“He was a mighty beast, mightily muscled, and the urge that has made males fight since the dawn of life on earth filled him with the blood-lust and the thirst to slay.”

Sunset. Geilston Bay, January 2021.

The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Land That Time Forgot is a pulpy sci-fi/ fantasy romp first published in serialised form in Blue Book Magazine in 1918. As such, I should not have been surprised by the primitive understanding of gender politics or the solitary female character's presentation as quite so feeble.

I was more taken aback by the presentation of the ‘Wobblies’ – the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) – as evil ne'er-do-wells hell-bent on the destruction of all that is good in the world. Now, one might expect such a thing from the vicious Hun (yes, the Germans are all bestial monsters too), but I’ve always liked the IWW. There’s no point in me exploring the implications of

Ho-hum. Given the above, I found this a tedious and simplistic tale that pales in comparison to Jules Verne or H.G. Welles, and the thoughts of Edgar Rice Burroughs on primitive man and the upper and lesser races are best left unexplored. Suffice to say that I’ve not read so many mentions of “feeble-minded Negroid features” in a long time.

Perhaps the chap from the IWW was correct in trying to sabotage our hero all along?

Best avoided.

⭐ 1/2

Comments

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