From: julie@pascal.org   
      
   On Tuesday, October 14, 2014 2:49:04 PM UTC-6, William Vetter wrote:   
   > On Monday, October 13, 2014 7:36:05 PM UTC-4, John W Kennedy wrote:   
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   > > On 2014-10-13 22:40:46 +0000, William Vetter said:   
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   > > > I read Tarzan of the Apes last week for a reason involved with one of    
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   > > > my projects.   
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   > > > One thing I noticed was that he never swung from a vine in this book.   
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   > > > I think that he wrote about 20 Tarzan books, and I don't think I'm    
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   > > > going to read the rest.   
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   > > > My question is whether he ever swings from a vine in any of the others,    
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   > > > or was that entirely an invention of movies.   
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   > > Judging from the books available in Gutenburg, when vines appear, they    
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   > > are generally barriers or decoration. Tarzan uses some vines to climb    
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   > > over a wall in one book, but that seems to be it.   
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   > What I see from the first volume:   
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   > 1) "Me Tarzan; you Jane," is absent; that Tarzan initially could read   
   English at perhaps a seventh grade level, but knew how to speak none at all.   
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   > 2) The signature yell from the movies is never described, except as "the   
   battle cry of the bull great ape."   
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   > 3) Africa has a nearly complete canopy of foliage that Tarzan travels   
   through primarily by running along branches.   
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   > 4) The coastline of Africa abounds in pirate coves; the coastline is   
   essentially the same as the setting in Treasure Island.   
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   > 5) Tarzan has a pecking order relationship with Great Apes, has a   
   wait-and-see attitude toward White humans, and regards colored Africans as   
   inherently brutal savages.   
      
   I loved these books when I read them in high school.  It is very very true,   
   however, that they were written at a time when Darwinism and evolution of   
   humans to higher forms and a new understanding of genetics and a fashion for   
   eugenics was the *   
   enlightened* and *scientific* view.  Something that was apparent even to a 16   
   year old.   
      
   In the end I don't blame ERB for including monkeys, gorillas, apes and humans   
   of various races in a continuum of evolutionary progress.  It's both appalling   
   and quaint and, mostly, important as a lesson on scientific hubris.   
      
   -Julie   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)