Quote:
Originally Posted by Calenorn
Burroughs was subtle about racial issues. He went as far as he could go and still be able to sell the stories. A white, male protagonist was commercially mandatory. Subsequent Tarzan novels did portray some noble, courageous black characters.
And consider the John Carter novel. It opens as a typical western, but when the protagonist finds himself on Mars, he discovers that the red people have an advanced culture and technology, but the only white creatures in sight are savage, mindless apes!
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I'm not sure subtle is the word you're looking for
. But yes, he did like to mix things up a bit and that may seem to obscure some of the prejudices, but like a lot of modern fiction, it's a visual trick: the word is moving faster than the eye. I can change the colours or the species for the sake of the story, but alliances and prejudice still lie with the ones I have chosen to present as most like some private ideal.
However, his stories describe the main protagonists with almost sensuous care, and this same sort of exaggeration carries over into many others too - humanoid and animal. It can make it rather difficult to separate what is some sort of -ism and what is strictly melodramatic emphasis. (In later books the cliff-hanger endings to each chapter becomes so blatant that you get used to never stopping at chapter breaks.)
Whatever. The books can't help but be of their time, and I can't fault him for that, but neither can I completely ignore what stands out against the values of this time.