A Princess Of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs

Coursera Fantasy and Science Fiction Week 7

 

I struggled to keep reading and only made it about 20% through this book, so the essay tends towards the generic. I can't really argue with the comments.

A Princess Of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs

 

Edgar Rice Burroughs' "A Princess Of Mars" is a prototypical superhero story which bridges the 19th Century western and 20th Century interplanetary science fantasy. John Carter, the lead character is a 19th Century prototype for 20th Century superheroes, who - like Superman - finds his abilities are enhanced to super-human levels when he changes environments. This strength compensates for his outsider status on Mars, providing him with curiousity value and garnering him the respect of the violent Green Martians who are the first race that he encounters.

Transposing the American West to the planet Mars, with the civilised Red Martians in conflict with savage Green Martians, the story follows a narrative popular for over 100 years prior to its publication. The captivity narrative tells how a hero adapts when captured and imprisoned in an unfamiliar society. Carter's outsider viewpoint sees him define each race by the qualities he observes. Like the society from which Carter himself originates, the Red Martians' society is structured around control of resources, in their case the Martian canals. By contrast, the Green Martians are violent, nomadic and communal, in common with many popular depictions of some Native American tribes.

What seems so impressive in hindsight is how Burroughs weaves such familiar, yet disparate elements into a coherent story, writing about things he knew and at the same writing infusing his stories with elements of the fantastic. Anyone attempting the same feat now would find numerous sub-genres into which their tale would fit. Burroughs had very few antecedents and was effectively blazing a trail for a new type of fiction that would come to be one of the most popular and imaginative forms of the next one hundred years.

Responses

 

Form: 2/3

peer 1 → I 'm not a fluent english speaker so i'm not able to evaluate your grammar and vocabulary properly. In my humble opinion you write correctly and use appropriate words. Your argumentations flow from a sentence to another soundly.
peer 2 → The grammar and structure has minor error, but the essays very understanable
peer 3 → "when he changes environments": he did not. "Carter's outsider viewpoint sees him define...": too many words for too little. "What seems so impressive in hindsight is...": "hindsight" may not be a right word.

Content: 2/3

peer 1 → You said A Princess of Mars stays within his time. It trasposes the just concluded American West epic to the red planet and compares savage Green Martians with American Natives and Red Martians with European Colonizers. In my opinion you should better setting out any obiection to this drastic separation right/wrong,
peer 2 → The content make some insight to the reader, but likely lack a clear conclusion as the main ideas about the story
peer 3 → I see you did your homework. A lot of information, unfortunately, not anything new. So, where is your original problem and your thought about it?
peer 4 → Interesting and article is well organized.

Comments

peer 2 → Maybe add more word to make some exploration about the story will make this essays better.
peer 3 → Try to expand your own ideas. That would make your essay more interesting.