Getting excited for John Carter.

I read the first of the Barsoom books about 3 years ago. I regret to admit I've yet to journey back to that world. I do not know why. It was a short book, packed with story, action, adventure and all that sort of thing, but it took me a really long time to read it. I never got into ERB's prose style. I had the same problem with Tarzan, and to a lesser extent with some of REH and Lin Carter's very ERB-Esq writings. The story though was great. I enjoyed every minute of the reading process. Sure I had my problems with the book. It is woefully out of date. The setting of Mars is of course preposterous now even as it was at the time ERB was writing it. The same problem befalls the Eric John Stark books of Leigh Brackett, C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy and countless other books which take place on the Moon or Mars or Venus. The book doesn't leave you a lot of time to really dwell on this though. The planet itself might as well be Alderan or Arrakis. It's completely alien and though dying, still teeming with persistent, pugnacious and strange life forms.

If you haven't read the book, I don't know if I would recommend it at this point. Obviously for any serious Fantasy, Sword and Planet or Sword and Sorcery fan it's a must read just as DUNE and the LORD OF THE RINGS and the HOUR OF THE DRAGON are. ERB's John Carter brand is stamped across all of these genres. Inescapable even if you don't know you are seeing it. This is the problem that is arising now, with people accusing John Carter of "Ripping off" Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clone's Arena of Death scene. It's no slight against Star Wars for it to have been created as an homage to creations of earlier writers and filmmakers. That's why Star Wars is perhaps one of the most important American films ever made. . Star Wars wears it's Wild West, Far East, Anti-Fascist, American Revolution, Civil Rights era Multi-cultural Melting pot thesis clearly on it's sleeve. But without ERB, Leigh Brackett, Frank Herbert, and others, Star Wars wouldn't exist. It's really not possible to stress this enough. Despite all of it's flaws, I recently saw the new 3D re-release of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, and even though Jar Jar was just as annoying as ever, and the cast was just as wooden as ever.. I had a hell of a lot of fun. I had forgotten how much FUN Star Wars was. It got me extremely excited for John Carter.


Over the last two weeks a lot has been happening in my life. I cannot wait to be transported to Mars along with John Carter and do battle alongside Woola and Tars Tarkas. I need a Vacation, and I hear Mars is nice this time of year.

Sequestration of Harshitude.

The title really makes no sense.. but Harshitude.. a Dude'ism if ever there was one.. is about the best word I could really think of.

I just got done reading a rather critical look at the works of Steven Spielberg. It had a portion that really resonated with me, specifically about how I feel towards the "Grimdark" sub genre of Fantasy.

"In each of his issue films, Spielberg presents a bleak world, then finds a ray of hope within it. Often, that contrast between light and despair is rendered visually, and not always comfortably so. In Ryan, the gray, grainy, skittery feel of the invasion of Normandy clashes with the gauzy shots of the aged Matt Damon at the grave sites. In Amistad, the awful portrayal of the Atlantic Passage jars against the scenes in which John Quincy Adams, like a character in a play, stands off from the people he’s speaking with to declaim his lines into the distance. Spielberg is sacrificing aesthetics in his intense desire to sequester the harsh material cinematically. He never commits to a worldview that doesn’t ultimately have a sunny patina."

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/the_completist/2012/01/steven_spielberg_s_complete_movies_i_ve_seen_every_one_and_i_almost_wish_i_hadn_t.html

That is a very good explanation of what my problems with Grimdark really are. I don't mind the graphic depictions of war or battle, what I draw issue with is their general lack of hope. Lots of defenders of the sub genre like to point out that Lord of the Rings, ends on a pretty down note. They are some what right, yes, Frodo never really recovers, The world will never be quite so magical as it was before, but the world has hope returned to it. Most of Robert E. Howard's works, again sometimes pointed to by the grimdarkers, isn't so much against civilization but for the triumph of human spirit and will power. Hopeful themes both.

Granted not all of Spielberg's movies make sense. He twists reality to fit his worldview. He forces his films, if not have a happy ending, at least only have a bittersweet ending. He doesn't do down endings. Even the bulk of the films he produces follow this model. Think about how culturally important the movies he has directed or produced are, not only to the culture of the United States, but likely to the world in general. Arguably he is less culturally important than George Lucas, another man who shares the some what gauzy rose tinted world view. The two men are after all frequent collaborators/partners in crime. When I think about just how many films I've seen that Speilberg or Lucas made.. It begins to make sense to me why I have such a similar world view.

Even in Lucas's darkest turn, The Empire Strikes Back, which I've never hidden the fact it is my least favorite of all 6 films in the Star Wars series.. precisely because it's such a departure from the rest of the work Lucas puts out. I can't view it as anything but a middle chapter, it exists to shift the characters from the end of A New Hope, to the beginning of Return of the Jedi. Just as the down ending of Revenge of the Sith functions to transition the hopefulness at the end of Attack of the Clones into the hopefulness of A New Hope.

I grew up watching Star Wars, Willow, The Goonies, Back to the Future, Hook, Jurassic Park, and Batteries not included over and over again. It's really no surprise I can't deal with bad endings. I grew up being exposed to media that presented the bad guys winning as anathema to itself. The Bad Guys ALWAYS lose. Thats the way it should be. Hope remains, and with it reaffirmation that the world isn't really as crappy as it seems to be.

Maybe that's not accurate. In fact I know it's a lie. But it's a lie I willingly accept in order to not sink into depression. That's perhaps the whole point, and says more about me than it does about the people who write down books.

George Lucas's Red Tails.

Found this trailer at Yahoo.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this movie. I hope it heralds the return of George Lucas to the quality and love he injected into the first Star Wars.

Terrance Howard looks like hes going to be bringing his A-Game to this. It's also nice to see Cuba Gooding Junior back.