is incredibly old but still has an intelligible language – but that means a continuous state of mind between all the people who lived upon Barsoom since before the catastrophe – so we are not talking a total rupture
Lotharians themselves – they survived all this time… or maybe are they projections of suspended-animated people as we see later in LOG, as by the way even some of them appear to believe and as one of the contributing fans suggested some time ago?
But if so then…maybe Issus too?  That would explain her apparently aeonic longevity… on the other hand, it wouldn’t seem so since she got old… still there may be something to that…
Cult of Komal – but he’s apparently real, for he obeys Thuvia and dies and its corpse remains

C12 – men don’t kill women even in extreme circumstances unless there’s national disaster looming or so… fair enough, but later we are told quite different things…
Many noble girls suicide rather than to wed the jeddak of Dusar, to the point that he must content himself with a slave – now that’s weird, I’ve never heard something like that in any earthly history… or barsoomian one for that matter… especially since Barsoomians quasi-worship their leaders… what got into these crazy girls? And how come the Therns and Blacks didn’t face mass-suicide from their slaves if these people are so adamantly principled?
Dusar fears annihilation – but this doesn’t happen even after truth comes to light…

C13 – Therns openly travel and mingle with Reds, Okar and Omean allied to JC, so far so good… but the Black fleet is second to that of Helium? How? They should have been totally disarmed and by the way, un-capable to have ships, let alone the second fleet on the planet, once their system collapsed…
AND WE DON’T HEAR ANYTHING ANYMORE ABOUT THE EVENTUAL COLONIZATION OF KORUS AND OMEAN, ABSOLUTELY VITAL TO BARSOOM!
Even the spy expresses reserve about killing a woman – again, we are told differently later
Kar Komak can himself materialize fighters – important for later

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COM

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Prelude – JC taught to materialize on Earth by Kar Komak – splendid, but this should have sprung a real school of teleportation upon Barsoom, no? Or how about mass-concentrating about replenishing the atmosphere or something?

C1 – Carthoris is close friend with Talu – but later we are told differently
There’s little protocol at the court and little rank difference; Free mingling of men and women at parties – well, all that is really cute but it’s totally incompatible with the ethos of a court that belongs to the ‘’hydraulic’’ type of society, as we shall discuss later…
The bodyguards guard the women from the assassins – but-but-but… I thought something like this never happens?! I mean, we’ve seen in POM C11 that even the Greens hesitate to kill women!

So there’s little intercourse between the Martian polities – Tara never saw a Gatholian? If not her then who did? They have the biggest diamond mine in their world and she never saw one?
Dances of Barsoom are stately – that, at least, is indeed ‘’hydraulic’’ for a change…
Slaves work in the mines for the citizens – although I touched the question of the economy of Barsoom in the past, I’ll delve a bit on that again…

C2 - Carefree attitude in the family of JC – well he may be American but Dejah seems to be quite demure as well; besides, he didn’t really teach his kids many earthly things since Tara for example prays to the Martian gods, as shown later… therefore, their family behavior should be more Barsoomian, meaning more… yes, ‘’Hydraulic’’… stately… strict… ritualistic.
Many wars were fought for Dejah – was JC referring to the Zodanga and the Therns stuff, or to others? It’s worth a discussion later…

7 dead per day in Greater  Helium – assuming that’s average, this would mean about 4800 dead per year, and about 4.8 million dead in a millennium – indeed, considering a population of about 2 million for G.H., that gives us a life expectancy of about 400 or so for its inhabitants.

A madman wanted to harm the atmosphere factory – well that’s the second time in like 30 years. And since the royals of Helium discuss it, it means it was quite a noticeable attempt. As I said above, what do they wait for to imitate Okar and build more domes and more factories?

The Therns spiritualize Issus – it was to be expected, but it’s very unsatisfactorily handled in the opus as we shall see.
Dusar has not been punished after TMM and is still hostile. Why didn’t they punish it since they had all the power and proof needed?
We see the single storm mentioned in the entire Barsoom opus – the Barsoomian weather doesn’t look at all like our Martian one.

C3 – Issus again mentioned, by a soldier: habits that die hard or this spiritualization thing is more widespread than it is officially declared? But then how come the Therns are so weak politically?

C4 – the kaldanes have lightbulbs, and are telepaths. We can ask ourselves how do they have lightbulbs since the ‘’radium’’ technology seems to have been invented after the Catastrophe, and it’s likely they have been isolated for a longer time than that? Also, speaking of telepathy, the Barsoomians in general should be more like them… they are one of the rare instances when ERB treats the theme of telepathy a bit more thoroughly…

C8 – gods are repeatedly mentioned; yet we know quasi-nothing of them – except maybe the mention of the ‘’mother of the further moon’’, twice mentioned in all the opus, and the images in the temple of Tur which clearly are syncretic of several older divinities. And we know absolutely nothing of their cult.

C11 – children among the mummies of Manator – how? Children are a huge rarity upon Barsoom, as I said above…
Manator also has lightbulbs, despite being otherwise backward.

The simple greetings are universal… and very non-hydraulic. We’ll come to that.

We see a brazen flight of words in the throne room from both the captor jeddak and the captive princess. Now, a captor needs not necessarily have much respect for a captive, even a high ranking one. Nevertheless, in a stately society like hydraulic ones typically are, such freedom of expression especially in the higher ranks seems a bit off.

Manator captures slaves from Gathol every 3-7 years and has a million of them. Well, even if Gathol doesn’t have many airships and flight is difficult there, it should have commissioned at least some serious investigation at the border region to see what the egg happens there…

C12 – Martians do not lie. Very nice but as I asked above, how then do the Therns, Blacks, assassins and spies lie? Or the political propagandists like the Dusarians, since they almost succeeded in manipulating 3 polities to the point of world war?

The belief in corphals – a glimpse in a popular culture of which we don’t know much…

Some jeds are very independent towards their jeddaks. Upon Barsoom the rule is long dynasties tied to ancestor worship, but the jeds have the power to choose the jeddak. That one needs a separate discussion.

C14 - Fliers are easy to destabilize by courants due to mountains and precipices. Well, that means they are extremely unstable, since the geography and weather upon Barsoom are so tame. If we had talked Tibet or the Roaring Forties it would have made more sense, but like this…

Large scale elimination of throne rivals – this can be an occasional ‘’marginal hydraulic’’ political trait but nevertheless we hear this quite a lot in the opus.  At the same time any accused can have counsel even in front of the jed. That is a bit contradictory with the hydraulic order…

Iss is mentioned – so the Iss religion is well implanted in isolated Manator.

A captured princess becomes a slave and has a son with the jeddak, then is sent away and weds the rival jed – that means not all raped women commit suicide, nor are they that shamed.
But man, how the information has difficulty to circulate, the jeddak is not aware of this quite important fact! Especially since he’s described as quite a bit of a paranoid!

C15 - the throne of the jeddak is held at the pleasure of the jeds; a noble once accused can be judged only by a counsel of the jeds. Powerful jeddaks can override this, though. Hmm, seems ‘’feudal towards absolutist’’ to me. We’ll discuss that later.

All men seem very naïve and easy to destabilized sentimentally, not just JC.

I-Gos says he’s 2000 years old, hmm… see here upon Jasoom the braggarts from the Caucasus… people regularly adding the age of their parents to theirs so that they look older…
The mass mummification seems peculiar to Manator and, as we’ll see in LOG, seems to be an archaic cultural trait. All very nice, but how does such an archaic tradition coexist with the Iss cult? Normally they should exclude each-other.

The Council of mummies – another religious practice we know no details about…

C18 – Tasor wedded an adulterous princess who arranged the assassination of her husband – hmm, not all conduct is honorable upon Barsoom. Besides, how did she hide her hatred of hubby, and how did they change their identities, in a world of honest and naïve telepaths?

C20 – I-Gos goes to the haunted chamber; Gahan is described as agnostic; despite the example of the little old man the jeddak is still scared to death to go – it doesn’t make much sense, especially in a bravery-centered world like Barsoom.

The blonde hair of the holy thern is mentioned. Issus mentioned too. Now, how on Mars do they know how they look like? I thought Therns were never seen! And why should they and their cult still be mentioned with awe after the debunking? Or if the news didn’t reach Manator, again, how do they know how they look like?

C21 – I-Gos goes once more to the room and brags about it but the jeddak is still scared and even faints. That makes z-e-r-o sense. The women in the harem hate and kill the new ones – that’s very hydraulic…

C22 – anyone can accuse the jeddak openly, if one has proof – that’s like super-feudal…
Cowardly jeddaks must commit suicide – that’s like super-Bushido stuff.

If we add the timing, it took our heroes only several weeks from Helium to Bantoom and only about 10 to 20 days from Bantoom to the end of the adventure in Manator. Yet 1 year is reported to have passed. Besides it would have taken a month at the minimum to bring troops to Manator from Manatos and Gathol and Helium, says ERB himself. Quite a relativistic timeline we have here…
 

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MMM

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Prelude – Paxton astrally projects upon Barsoom through death. As I said already, I won’t discuss the metaphysics of the BU, but only its problems of internal logic.

C1 – the architecture of the castle of Ras Thavas is similar to the one of medieval Europe… but otherwise, and repeatedly so, spires, cupolas and minarets usually describe Barsoomian architecture. I have a problem with that: the architecture of the Orovars seems quite Classical, long straight lines, square blocks, big buildings etc. A bit like the Greco-Roman one, we are even told the Orovars were wearing robes. The old Red one seems Feudal-like. Modern Red rather evokes Islam, generally speaking, or maybe Mughal India. Well I don’t buy it.

Cultures are function of their dominant states of mind. All their manifestations stream from their ethos. The first degree of the manifestation of an ethos is the language. Or, we have seen and shall see also later, the language changed very little from one era to another. That means a state of mind quite constant. I mean, just compare Shakespeare with your average hipster. They would barely get what the other says. And they only have 4 centuries between them. And it’s not the intimate structure of English that has changed so much, as is the mentality. At least the same should be expected of Barsoom but it’s not the case. So, here, their states of mind are very similar across the eras.

Their more exterior manifestations, such as architecture, should also see little difference across time. Then their political order has also changed little, we see the same jeddaks in Helium, Lothar or Horz. Therefore its projection in the lines of the official buildings should be about the same too. I get that Barsoomians have evolved from a more feudal type of society towards one of a kind of absolutist monarchy but then, again, we see the same jeddaks in the distant past and today, and we still see jeds that are quite independent today. Not that big of a change so as to completely change the language of Stone and the skyline of the typical city with it.

Another thing, as we shall see shortly, a society is also fundamentally influenced by its religion. And judging by the cult of Tur that we witness in this very novel, the old Barsoomian religion was very exotic. If anything, it’s pre-catastrophe Barsoom that should have looked like Mughal India, and modern Barsoom like some Baroque/Rococo/Churrigueresque setting. Let’s not forget, European art after 1650 is the art after the council of Trento, when the cult of the Virgin as the Queen of Heaven really took over, and Barsoom worships the (Mother?) Goddess too, although of the South Pole rather than of heaven. Therefore, from the point of view of Mass-Psychology, this description of Barsoomian architecture doesn’t fit what we feel that the logical order of things must be.

Other than that, in the same chapter we are told Barsoomian organs are not exactly the same as Earthly ones. Well, they are not that different either, since cross-fertilization is possible…

C3 – all people are armed, slaves and women included – well, two problems with that: first, who would tolerate armed slaves in a world rife with assassination? Second, despite the occasional short dagger mentioned as the favorite help for the virtue of a princess, we’re told women are not instructed for combat! Why carry weapons then, generally speaking? Why carry implements you don’t use well, and which, as a woman, everybody knows you seldom use well?

Toonolians are practical, their high classes atheist, the masses less so, and tradition is cultivated more for the sake of the social order. Well, this also poses a problem in the measure that we are told Toonol is rather marginal on Barsoom. Now, extreme scientism and rationalism and secularism don’t usually pop in the secondary centers of the world. It’s more the thing of the Metropolises. If anything, such states of mind should appear in Helium or so…

Barsoomians sense refined thought waves coming from Mercury and Venus, that they think superior to Earth’s – yeah, Amtor… but once we know a bit about Amtor, its humanity is not that great…

Ras Thavas is 1000+years old, and old he looks, he’s near death. So we can wonder how old Issus or I-Gos really are. On the other hand, Valla Dia is preserved for 10 years ‘’not to get old’’… hmm… 10 years for a millennium-living Barsoomian is less than 1 of our years. But maybe he just didn’t want to have to care for her. But even so, he should have expressed his thoughts differently.

C4 – a war was fought for Valla Dia – hmm, some states let pass their enemies for kidnapping and framing their royals (see TMM), all for the sake of strategic equilibrium and real politic, while others start a war over a princess – these Barsoomians are really inconsistent sometimes…

C5 - telepathy is mentioned, and the lack of trust going with it… wait, lack of trust? It should be the opposite, you should know immediately if someone thinks well of you or, if he thinks bad and hides his thoughts, you know he has something to hide and avoid him. Therefore if a Barsoomian has friends they should know everything about each-other, hide nothing and trust each-other perfectly. And a master should buy only faithful, obedient or masochistic slaves. Why doesn’t Ras? And then again, how do assassinates take place in such a world? Especially between relatives or spouses? How do you hide your intentions, or if you close your mind how do you hide the fact that you hide something?

Duhor was at war with Helium and Amhor;  Amhor with Phundahl; pretty well and pretty bold for some small polities like them, and pretty neat for Helium and other bigger polities not to obliterate them… neat… and very un-Barsoomian, if we believe the official description of this world.

Valla was an only child – what the egg, again?! We must analyze this generalized dearth of royals…
The possibility to inherit the throne through the female line, if married to a local jed – quite realistic, see the Habsburgs here upon Jasoom, also the Romanian noble families
Apparently the jeddak of Duhor kept his throne despite the war with Helium and the sack by Amhor – really not Darwinian at all, these Barsoomians…

C6 – the trick to hide Valla Dia – how does Ras not see his men have no part in it since he’s such a strong telepath?

C7 – how do the spies do their job again, with all this telepathy going on?

Gor Hajus always kills by duel, and never women. Does this imply others do kill women? But it also implies that a certain taboo does exist about it.
Toonol and Phundahl are isolated from each-other and the rest of the world. Hmm… with all this splendid marsh around them? Water should be a resource to kill for… to invade for…
Ras’ castle was built 23000 years ago? Hmm, see the Hindu rajahs, how they claim ancestries millions of years in the past…

C9 - Individual flying devices; no free flight at night – very modern image, but I can’t imagine only the policemen from Toonol using such devices. Normally they should be generalized, and old. Why do then people still rise their houses up at night, eh? Makes no sense.

C10 – princes have big individual palaces; small protocol again mentioned… again we see instances of non-hydraulic social elements… we’ll develop that in due time…
Apparently the jeddak has no kids, nephew prince is next in line… again?! What the egg, all royal lines are tottering to the brink of extinction, at the same time, in the Burroughs Universe?!

The possibility of an alliance between the prince and the assassins for conquering power, because the assassins are popular with the army… hmm… so, the very embodiment of disorder has the sympathy of the embodiment of Order? This deserves a hell of a discussion…

Panthans are adventurers or fugitives; anyway they are a bunch of non-conformists – how do so many unknown areas exist then, with all this easy flight by individualist adventurers going on, then? I know, I wrote about the Thern psychological block upon the Barsoomian collective mind in an older essay, but still, non-conformists are always around, and they travel a lot, so…

Cellphones and photocopy do exist, and they catch radio signals from Earth – why then do they ignore plastic or informatics?

War seen as natural state; Toonolians are a sort of libertarian/contractualist bunch, so to speak – how then do they have a tyranny? These two traits don’t go well together in a society… But then they are a bit hypocrites so maybe there’s more to that at a subtler level…

C11 – Phundahl is not only backward but also has a small navy… how has it not been attacked and obliterated, its moist area being worth gold?! Landing there is extremely easy, so it could be invaded at any time…

The Cult of Tur – Tur is a solar god, the lion is a solar symbol, so… is the banth cult of Lothar related to it, or ancestral? I won’t delve on that since it’s ‘’possible history’’ and not ‘’problematic aspect’’, but it’s an interesting question.

Phundahlians are puritans who deny that sex even exists – that’s not unrealistic since there were regions in Ireland in the first part of the 20th century where people really were that puritanical. But they are also flat-marsists, anti-science… again, how have they managed not to get conquered eons ago, especially on a supposedly martial and water-poor planet like Mars?

Kids are again mentioned, but how? As I’ve said many times, they should be almost non-existent on Mars…

C12 – the statue trick; little respect of the priests for their religion and their jeddara; we see a story similar to the biblical one of Daniel and the idol; but how can that work in an age that’s on the whole a modern one? And was the dead priest really the only one aware of the hoax?

C13 – 3000 people live in the palace – that’s very hydraulic. And therefore a bit strange in a place as naturally moist and presumably difficult of access as most of the Phundahlian territory likely is, since it’s a marsh.
Things are discovered that are compromising for some great houses, and this was unknown to the jeddara – not a very hydraulic thing, that, rather more like an ‘’absolute monarchy/affaire des poisons’’  thing…

Xaxa arrives in a chariot moved by banths and she’s a priestess also – do we see here the old banth cult hint again? Other than that, the jeddaks of old also had priestly attributes… do the modern ones also have some?

100 years since the trickster priest died – how come there’s so much skepticism in such a short time, considering the long lives of the Barsoomians?
Dar Tarus’ fiancée’s father was assassinated by Xaxa – we don’t know why, but it seems tyrannies are very frequent upon Barsoom…

C14 - No guards at the castle of Ras despite the Toonolian soldiers present – not very logical…

C15 – JC seems to have taken up the dignity of being the Vigilante of whole Barsoom, he gets involved into everything…

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FMM

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PR – Morse messaging is received upon Barsoom, Paxton deciphers it – although he said himself many barsoomians know various languages of Earth…
Human martians are not very different from the anglo-saxon standard except by their colors – I’ve written in an older essay why this is a bit of an exaggeration. But then, JC does disguise himself quite easily as a Martian, even a Black one, by simply painting himself…
The Martians are tribal, with jeds ruled by jeddaks – we’ll see later why this is very problematic, especially in the "canal" polities.

Their army is mostly air navy – well that’s quite understandable since their polities are separated by big deserts, it makes sense for the army to be air-oriented…
They have a cult of war, but they are happy and social – quite okay, Japanese also were more social in the warring eras rather than in the peaceful times. That being said, there are aspects that go against this affirmation, like the mass assassinations for example or the hydraulic element of their society…
There’s a permanent fight for resources? Why then do they spare their enemies so frequently and wage mostly honorable war? It is quite contradictory…

C1 Hadron insists upon being "poor" – yet his father is the equivalent of a third rank general, or a small admiral - apparently generals are not very well paid, even if married to royals – which is weird for a warrior world. Otherwise, would that be that the elite is very small as I said in an older essay?
But then we get to Tor Hatan… how could a small noble, if that, grow so rich in a society like that of Barsoom? Hydraulic societies don’t like massively rich upstarts, in general…

Hadron could have had a "more profitable career"? And which would that be?
    - Supposedly not much foreign trade is going on; agriculture and mines are ultimately state owned; the army is paramount; the financial sector is presumably weak since the state and the army are so strong and the commercial sector cannot be very big with all these long-lasting products around…
    - Bureaucracy? Normally in a society where the army is paramount, it couldn’t be very advantageous… it’s or-or… see traditional China… we’ll get to that

Therefore the very expression ‘’more profitable career than the army’’ doesn’t have much sense upon Barsoom.
Barsoomian polities are not at all like traditional China… maybe more like the Ottomans in their first 2 centuries? Long canals oblige capitals to decentralize the defense and therefore the aristocracy has a leverage…

The war loot is invested in land and mines? Can’t go very far considering the wider context: state as ultimate owner, long-lasting products precluding too much manufacturing and therefore too much mining…
Sil Vagis – there are cowards with connections who still make it in the army – relatively unlikely in an Ottoman-like setting

The narrator insists upon the fortune of Sanoma Tora’s pop – says it’s comparable to the jeddak’s – again, highly unlikely
Ancestors are repeatedly mentioned in a cult-like way – it’s worth discussing this aspect of the Barsoomian religiosity.
Hadron alternates between a desire to kidnap the object of his infatuation and a honor-originated horror to do the kidnapping. Quite immature… but then, how do those around him not read these thoughts of his and put him at distance?

The Ambassador of Jahar is very obnoxious: we see that in many Barsoomian envoys and high-ranking visitors. It looks like the stately demeanor is not so generalized upon Barsoom…

C2 – Tavia’s pop is a slave from a raid in the war between Helium and Kobol; her mom was assassinated (I thought even the Greens are reluctant to kill women, again…)
photocopy is mentioned again – we see again the contradiction between a quite modern society and a sword-yielding culture; towers and domes again mentioned – we’ll discuss later why it’s not likely
Scientific strides mentioned lately – it’s possible that some change came with JC; but we’ll see why this must have limits; no more ‘’rays’’ mentioned (except for buoyancy) but magnetic energy from the magnetic field – this change makes narration quite unreliable…

C3 – 0.5-1 milion year old ruins – we see here a change in chronology…
The old civilization knew electricity, before ‘’radium’’ – how then have they managed to stick to their swords up to now, and what about the warrior mariners and stuff, which don’t go well with electricity?

Why then did the Lotharians conjure archers? If they had electricity back in their time, they should have conjured something more modern. Besides why didn’t they use their science to withstand the Green onslaught?
Atmosphere factory mentioned as built by the Reds

C4 – telepathy done on thoats; but how come there were no calots present to guard the tribe?
Arena games mentioned as punishment for spies; no aliens other than slaves – all that is pretty ancient-Rome type of society… we’ll see why this jumbling is problematic

C5 – Tjanath; reverence for the ancestors mentioned; another mention that the condemned go to the arena or the Death;
the jed of Tjanath is paranoid, the jeddak of Jahar a tyrant, apparently both kill those close to the throne – apparently good leaders seem quite scarce upon Barsoom, time and again… after being said they are good…

Jahar is a demographic bomb with cannibalism and all, ok, very moving, but why don’t all heads of state do something of this type more often? With an egg-laying population it should be attempted more frequently, as a matter of fact it should be quite a normal policy…
A scientist makes two big discoveries but is persecuted for them – that’s VERY hydraulic

C6 – the jed of Tjanath is poorer than a big noble from Helium – we’ll see how this is not possible in a hydraulic order, and besides… isn’t Hadron himself the son of a princess and of a small general? And he’s quite modest materially speaking!
Jed has both an infant son and a big son… wait… INFANT? There are no small kids upon Barsoom!
Ancestors’ intercession mentioned often; Issus also mentioned – apparently her cult is still alive somehow; Phao was raped – why does it always happen only to the secondary characters?

C7 - Yo Seno easily outwits our heroes when they should have clearly thought about the possibility; nobody investigated the Death all this time; Nur An is still not aware of the hoax of Iss, after all this time?!
Apparently connecting and searching for information is very imperfect upon Barsoom…
And… maybe it was a lucky strike but how come other condemned haven’t slain the lizard before, since they were armed?

C8 – the jed of Ghasta is very hairy – that’s EXCEPTIONAL upon Barsoom, note to our friend Spratt – his serialized nudist comics is very commendable but he REALLY likes hairy women – and nope, this is NOT how Barsoomians are
Apparently some still return from Dor?! How on Mars?

C9 – mad Thuria is the unfaithful wife, cold Cluros is the husband, the flaming sun is the lover – hmm… quite a Freudian religious vision we have here… so… are the Barsoomians really as innocent as they were described in the first adventures?
Phor Tak is old, but Tul Axtar himself seems to show clear signs of advanced age – why does he embark upon such a huge adventure then? According to the Barsoomian biology he should be in his last few decades… and no heir? We hear nothing of such a vital matter…

Hadron feels guided by his ancestors – meaning the cult of these is REALLY strong upon Barsoom
 The ‘’towers, domes and minarets’’ again mentioned as staples of the Barsoomian architecture – we’ll see why it’s problematic

C10 – big inventors doing big game-changing inventions seem to be frequent – and they are old, for the most; fliers are very common upon Barsoom, which would make the existence of unknown areas quite difficult…

C11 – Issus is repeatedly mentioned, including by Hadron – if it’s a reflex it’s a mighty one…
he lies he’s an assassin - how? It shouldn’t be possible upon Barsoom.
Corphals get a brief mention, but only a passing one.

C12 – Hadron makes a very easy hostage of the jed
the jeddara cheats with a slave – so the women are not all honorable…
the ship is gone with the wind – why has he not landed on the roof?

C13 – another mention of a prayer to ancestors
huge harem, eunuchs – very hydraulic feature; Tul Axtar confirmed old

C14 – ancestors mentioned again
impossible long term cannibalism in U-gor… though, with the egg laying, more possible than upon Earth – but then, why no re-colonization of the province if Jahar is starved for land?

C15 - No ruins in U-gor, why is that? There should be a lot of them
Issus mentioned by Tavia while waiting for death, which is pretty serious, Tavia seems to be a strong believer
The jeddak is incredibly coward in battle, even before actually being in danger – this strains credulity, a bit like for the one of Manator.

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SOM

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C1 – Zodanga stays hostile to Helium, that’s not difficult to believe…
The assassins and kidnappers have guilds, and there’s omerta around; they have a glorious image – well, in itself it’s not very surprising since on Earth also we have many disreputable people becoming famous in the eyes of the public, but we must not forget that upon Barsoom these people are supposed to be the source of MOST deaths… how come they are admired when EVERYBODY has SEVERAL loved ones dead because of them?

The moons of Mars are described as we know them, small. We’ll see why it’s not possible.
The disguise paint… how does he do with the eyes? Maybe there are more blue-eyed people out there, not just the Therns…
JC doesn’t have a very clever preparation for his mission, not even forged papers…

We are told that women are generally killed by their husbands! Well it has to be somehow, since we were told assassins don’t kill women, and since there’s nowhere mentioned to be an imbalance of women to men… still, if this is how things get balanced out, Barsoom suddenly becomes quite nightmarish…

C2 – Zodanga has a ‘’sleazy part of town’’ – not very virtuous, that… but more realistic

C3 – JC uses a simple trick to enter the assassins’ lair – what, no guards on the roof, with fliers (and equilibrimotors) common and all?

C5 – the space ship has a mechanical brain acted by thought waves; it’s been created in a personal lab – just no way. Not possible to make such a thing by oneself in a lab, and no way for such a machine to be mechanical, there HAS to be informatics involved, if only for the sheer number of operations to be done in extremely short time in order to achieve something even remotely similar to thought; plus, you can’t process thought waves only with a purely mechanical device, it would be like playing perfect Beethoven with a single harmonica, or something…

C6 – Fal Sivas discloses his plans very easily, even if he plans to kill JC; but it’s true it’s been said he’s boastful

C8 – lonely small noble girls appear to be easy to kidnap; the father is dead in the war and the mother took the pilgrimage – well very noble and very idealistically-barsoomian of her, but also very non-noble… I mean no tutor left for her daughter?

C10 – very easy kidnapping of the most well regarded woman on Barsoom. We see again the incredible carelessness of the Barsoomians in hiring their supposedly most trusted men.

C12,15 – Thuria shrinks (?)  people; its geographical features are very clearly described, therefore it’s a great world, with vast landscapes
 Issus gets a mention, by a Heliumite – it’s almost as if the cult is still there…

C16 – and in this big landscape, they find immediately the other ship? Well let’s say the two mechanical brains search each the others’ vibration, or something…

C17 – the splendor of the gems upon Thuria is even greater than upon Barsoom… or, Barsoom already has a huge amount of precious stuff, by millions of tons… as I already asked, how come these things are still precious upon such a world?

C18 – the Tarids do have psychic capabilities like the invisibility suggestion, but they are white, they age, and know no technical stuff; they worship ASTERS, the Sun is the fire-god and such – it means this is NO interior world, as Den Valdron suggested

C20 – the Tarid prince kidnaps and discards queens even if he has a small people and a shaky position; there’s terror and hatred and assassination among the Tarids even if they are just a handful – another society in terminal crisis?

C24 – the chief assassin swears fidelity to JC by reason of honor and admiration – well that’s very ‘’ideal Barsoomian’’ as well
We learn it takes days for a trip to Domnia, and there are other states as well – so Thuria is definitely a big world
Fal Sivas can call the ship from Barsoom – how come then that Ras Thavas doesn’t feel the brainwaves from Thuria?

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SMM

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C2 – Vor Daj is 100 year old, and still quite naïve and unwed? Hmm… also, we are told hatchlings are almost adult, so we have here confirmed that there are no kids upon Barsoom, normally

C3 – the synthetic men; I determined I’m not going to discuss the oddities of Barsoomian science and biology (like, how does a head talk when it’s cut and no air flows from the lungs anymore?) but only the internal logic of the story and setting, so I’ll let that pass

C4 – Janai from Amhor, which qualifies as small city; yet earlier it sacks Duhor which battles Helium…
Apparently the Hormad tissue grows by itself, even without being alimented – does it absorb and assimilate air, or something?

C6 – first love for Vor Daj? Hmm, a bit too idealistic…

C8 – apparently the assassins are not very good at diplomacy… how do they do their work?

C13 – like other ERB heroes, Vor Daj too is very unsure of the feelings of women; true, he’s in the skin of a hormad now, but still…

C16 – Janai’s pop has been assassinated by the jed… oh well, another tyrant…

C24 – Amhor is a small polity and its economy is based on animal trade but has a 26 ha royal palace plus palaces for the other nobles plus a busy car traffic; true, it’s the single city in the kingdom but all the more, it should be quite shabby since we get the impression of a second or third rate polity, or it’s not the case, it seems quite a nice, active and rich city…

C25 - Vor Daj as Tordurbar is accused of lying - how could that be upon Barsoom?
Then Ur Raj thinks there must be something occult about him – so, does ERB not remember he made his Barsoomians telepathic?
Jal Had has a harem, is afraid his wife might pay an assassin, and he wants to pay one to kill her, he’s afraid of the guild of the assassins – hmm, quite nightmarish picture of the life of a barsoomian head of state…

We learn of the invention of a machine that can analyze and tell apart the vibration of motors – that’s quite high-tech for Barsoom and it’s more in harmony with an Earthly optic; in fact, Barsoom seems to get more and more like Earth in many subtle respects… the pace of scientific progress seems also to pick up steam, can this be explained just by the presence of JC? We’ll see why it can’t…

C26 – finally the jed kills his wife; a revolution is led by her cousins, normally that would be quite frequent upon Barsoom if it can happen in Amhor… therefore the political instability should be greater…
Our heroes have quite a naïve plan of evasion, but then, true enough, who would suspect a hormad of cunning?

C30 – savages mentioned again in the marshes – but why is there not a big density of population on their rim? Why are there not several city-states in the Toonolian marshes?
Our heroes wax philosophic about how Earth will age like Mars – but when we think about the Opus in its entirety, we remember Thuria, Sasoom… they don’t fit at all the ‘’planets age and are exhausted the more distant from the Sun they are’’ concept…

We learn of the existence of incendiary bombs – hmm, if wars are chivalrous, what were these designed for?
 

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LOG

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The whole tone has a bit changed, also the structure of the story telling; JC is much more of a braggart, the tone is more brisk, especially the tone of the women towards the men

B1 C1 JC knows Barsoom better than the barsoomians – strange, no matter how you take it…
Orovars and their eternal buildings are mentioned

C2,C3 – the Orovars still exist, 1 million years mentioned – why did they not recolonize the planet if they were so advanced as to invent the atmosphere factory? As an egg-laying species, and an advanced one at that, that shouldn’t be a problem
Strangely, the language of the Orovars is not different from modern Barsoomian - not even as much as the Lotharian one – therefore there shouldn’t be any big cultural difference from their time to the time of JC, or there are quite some differences…

C4 – we get confirmed the Orovars were the masters of the planet, and the builders of the atmosphere factory; the Greens increased during the collapse – but the Orovars don’t seem degenerate… why didn’t they bounce back?

C5 –  the jeddaks kill immediately after even suspecting treason – that means the monarchy has always being despotic upon Barsoom
the legend of the great embalmer and his living mummies is firstly mentioned

C7 – the great chivalry of the barsoomians is mentioned: high bred breed only with other high bred – hmm, apparently jasoomians are the exception… but honorability/bravery is an asset as well

C8,9 – the supernatural mentalist living mummy; the other living mummies – that’s a more than remarkable fact, and yet upon a planet that can usher such phenomena, most people don’t strike as really mystical, but more routine/formalism-oriented… besides, religion tends to be derided when we see clearly supernatural stuff going on; strange contradiction…
The royal family was very active in trade and navigation in the time of the Orovars – that’s quite non-hydraulic, as we shall see…

C10 – if a man offers his sword down for a woman, her protector can fight him to death if the homage is refused by her – that’s extremely traditional; but if so, one would think the relations between men and women in such a culture should be much more formalized than we see them being…
Panar is unknown even to Okar, how is this possible?
No interaction between Okar and the rest of Barsoom since JC – how then is Carthoris friend with Talu?
Being a ‘’dome society’’, Panar should be quite high tech like Okar; yet it seems backward and uncouth

So the hothouse technology does not belong only to the Yellows? If Reds got it too, why has it not spread? Anyway on the whole the Panars seem quite low tech and rash and negligent, which is quite contradictory
Hin Abtol is one more lecherous and tyrannical ruler – so, how many rulers are ok, really? We begin to feel that the proverbial good venerable Barsoomian ruler might be just a figment…
Llana believes no fliers existed in the time of the Orovars – so once again, how did the Blacks fly all this time?

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B2 C1 – the valley of Kamtol  is more than 3km deep; the biggest difference in altitude so far named, upon Barsoom; but how did it persist with all the erosion and flattening going on?

C3 – the general hostility towards aliens upon Barsoom gets mentioned again; but we don’t see it really that much in the opus, if we look attentively… most newcomers ultimately get friends and admiration from the initially hostile locals, after a while… we see that time and again

C5 – death in the arena is possible for foreigners and slaves, here as well
the machine that kills following the nerve index – we get here one more super-genius stuff but here as well it doesn’t end up in a Scientific Revolution, and the inventor is killed, again…
It is said that if the peoples from the exterior knew of the Valley they would invade it – hmm, why not the Toonolian marshes then, or Kaol, or Korus and Omean?…

C6 – in Kamtol the jeddak and the nobles have their own palaces – that is not very hydraulic
JC is not recognized despite his white skin and grey eyes – very weird, especially among Blacks…
The panthans as almost the only ones with complete freedom of movement on Barsoom – them and the captives, in a fashion…

C7 – Kamtol has a population of 200.000, 5% slaves, with ‘’few kids’’ ? - what kids? The Barsoomians hatch almost as adults, as we were told; ERB says there are 1/3 men, 2/3 women+kids… nope… normally it should be about 2% young, 2% old, 48% males and 48% adult females – ERB forgets the long life his Barsoomians have

C10 – apparent blacks still raid reds, or badly want to, anyway they are prepared to, and the Reds still believe the Blacks come from the moon, all this time after GOM?!  Still the Kamtolians don’t seem to have that many slaves…

C11 – there are different social classes in Kamtol, blacks are not all nobles like they seemed to be in Omean
The money differ, but they have the same value no matter what the country is – well this is quite libertarian, not very hydraulic nor very isolationist…
There are no assassins in Kamtol, probably because of the machine; and the Kamtolians don’t know JC?! How is that possible?

C12 – JC outdoes himself with crazy bravado; the jeddak openly hits on someone else’s wife – another horny tyrant…
Llana escapes by millimeters from rape, as female leads always do…

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B3 C1 – about the history of Gathol: it dates even from before the catastrophe and the disappearance of the oceans; it has never fallen; it has the biggest diamond mines on the planet; well… how the frick didn’t it save the Orovar culture, if not the race?!

C2 – the ancestors’ intermission is again mentioned – and yet we never know exactly in what their cult consists…
The Gatholians are no friends of the blacks – unsurprisingly…

C3 – Issus again mentioned; the Panars have obsolete ships but they use equilibrimotors? Yet still not able to succeed in their air assault on Gathol?!

C4 – many panthans are political fugitives, many identities are secret – well that logically means A HUGE LOT of political fugitives, therefore a huge lot of tyrannies, therefore not many chivalrous rulers…

C5 – Issus gets mentioned by a Panar – meaning, the cult existed, and presumably exists, even there… how on mars did such a structure get hacked by the blacks? Or by JC for that matter?

C6 – Panars are shown once more as incredibly negligent – yet they succeeded in setting up quite a large operation, this is quite contradictory, normally at such a level of incompetence they shouldn’t have been able to arrive at this level…

C7 – telepathy mentioned, and we see that not all are equally good at it; the Panars are shown as stupid, destructive, they live from loot and rapine; a bit too ‘’stereotypical bad guys”, in my opinion.
They instant-enlist captive soldiers?! No army ever did that in large numbers!

C8 – veterans / deserters do orgies and kill officers and each-other; that’s quite a realistic detail but we get further and further away from the chivalrous Barsoom…

C9 – there was apparently another war in which Tan Hadron was involved with brio, after Jahar and before LOG; yet we don’t learn, nor does it seem like, he got too advanced in the ranks… why is that? Someone like him, under someone like JC, should have been by now made prince or something…
Prisoners are not killed upon Barsoom, but made slaves – quite logical and economic.

C11 - Pankor is similar to Okar but smaller – so how did they conquer Okar, or if not, how did they expand towards the south without that?
We get not mention of poverty or misery, although they are quite abysmally depicted and Hin Abtol definitely is an incompetent  tyrant

C12 – the conservation of people in ice – that’s quite a technology, for such incompetent people…
And no navy, what they got was only obtained by theft – that’s still too simplistic a scenario…

C13 – JC is once more cocky and insolent, obtains a relatively easy entry to the palace and a very easy escape

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B4 C1 – JC recognizes once more he doesn’t understand women – yet after several decades with Dejah, he should have learned something…
We learn there’s still enmity with Dusar, no relations - and apparently there was no punishment meted upon it after TMM – and TMM was ''not so many years ago'' – indeed, several decades is nothing upon Barsoom

C2 - the luxuriant forest of Invak, it has the ''biggest trees'' – hmm, bigger than Dor? - delicious fruits… well it looks great, but then why has it not been officially annexed by Dusar yet, since it’s so close? It looks not very far from it…
Small polities are the most proud and obnoxious – very true observation…

C3 - very straightforward and direct Invak girl – we see more and more of them with time passing, compared to the start of the cycle…

C4 - one of the Ptor brothers appears, and he doesn't recognize JC despite his skin and eyes
The lunar goddess-mother and Issus are mentioned – seriously, why don’t we hear more about all this cult? And about the state of the Iss cult at the current date?
The invisibility pill – that means they must have had a big genius too…
And, ta-daaa, another tyrant jeddak…

C5 – JC is very impertinent once more; he was always the rush and direct type but now he systematically outdoes himself

C6 - Rojas is very direct, very easily jealous without knowing anything about JC – we get frequently this type of kind of immature characters, which I have partially explained in other essays, but still, they should eventually grow out of it, let’s not forget the long life of the Barsoomians… and the telepathy… the young should learn from the older even without noticing.

C8 - Llana expected to suicide if dishonored – we get here a teaspoon of ‘’postcard Barsoom” here…

C10 – JC gets more and more invincible – he is similar to later Tarzan in that…

C11 - JC invisible - how are they armed and everything? In order to be invisible from a pill they should be completely naked and unarmed, since from a pill only their anatomy should be invisible, not the implements they use!

C13 – JC still naive, Rojas very cozy with Dejah – and Dejah doesn’t seem unfazed… our colleague Nichols may be up to something; Rojas also very ready to marry and settle quickly in Helium
many Panars are superstitious, less so Hin Abtol; Tan Hadron gets forgotten despite being more important than the other 2 guys from the novel…

So Rojas was just pretending to love JC… but if so, why send Llana to Motus? It’s quite stupid because it would clearly have antagonized JC towards her and besides, it gave him one more problem to handle whereas, had she left him alone, he could have concentrated only on the escape...

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JCOM
GIOM

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The tone here is even more different from the usual tone of the author - if LOG is more irreverent, less formal, GIOM is more childish and has a weak female character
It is the only story written at the 3rd person; the way of talking of all characters is visibly different – true, it’s not the same author…

Dejah has a very weak personality here, no members of her family and JC’s are mentioned, and she’s referred as ''girl'' and ‘’little princess’’ as if freshly married or something, when we clearly learn it is not the case since the hormads of Ras Thavas get mentioned
And her grandma mentioned in POM (or rather her sorak) now is implied dead - dunno when…

C1 - how come they go inspecting by thoat instead of by airship? especially with all the enemies and assassins around…  and since JC clearly says his men don't like to march, so no pedestrian guards either (barsoomians seem to be quite sedentary after all...) it seems reckless from their part… true, upon our Jasoom Louis 14 for example was very easy of access, not once was assassination attempted despite France being ennemy with pretty much everybody and with a dozen of internal revolts going on, including the  Fronde... but still, France even in the 17th century is not the same as Barsoom, and we know that up there the assassinates of jeddaks are very frequent

What about the expressions like ''atomic gun''? Or ''ray gun''? The vocabulary is clearly very different… I know, I know, the author is said to be different… yet they talk about the same world, right?

C3 - Joog is about 130 feet/40-50m tall – it’s possible, if made of hormad material...

C4 - preserved corpses... and rats? And the first not eaten by the second? 3-legged rats? dancing rats? We get a totally new species here, and very un-barsoomian with its less than four limbs, and semi-intelligent…
Korvas abandoned for  1000 years? Not 1 million or 100,000?

C5 – we see mentioned television and microphone planting at the enemy house – Barsoom suddenly goes very close to 20th century Earth
Pew Mogel said to be made by Ras Thavas; therefore the action must take place after SMM – so I repeat my question, why is Dejah so childish, and why no mention of her kids?

C6 - Issus mentioned; the story of Pew Mogel is quite interesting in itself

C7 - Issus mentioned by Dejah?! What the… incubator? It would be like me being in mortal danger and mentioning Santa Klaus or something…
The army of malagors and apes - where did he find that many? He should need at least tens of thousands of them…

C8 - JC much more patronizing towards Dejah than usual, and she looks weak
the message sent by malagor - no radio link to the fleet of Helium?

C9 - the civilization of Barsoom 50,000 years old now? And no air force because the fleet has been tricked? Didn’t they have a protocol to keep at least a minimum of ships in the capital?
Well anyway, normally the Greens should have shot down all the malagors, they shoot precisely at several miles and malagors don't climb miles high; but no mention of that, the only one shooting is Dejah - at last she does something worthy of her usual self.

Joog stops the fleet? How?! I mean couldn't they just bypass him or fly above him? He's only 40-50m tall, and the ships climb at least 500m... ok, he’s on a hill or something but do they not have another place to go except near him?
besides a ship should be at least 60-70m long in order to hold 1000 fighters; that would be too much for him to demolish, especially in a single blow; now, if he was hundreds of meters high then maybe the whole thing would be more credible…

C12 - JC can fly at high altitude over him easily – why don’t they all?

C13 – the mass-parachuting of the rats - not a bad idea, but only 2000 rats? It should have been hundreds of thousands; and, the fleet seems to be able, this time, to climb at high altitude...
And why not use the incendiary bombs for example or the disintegrating rays of Phor Tak?

---

SMJ

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Here again the tone is a bit different, we get no mention about how we learn about the story, it’s all written in a rush.
And despite the fact the Morgor invasion seems like the biggest danger for Barsoom so far, there’s no much tension in the text; it’s said to have been one year before the telling; presumably JC won that one too – how on mars?!

C1 – the fall of Zor. The jeddak said to have taken the pilgrimage… wait, is there still a pilgrimage?! The defeated zorites among the guards of the palace – who ever does that? no wonder assassinates are so frequently successful…
the Morgors… and their invisible interplanetary ships super-speedy at 23000km/min at least – who can defeat that?
How come there’s another nudist (and necrophiliac to boot) sword-yielding high-tech culture in the solar system?

C2 – the Morgors need collaborators? hmm... they could conquer everything in hours, the whole solar system in fact, after a month or two of invisible spying and sabotaging... for example they could conquer the atmosphere factory and have all the Barsoomians by the balls…

C3 - volcano-driven world; basaltic soil, basalt cities – that’s it for the hypothesis of Den Valdron about the continents made of icebergs…
and they have draft animals… what is this, draft animals in a culture that uses spaceships?

C5 - free areas upon Sasoom? There shouldn't be any, even as a preserve for sport... they shouldn't be able to hide and resist in any way
the Morgors reported as very weak in science – they shouldn't be successful then... one can't succeed by cultivating only one trait, or a society by developing just one side of its economy and culture… not when we’re talking high-tech. It’s not how it works.

C6 – our heroes have an extremely easy escape: the Morgor culture is militaristic and tyrannical and has invisible super-speed ships… and no high-tech locks? Not even for 1st class prisoners? No cameras and microphones? No succession of several doors with guards?

Again, Dejah almost gets raped – with such a number of failed attempts, one almost gets impatient for it to finally happen, already...
Speaking of escape, in fact I don’t remember such easy escape upon Barsoom, in similar contexts…

C7 - JC again very impertinent – it sounds as if he’s not really taking this extremely grave matter seriously, it’s almost as if it’s some teenage adventure of no consequence
C8 - another supernaturally easy escape: no guards with guns? No barbed wire or bars? No checkpoints? No police in cars? No radio/phone warning? Not one of the - so we’re told - armed pedestrian public intervening?
C9 – the invisible city; hmm, quite a lot of people invent invisibility in the BU…

And what is this triumphalist walk-in-park tone? JC sounds like he just got victorious in a friendly boxing match or something…

CONCLUDED IN PART III
www.erbzine.com/mag73/7398.html

INTERPRETATION OF THE WORK OF ERB