I've also just finished the second book of Burroughs' Barsoom series. Fun stuff, and I look forward (with some trepidation) to the John Carter movie coming out next month. I wanted to share one short passage from Chapter 17 of the first book, A Princess of Mars, which was amusing for the vision of another classic sci-fi scene that it brought to my mind...
The floor of this great circular hall was thronged with chieftains, warriors and women, and at one end was a great raised platform upon which squatted the most hideous beast I had ever put my eyes upon. He had all the cold, hard, cruel, terrible features of the green warriors, but accentuated and debased by the animal passions to which he had given himself over for many years. There was not a mark of dignity or pride upon his bestial countenance, while his enormous bulk spread itself out upon the platform where he squatted like some huge devil fish, his six limbs accentuating the similarity in a horrible and startling manner.Putting aside the mentions of DT and Sola, doesn't it make you think of THIS...?
But the sight that froze me with apprehension was that of Dejah Thoris and Sola standing there before him, and the fiendish leer of him as he let his great protruding eyes gloat upon the lines of her beautiful figure. She was speaking, but I could not hear what she said, nor could I make out the low grumbling of his reply. She stood there erect before him, her head high held, and even at the distance I was from them I could read the scorn and disgust upon her face as she let her haughty glance rest without sign of fear upon him.
Postscript: Okay, a quick Google search finds that I'm far from the first person to make this connection! Oh well... :-)
lucas borrowed heavily from ERB
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'banth'
'jed' &
'sith'
"Padwar" for a lower military rank, too? :-)
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