The Utopic Impulse of E.A. Burroughs *A Princess of Mars*

I just finished reading Edgar Rice Burroughs A Princess of Mars (1917). The version I read was a 1973 printing by Ballantine Books; however, the book was originally a serial story published in 1912 from February to July in All-Story Magazine, one the first if the not the first American Pulp Magazines. I'm not sure if there were any major changes from the serial to the novel manuscript. From my perspective, this novel (novella, really--159 pages) read like a fully connected, organically conceived novel.

What struck me about this story was the narrative pace. Events unfold at breakneck speed. One moment the protagonist, John Carter, is riding along the desert in Arizona on Earth; the next moment, he's on Mars. There is one chapter that begins with him a destitute fugitive from justice. This chapter ends with him as a warlord who is leading a great host to capture a city.

This sort of intensity of narrative pace is becoming, to my mind, a characteristic of "pulp fiction" generally (a term I don't usually like to throw around).

Another intriguing element of this novel is how it clearly connects the Western, frontier story with the science fiction. It begins as a traditional Western story--complete with Native Americans and a frontier setting and scenario. And, after some metaphysical convolutions, it transforms into a kind of science fiction tale with an emphasis on adventure. A lot of folks label this as a "science romance," and this term, I think, refers to the casual approach to scientific knowledge/theory characteristic of the narrative.

I'm not sure about the contemporary usage of the term "science romance," and I'm not particularly interested--at this point--in charting its no doubt rich and interesting genealogy. Nevertheless, I think it's important for current writers trying to create a new kind of "science romance" or "science fantasy" to takes these terms/categories seriously. I'm not that person.

For my money, I think considering Burroughs A Princess of Mars as a kind of "liminal" sci-fi/western or a "proto" science-fiction gets some interesting thoughts churning. Native Americans become Martians in this allegory; the White Men become Red Men. At the end of the novel a kind of reunification/reconciliation between the White Men and Native Americans is effected. The city-state of Helium and the horde of Tars Tarkas become political allies and close friends. Hmm...

There's a scholarly tradition that understands science fiction as characterized by a "Utopic Impulse," i.e. a desire for a better world. Here we have an reconciliation, albeit an allegorical and somewhat fantastical one, of the White and the Red. Hmm...

I'm planning on reading much more Burroughs for my dissertation, so I'll leave these thoughts ill-formed right now.