Gulliver Of Mars

Synopsis

Consider The Ideas That Are Intimated, But Never Carried Through: The Ancient Martian Civilization That Had Traveled To, Or Possibly From, The Egypt Of The Pharaohs; Jones's Language Education By Psychic Impression; The Deflection Of Weaponry By Telekinetic Force (useful For Repelling An Invasion Of Iron-age Barbarians); A Prince Aware Of How Far His People Have Fallen, From World-dominating Greatness Into Decadent, Dissipated Lassitude, But Unable To Do Anything About It; The Grimness Of The Embers Of A Civilization Being Crushed Forever By Barbarian Conquest, And The Essential Hopelessness Of That Battle; An Earth Soldier Becoming The Premier Warrior By Virtue Of Not Being A Wimpy Milquetoast; And This Weirdly Ineffectual Hero Figure Unaware Of His Incompetence. Gulliver Jones Himself Is Especially Problematic. As A Protagonist He Fails To Be The John Carter-style Superhero That Burroughs Devised For His Version Of The Setting, And Arnold Fails To Convey The Level Of Irony Necessary Between Word And Deed To Establish Jones As A Lovable-or-otherwise Rogue And Ne'er-do-well. What's Left Is Someone Not Particularly Likeable--his Half-heartedly Humorous Running Commentary Is A Detriment, As Is His Inconstancy To His Earthly Love--and Whose Competence Leaves Much To Be Desired: He Twice Fails To Rescue Princess Heru From Her Abductors, Is A Mere Bystander To A Grand Battle Of Monsters, Fails At Every Navigational Task Set To Him (him A Naval Officer, No Less), And (view Spoiler). In All, Everyone Would Have Been Just As Well Off, If Not Better, Without Him, Making Him Extraneous To His Own Story. I Was Ready To Render Judgement On The Above Until I Slept On It And Realized The Ideas That Arnold Did Capture: The Civilization Gone Weak And Dissipated, Unable To Maintain Their Own Cities And Living In Decayed Splendor; Their Indian Summer Existence At The End Of Their History And Gentle Post-economic Existence; Its Retreat And Collapse In The Face Of The Foreign Thither-folk; The Thither-folk Perception Of These People As Fey Creatures; The Ghostly Abandoned Cities Now Feared And Avoided, And The Dangerous Stuff Within; The River Of The Dead, Leading To A Vast Martian Ice-tomb Of Frozen Corpses And Tomb-riches; The Intimations Of Glorious Alien Flora. As It Stews In My Head, I Find Myself Liking The Pieces More And More, As Well As The Book As An Implementation Of What Could Have Been