When I was a kid, I thought Tarzan was cool!

[Floogeldy]

And he had a hot looking shack-up, too. I related a lot to boy, of course.

Years later, a friend of mine admonished me, stating that the whole concept of Tarzan is racist. He said, basically, "One white guy shows up in the jungle, becomes the King, and is the most feared and powerful dude there on a continent of mostly black people."

I guess he has a good point, but I never ever attached any significance to the fact that the natives were black, or thought Tarzan was superior simply because he was white.

Was I a victim of a racist Hollywood?

B-)

[RagingInMiami]

1. Tarzan was cool

And he didn't just "show up" in the jungle. He was raised by apes from the time he was a baby.
But I guess you can overanalzye anything and find something politically incorrect about it.

[tjdee]

2. Yes, because that was the first thing I noticed when I was a little kid.

I was like, WTF is this, white guy in the African jungle who's the king? That doesn't make any sense!

I wasn't all mad about it or anything, but I thought it was weird...and then watched it anyhow.

Now I just figure that's the story they're telling, and it works on that level.

[saltpoint]

3. Well, Burroughs wrote from a white writer's perspective --

-- no more or less than Mandela speaks to loyal followers from a black perspective.

I don't take Tarzan to be a notably racist character. He behaved pretty honorably toward the indigenous people and at least in the films I saw as a young person, he often defended the indigenous tribes' stuff against greedy asshole whites zooming in to steal diamonds, etc.

If somebody wants to attack Kipling's KIM, they could probably target Tarzan, too, but I say he walks. Tarzan was about adventure, not apartheid. The construct was Man Against Nature, not Man Against Society.

The Hollywood that early on made films in which Native Americans were "godless savages" -- now that's another story.

[Floogeldy]

4. Good analysis

B-)

[saltpoint]

6. Hi, Floog. I voted for this thread for the Greatest page --

-- because it hit the old nerves, the good nerves of my cultural memory.

Tarzan and all the spin-off characters in the comics (Marvel had one that was really good) were early champions of mine.

Another good post, dammit.

[Floogeldy]

7. Wow

I never considered that. Thank you, Old Crusoe. :)

[saltpoint]

10. Floog, in case you haven't checked --

-- Tarzan is emerging as this evening's hot topic.

Tarzan is bigger than Bolton and more joltin' than Jackson and way better than just about anything else tonight.

' TARZAN Dominates DU Boards '

[norml]

8. Kipling: The White Man's Burden, 1899

Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

Take up the White Man's burden--
No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper--
The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.

Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"

Take up the White Man's burden--
Ye dare not stoop to less--
Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.

Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!

[saltpoint]

11. norml, do you happen to know what the reaction was --

-- to Kipling's poem when it was published?

'Was just wondering...

[norml]

13. It was wildly popular, was extensively quoted, and became a catch phrase.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478/

[saltpoint]

14. I knew the role of the poem but didn;t know if it had met --

-- with strong acclaim.

Obviously T. Roosevelt was drawn to it.

Sad to say.

I think Burroughs uses the "gray" apes to raise Tarzan on purpose, don't you?

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Tarzan was superior because he was raised by the Great Gray Apes.

And virtually all other whites portrayed in the novels were fool, or exploitative greedy bastards.

His closest friends were the proud and stalwart Waziri warriors.

Hey, I read the whole series when I was a kid. Never saw him as racist from that. The movies is a different story -- but of course they had him going 'Me Tarzan, you Jane', instead of being fluent in French, English and Swahili. (He must have had an IQ of 180).

[Floogeldy]

9. You are much more sophisticated about Tarzan than I.

Thanks for the information. I may have to delve deeper into the story.

B-)

[Floogeldy]

12. I'm not sure this scene was in the movie

A family and their pet.

B-)

[maveric]

15. I loved the original book. And Johnny Weismueller!

Wesmueller was by far the best movie Tarzan. Ron Ely was the WORST!

[Rowdyboy]

16. I owned at least half of the 27 Tarzan books ever published....Also had

a few of the "John Carter on Mars" series. They grabbed and kept my interest and helped me learn to love to read. Then I found Poul Anderson, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury and I was hooked on reading for life. 37 years later I still LOVE to read, and have between 8-10 books checked out from the local library right now...

[Floogeldy]

17. U still have those books?

Could have some value.

[Rowdyboy]

18. Sad to say, not a single one....

All of them long since lost...

[uppityperson]

19. I found 9 of the 1st 10, hardback, at a used bookstore

Bought them for $20. I considered giving them to one or another sibling but kept them for myself. Tarzan movies had nothing on the books, especially the first few books.