Martian Rhetoric

 

I'm writing this about two weeks before it will post. At the same time, Angela and I are reading A Princess of Mars (1912)--Angela for the first time and me for the umpteenth time. I'll be recording a series of mini-episodes for the Edgar Rice Burroughs podcast analysing the novel on a chapter-by-chapter basis. 

The fun thing about reading a great book with the intention of writing about it is that it guides you to noticing things that I never consciously noticed before. For instance, this time around, I discovered that people on Barsoom can make wonderful off-the-cuff speeches. 

In Chapters 9 and 10 of "A Princess of Mars" (1912), three characters give short but eloquent speeches that vividly demonstate Burroughs skill as a storyteller. Each of the speeches is a masterpiece of rhetoric.

From Chapter 9, in which Sola the female Thark is defending her show of concern for a captive human woman:

"I see nothing wrong with my expression of interest in this red woman," retorted Sola. "She has never harmed us, nor would she should we have fallen into her hands. It is only the men of her kind who war upon us, and I have ever thought that their attitude toward us is but the reflection of ours toward them. They live at peace with all their fellows, except when duty calls upon them to make war, while we are at peace with none; forever warring among our own kind as well as upon the red men, and even in our own communities the individuals fight amongst themselves. Oh, it is one continual, awful period of bloodshed from the time we break the shell until we gladly embrace the bosom of the river of mystery, the dark and ancient Iss which carries us to an unknown, but at least no more frightful and terrible existence! Fortunate indeed is he who meets his end in an early death. Say what you please to Tars Tarkas, he can mete out no worse fate to me than a continuation of the horrible existence we are forced to lead in this life."

From Chapter 10, in which Dejah Thoris, despite being a prisoner and facing torture and/or death, calls on the Tharks to set aside their brutal customs and join with the red men in their work to keep Barsoom from dying:

"We were unprepared for battle," she continued, "as we were on a peaceful mission, as our banners and the colors of our craft denoted. The work we were doing was as much in your interests as in ours, for you know full well that were it not for our labors and the fruits of our scientific operations there would not be enough air or water on Mars to support a single human life. For ages we have maintained the air and water supply at practically the same point without an appreciable loss, and we have done this in the face of the brutal and ignorant interference of you green men.

"Why, oh, why will you not learn to live in amity with your fellows. Must you ever go on down the ages to your final extinction but little above the plane of the dumb brutes that serve you! A people without written language, without art, without homes, without love; the victims of eons of the horrible community idea. Owning everything in common, even to your women and children, has resulted in your owning nothing in common. You hate each other as you hate all else except yourselves. Come back to the ways of our common ancestors, come back to the light of kindliness and fellowship. The way is open to you, you will find the hands of the red men stretched out to aid you. Together we may do still more to regenerate our dying planet. The granddaughter of the greatest and mightiest of the red jeddaks has asked you. Will you come?"

Also in Chapter 10, John Carter makes it clear that he will remain true to his moral code no matter what:

"I hear you, Tars Tarkas," I answered. "As you know I am not of Barsoom; your ways are not my ways, and I can only act in the future as I have in the past, in accordance with the dictates of my conscience and guided by the standards of mine own people. If you will leave me alone I will go in peace, but if not, let the individual Barsoomians with whom I must deal either respect my rights as a stranger among you, or take whatever consequences may befall. Of one thing let us be sure, whatever may be your ultimate intentions toward this unfortunate young woman, whoever would offer her injury or insult in the future must figure on making a full accounting to me. I understand that you belittle all sentiments of generosity and kindliness, but I do not, and I can convince your most doughty warrior that these characteristics are not incompatible with an ability to fight."

Each of these speeches serves to establish character, establish mood and advance the plot. What schools and universities need today is to invite Martian teachers of Rhetoric to Earth as visiting professors. Eloquent speechmaking like this is pretty much a lost art and it would strengthen our own culture to re-capture that skill.