Quote:
Originally Posted by GlennD
Edgar Rice Burroughs is an author that I always struggle with a little bit. The Mucker has Japanese bad guys, and I was amazed at the racism when I read it the first time. I would have almost understood it if it had been written during or immediately after WW2, but it was written in 1913. The Japanese villains are quite one dimensional with lots of references to the "Japs", their yellow skin and eye shape. The Tarzan novels also always seemed pretty condescending to the native African tribes that Tarzan encounters.
I see the racism but to some degree just chalk it up to the era. I don't tend to criticize someone for being in line with the prevailing thought of their time. (Rising above the prevailing thought is noteworthy and commendable though! Many well known historical figures {example, Thomas Jefferson} are progressive in specific areas but in line with their time in others.) It doesn't stop me from continuing to read and enjoy ERB's books.
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Actually, the japanese society of that time was the same of 1941.
The only difference was that in 1941 they came after the US the way they went after the russians, the chinese, and the Koreans earlier.
They were a bit late to the "great game" of the 19th century but they took to it with gusto and even the liberals and progressives of the time were pretty ticked at them.
Burroughs in those days wrote to market expectations and those expectations were that japanese were really nasty types. So that's how he wrote them. Likewise he wrote germans as villains in the teens, heroes in the 20's and early 30's, and villains again in the 40's.
Likewise, he wrote cliche indians in his westerns even though, as a veteran of the "indian wars", he knew better. It was only much later, in APACHE DEVIL and THE WAR CHIEF duo that he felt confident enough to portray them sympathetically. And even there he hedged his bets and made the protagonist a "white indian".
For that matter, today's readers might not quite get the reason why THE MUCKER was irish. You have to pay close attention to both the story and the times to appreciate how slyly subversive ERB was. He wasn't just a spinner of fun pulp adventures. Try giving some thought to the central theme of the Tarzan stories...