BS: DeJah Thoris

Subject: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: The Shambles
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:33 PM

Feel free to have an entire thread devoted to discuss this obviously very intersting subject.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Micca
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:40 PM

Obviously spending Christmas in the Barsoom of the family?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:46 PM

The Shambles has forgotten his usual cross linking.

Closed Threads and Deleted Posts(2)

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:47 PM

Isn't this a duplicate thread? There's already one open on the topic.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:50 PM

Shambles got all uppity and kicked the subject out of his thread.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:53 PM

Well, there can never be too many threads...or posts...if the topic is really a hot one! Like this one, for example:

Closed Threads and Deleted Posts (2)

Although...I do find that the longest threads sometimes contain the least really worthwhile content. Odd, isn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 04:54 PM

Not really. Everything worth being said on a subject usually gets said fairly quickly.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: jeffp
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 05:03 PM

I see not reason why discussion of this important topic cannot remain in the thread where it originated.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 05:07 PM

Rank discrimination, that's what it is. Deliberate hounding of people and attempting to control their activities.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Amos
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 05:08 PM

Dejah Thoris IS a very important topic. Much more important than that other tripe -- why drag it in here? She is the epitome of beauty, style, courage and grace in the female of the species.

A

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 05:09 PM

Did "The Shambles get permission from "GUEST, Only the Lonely" before moving this topic here?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 05:12 PM

Perhaps this thread ought to be closed and the contents combined with the other thread, to avoid splitting the discussion?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: artbrooks
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 05:33 PM

Miscegination, that's what it was. Imagine, a cultured Virginia gentleman like John Carter getting it on with what was, for all her quasi-human beauty, essentially a giant bug.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Peace
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 05:44 PM

Would the self-appointed editor of the 'Closed Threads and Deleted Posts (2)' thread please stop telling us what we can discuss? Dejas Thoris has nice tits, a cute ass and really neat knees, at least according to Frazetta. As a youth I simply thought she was a damsel worth saving because she could use a sword as well as John Carter. To banish her here--this 'poor second' to your thread, Shambles, is in bad taste. YOU have just become what you have been complaing about. You have stepped on your crank. And do NOT say bad things about DT, meaning Dejas Thoris, or you will piss off at least forty guys who had nothing else in their youths to dream about except her, LH and I being two of those guys. (Well, her and Susie ******* who was in the eighth grade and developing ahead of her years, but LH didn't know her at all.) So watch it. It's not like yours is the first thread to 'suffer' the incursion of a topic not delineated by the thread title. You should at least say thank you to the posters who took YOUR thread to new heights. It was becoming the Thread from Hell, and a few of us, completely unintentionally, turned it into the Thread from Mars. Well, to Hell with it then. (I just thought of that all by myself. Good, huh?)

I have to go scratch me arse. Have a nice evening all.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Peace
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 06:11 PM

Please eccuse me. I meant to say breasts and gluteus minimus, medius and maximus.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Azizi
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 06:16 PM

I must have led a deprived childhood and teenhood and early and middle age adulthood 'cause up until that other thread I had never heard of Dejah Thoris.

After reading about her on that other thread, I googled the name and found there are 48,600 Internet hits for Dejah Thoris-I guess this thread makes at least 1 more.

For those who don't know anything about Dejah Thoris, here's an excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dejah_Thoris :

"Dejah Thoris is a major character in Edgar Rice Burroughs's series of Martian novels. She first appeared in the initial Mars novel, A Princess of Mars (1917), in which she is the princess of the title. She reappeared in subsequent volumes of the series, most prominently in the second, The Gods of Mars (1918), the third, The Warlord of Mars (1919), the eighth, Swords of Mars (1936), and the eleventh, John Carter of Mars (1964). Dejah Thoris is also mentioned or appeared in a minor role in other volumes of the series.

Princess of the Martian city state/empire of Helium, Dejah Thoris is the love interest and later the wife of John Carter, an Earthman mystically transported to Mars, and subsequently the mother of their son Carthoris and daughter Tara. She plays the role of the conventional damsel in distress who must be rescued from various perils, but is also portrayed as a competent and capable adventuress in her own right, fully capable of defending herself and surviving on her own in the wastelands of Mars.

Except for some jewelry, all of the planet's races seem to eschew clothing and look down upon Earth's inhabitants because they do wear clothing".

-snip-

It's amazing what you can learn on Mudcat!

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Azizi
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 06:26 PM

Instead of Dejah Thoris, television and the movie industry opted to focus on another of Edgar Rice Burrough's invented character's "Tarzan of the Apes".

I would have greatly preferred watching television shows and movies about copper skinned Dejah.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 06:35 PM

It's been a lot or years but I seem to recall there were a lot of different coloured races of Martians: green, red, and black, very black. I think I recall John Carter's declaration something to the effect of "though it might offend my Southern upbringing, I thought the colour of their skin made them more beautiful..." or something like that. I think I also recall the black martians were pirates. Very romantical.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Azizi
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 06:42 PM

"I seem to recall there were a lot of different coloured races of Martians: green, red, and black, very black".

Well that explains why those books got little media play-or did they? Does anyone recall any movie or television show based on Burrough's Martian books?

I admit that I didn't even know that he was a science fiction author.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: bobad
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 06:51 PM

Like you Azizi, I seem to have overlooked the phenomenon that is Dejah Thoris when I was growing up - DAMN!

But then again as I was riding out the stormy seas of adolescent hormone tsunami she may have put me overboard.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 06:54 PM

I also seemed to recall hearing a "John Carter of Mars" movie was being made, but I guess production has been halted for now.

I'm a bit dubious on the quality such a movie would have anyway. I still maintain "The Stars My Destination" would make a great flick.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: beardedbruce
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 09:15 PM

the races of men were green, red, white, black, and yellow. {The Gods of Mars (1918), The Warlord of Mars (1919) give a good explanation of how they came to be.)

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 09:31 PM

She appears to be indulging in a little game of Stab-me-stab-you here.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Azizi
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 10:13 PM

beardedbruce, you wrote that "the races of men were green, red, white, black, and yellow".

Thanks for that information, and thanks for citing the sources for it. But what colors were the "races of women" & "the races of children"?

[Just funnin]

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Amos
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 10:28 PM

Azizi:

"Man" is a species name, in this context, not the word for the subset of male gender only.

A

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 10:49 PM

Among the most interesting of those races were the Tharks, a race of green-skinned beings who looked sort of Frog-like in the face, manlike in the body (but very big and strong) and they had four arms! This made for some vicious fighting, with one arm to hold a shield and three others free to wield various sharp weapons. Tharks are a bit like Orcs, I'd say...similar concept...but the 4 arms is really a shocker. There were other creatures with extra sets of legs too, including some huge felines resembling lions.

There was a Thark leader, Tars Tarkas, who became a lifelong friend of John Carter, and fought many battles beside him.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 11 Dec 06 - 11:29 PM

Well, that's our show!

G'night, folks!

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Azizi
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:07 AM

Amos, see the last two words of my 11 Dec 06 - 10:13 PM post.

[Okay, so my humor {humour} may not be that great or that original, but at least I'm tryin]

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Azizi
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:16 AM

As Ed Sullivan used to say "On with the shew"...

Apparently, there are online versions of Burrough's Martian books. For instance here's an excerpt from "A Princess Of Mars"

"CHAPTER XI
WITH DEJAH THORIS
As we reached the open the two female guards who had been detailed to watch over Dejah Thoris hurried up and made as though to assume custody of her once more. The poor child shrank against me and I felt her two little hands fold tightly over my arm. Waving the women away, I informed them that Sola would attend the captive hereafter, and I further warned Sarkoja that any more of her cruel attentions bestowed upon Dejah Thoris would result in Sarkoja's sudden and painful demise.

My threat was unfortunate and resulted in more harm than good to Dejah Thoris, for, as I learned later, men do not kill women upon Mars, nor women, men. So Sarkoja merely gave us an ugly look and departed to hatch up deviltries against us.

I soon found Sola and explained to her that I wished her to guard Dejah Thoris as she had guarded me; that I wished her to find other quarters where they would not be molested by Sarkoja, and I finally informed her that I myself would take up my quarters among the men.

Sola glanced at the accouterments which were carried in my hand and slung across my shoulder.

"You are a great chieftain now, John Carter," she said, "and I must do your bidding, though indeed I am glad to do it under any circumstances. The man whose metal you carry was young, but he was a great warrior, and had by his promotions and kills won his way close to the rank of Tars Tarkas, who, as you know, is second to Lorquas Ptomel only. You are eleventh, there are but ten chieftains in this community who rank you in prowess."

"And if I should kill Lorquas Ptomel?" I asked.

"You would be first, John Carter; but you may only win that honor by the will of the entire council that Lorquas Ptomel meet you in combat, or should he attack you, you may kill him in self-defense, and thus win first place."

I laughed, and changed the subject. I had no particular desire to kill Lorquas Ptomel, and less to be a jed among the Tharks"

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/pmars-XI.html

-snip-

Hmmm...

[Why was I expecting modern prose? This book is almost 100 years old]

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Azizi
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:21 AM

I have a serious [perhaps somewhat off topic] question:

When Carter said "I had no particular desire to kill Lorquas Ptomel, and less to be a jed among the Tharks" is this where the term 'jedi' comes from that is used in the Star War movies?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:21 AM

Burroughs' imitators today write in the same stilted way.

So do writers of bodice-rippers, the female version of the same type of fluff.

They're the same writers.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:23 AM

You'd have to ask George Lucas that one, Azizi.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: GUEST,Skipy
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 07:09 AM

Now I have a problem! I am stiving to see every pair of breasts on the planet, (hobby)and now I find out that when my work is done here, I will have to go to Mars & start again.
So little time!
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Amos
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 09:41 AM

All the breasts on Mars have already been red, Skipy.


A

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: MMario
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 09:52 AM

except the green, white, yellow or black ones, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: artbrooks
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 11:00 AM

As a young impressionable teenager, I often wondered why Thark women had four arms but only two breasts. Of course, that is an issue of concern only to young impressionable teenagers...as one gets older, one realizes that some of the mysteries of life shall always remain mysterious.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: GUEST,Chongo Chimp
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 11:36 AM

Bein' quadridextrous is an advantage all chimps appreciate, but if ya ask me...havin' another two sets of arms is just a bit too much. It also means 4 sets of cuffs and cuff links, and that gets expensive. Imagine the difficulties of gettin' yer shirt (or hers) off gracefully in romantic situations! I guess that's why them people on Mars mostly only wear jewelry, and not clothes.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: fat B****rd
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 11:51 AM

When I first saw the threadhead I thought it was about a Rastafarian Icelandic.
I'll get me mukluks.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 11:55 AM

Couldn't the green men drop down and use their lower set of arms to run on optionally, becoming quadrupeds for more speed?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: MMario
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:00 PM

They mention the great martian apes doing that but I don't recall the green men doing so - but I might be mistaken.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:02 PM

Maybe that was it. Haven't read those stories since I was about 12 or 13.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Wesley S
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:29 PM

The first hardback books I ever remember owning { and I still have them today } were given to me by my Grandfather Mahoney. They were The Gods of Mars, Tarzan and the Ant Men, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar and Tarzan the Terrible. I ended up reading all the the Bourroughs books I could find. Carson of Venus, Pellucidar, The Moon Men. I still have most of those old Ace paperbacks.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 12:46 PM

I had a cousin and some friends who read a lot of this sort of light fiction, the sword & sorcery, sword & planet, westerns and light sci-fi back when paperbacks were cheap. We'd buy one, read it in a fury and pass it on to the next guy who'd pass one on to us in return. Bought a lot of books I never saw again, but never missed them because we had an endless supply making the rounds. Some were memorable (the Fritz Leiber stuff and when my cousin got me started on Asimov) but most were disposable and forgettable.

I remember my cousin also getting me going on John Norman's Gor series. Just the thing for us hormonal teenage boys who had to tap off out excess energy several times a day back then. "Hey... slave girls!"

But we both sickened of the series fairly quickly around the same time. The S&M was an interesting and titillating aspect of those stories in the beginning books, but they quickly degenerated into out&out pornography with the heroic stories being marinated in the author's twisted theories of sexuality and endless detailed ruminations on S&M and B&D techniques. Comparing notes, my cousin and I had found we were skipping several pages at a time when we came upon the author's rants, scanning ahead to see where he'd gwet back to the supposed plotline of the story. We both abandoned the series just a few books in. Hell, we still had Conan.

Thinking back, what was I doing reading that garbage at 14 or 15?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 02:17 PM

yeah...slave girls. I never quite understood why they're more desirable chained and bound. I like 'em friendly and willing. Maybe I'm weird?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Amos
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 02:23 PM

Aw, come on--some of that "light fiction" was positively paradigmatic and captured the best essence of Man's highest character and future hopes!!

I loved them all when I was in my teens, but I think the all time classics of the era were (a) The Gray Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith and (b) anything Robert Heinlein touched.


A

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: MMario
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 02:26 PM

Podkayne of Mars?

Lensman series was good - but I always hoped he'd do some "historical" lensman books - expanding on the "escape from Atlantis" bit -- or give us more background on some of the other grey lensmans

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 02:33 PM

When my Dad died, aged 91, a couple of years ago, he left me all his Burroughs books. I think he was still reading and enjoying them right up to the end of his life.

I'm sorry if someone has already asked, but would DeJah Thoris need breasts if she was an egg-layer? And is it likely that she and John Carter would have been able to have kids (the old silly questions are the best)?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: MMario
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 02:46 PM

We are never told whether or not those breasts are mammary glands. It could just be convergent evlolution.

And I believe in one of the books it is explained that the "egg" is more a biological incubator - it photosynthsizes to nuroush the developing fetus - and grows along with the fetus until a young adult is eventually "hatched" - and I always got the impression it was an adaptation to the "dying mars"

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 03:00 PM

On the matter of eggs and breasts, a little "reverse engineering" helps.

As I recall, John Carter and Dejah Thoris did have off-spring. At least I recall reading (wa-a-a-y back) at the beginning of one of the sequels when Carter was stuck on Earth and pining to get back to Mars and Dejah Thoris, his thoughts were not just on her, but also on an egg that was waiting to hatch. Perhaps the reproductive system of Dejah Thoris and other humanoid Martians is like that of the duck-billed platypus. The platypus lays eggs, and when they hatch, they suckle their young.

H. G. Wells' Martians in War of the Worlds were pretty ghastly critters, but if Martians were like this—hell, she could invade my planet any old time. Dejah Thoris.   

On the other hand, I'm not sure I'd be too enthusiastic about this guy: Tars Tarkas

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: GUEST,Temlor
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 06:26 PM

There is no reason why an egg-laying species cannot also suckle their young.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 12 Dec 06 - 06:29 PM

Yeah, Shimrod, I asked that question back in the thread The Shambles kicked the discussion out of.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 01:38 AM

"There is no reason why an egg-laying species cannot also suckle their young. "

Well, of course. Look at women of the genus Man. (You thought babies were formed of sperm alone?)

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 01:50 AM

LOL Ebbie! Howevuh, up until the 19th century, that's exactly what lotsa people thought. Wombs were a sort of a storage facility where the sperm developed into a person.

Elmer

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 03:05 AM

I think he means like the duck billed platypus and the spiny anteater, Ebbie.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: skipy
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 07:05 AM

Monotremes.
Skipy
(who was a zoo keeper for three years!)

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 13 Dec 06 - 06:00 PM

But should they be allowed to marry?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 01:53 AM

LOL. Cluin. Not if it is defined as being "between one man and one woman," eh?

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Azizi
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 09:38 PM

Hey you guuuys! *

I'm not even gonna mention that some folks who posted to the Stupid Thread
were having a discussion about mating which reminded me of this thread, but I'm trying to get them to change the subject and talk about stupid things.

* This sentence is from that very creative & much too short lived 1970s series The Electric Company

Click Electric Company TV show theme for the lyrics to that song.


**

Btw, speaking of Dejah [I know I haven't mentioned her yet, but I'm about to do so now],I've been meaning to mention that the name Dejah {pronounced DAY-jah} is a not that common contemporary African American female name.

I bet that most of those people who gave this name to their baby girls thought they made it up.

There's nothing new under the sun-or so I've heard.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Azizi
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 10:04 PM

Somewhat off topic, and of a more serious nature than some might like for this BS thread:

It just occurred to me that the source for the contemporary African American female name DeJah is probably Djenne, Mali.

I've known elementary school age girls name Dejanae and other variants of the name Djenne, including Dejah.

Here's information about Djenne:

Djenné, the oldest known city in sub-Saharan Africa is situated on the floodlands of the Niger and Bani rivers, 354 kilometers (220 miles) southwest of Timbuktu. Founded by merchants around 800 AD (near the site of an older city dating from 250BC), Djenné flourished as a meeting place for traders from the deserts of Sudan and the tropical forests of Guinea. Captured by the Songhai emperor Sonni 'Ali in 1468, it developed into Mali's most important trading center during the 16th century. The city thrived because of its direct connection by river with Timbuktu and from its situation at the head of trade routes leading to gold and salt mines. Between 1591 and 1780, Djenné was controlled by Moroccan kings and during these years its markets further expanded, featuring products from throughout the vast regions of North and Central Africa. In 1861 the city was conquered by the Tukulor emperor al-Hajj 'Umar and was then occupied by the French in 1893. Thereafter, its commercial functions were taken over by the town of Mopti, which is situated at the confluence of the Niger and Bani rivers, 90 kilometers to the northeast. Djenné is now an agricultural trade center, of diminished importance, with several beautiful examples of Muslim architecture, including its Great Mosque.

In addition to its commercial importance, Djenné, was also known as a center of Islamic learning and pilgrimage, attracting students and pilgrims from all over West Africa. Its Great Mosque dominates the large market square of Djenné...

"Every spring Djenné's mosque is replastered. This is a festival at once awesome, messy, meticulous, and fun. For weeks beforehand mud is cured. Low vats of the sticky mixture are periodically churned by barefoot boys. The night before the plastering, moonlit streets echo with chants, switch-pitch drums, and lilting flutes. A high whistle blows three short beats. On the fourth, perfectly cued, a hundred voices roar, and the throng sets off on a massive mud-fetch. By dawn the actual replastering has been underway for some time. Crowds of young women, heads erect under the burden of buckets brimming with water, approach the mosque. Other teams, bringing mud, charge shouting through the huge main square and swarm across the mosque's terrace. Mixing work and play, young boys dash everywhere, some caked with mud from head to toe...

In 1988, the old Town of Djenné and its Great Mosque were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site."

-snip-

Visit http://www.sacredsites.com/africa/mali/djenne.html for the complete text, which seems like it could have been incorporated into an other world science fiction book such as those featuring DeJah Thoris.

As a matter of fact, Djenne might be the source of Burrough's character's name.

But whenever I see the name DeJah Thoris, I think of a thesarus
[or however you spell those dictionary like books which give you examples of words that have the same or similar meaning as another word]...

Maybe that's where Burrough got DeJah's last name {because she was like a human woman but not wasn't really human}?

What do you think? Am I off my rocker?

Do I need to find a rocking chair and just rock around the clock tonight?

Anyway this post turned out not to be off topic.

So there!

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Peter T.
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 02:09 PM

This thread is an insult to the noble Deja Thoris, and should John Carter ever come back once again to Earth, I promise to send him after every one of you.

Thousands of Martians would gladly lay down their lives for her, and you are discussing her as if she were a platypus. It is not to be borne. (or even hatched).

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 03:14 PM

Steady on, Peter. It's obvious that Dejah Thoris ain't no platypus (I can tell the difference; vive la, and all that).

But speaking of duckbills, considering that Helen of Troy was the offspring of Leda and Zeus in the form of a swan, have you ever noticed the beak on that woman?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Amos
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 04:10 PM

I think, Azizi, that Burroughs was trying to draw on Arabic or African phonetics to createw an exotic name. But he might as well been thinking of djinn (an Arabic sprite or powerful spirit) just to name one other possible example. I doubt he was thinking of the actual semantics or etymology of the syllables he chose, anyway, as long as it sounded exotic and sexy.

A

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Peter T.
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 05:11 PM

Brilliant, Don. The beak that launched a thousand ships.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 06:50 PM

I cannot tell a lie. I must give credit where credit is due.

The idea about Helen of Troy came from cartoonist Larry Gonick's series of graphic novels (let's face it:   comic books), The Cartoon History of the Universe. A friend of mine who's heavily into comic books loaned the series to me. I've heard that some fairly open-minded history teachers use Gonick's comics to supplement the standard history textbooks, and the result is that a lot of kids who normally couldn't care less about history suddenly develop an interest.

Vol. 1 starts with the Big Bang and takes us up through the Trojan War. Gonick's drawings of Helen of Troy cracked me up! Gonick took her rather peculiar family history and lineage into consideration and drew her with a nice bod, but a face that looks not unlike Daisy Duck.

I went googling to see if I could find a drawing of her, but unfortunately not.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Peace
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 06:58 PM

When I was a kid, if I liked these I read the originals.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: frogprince
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 07:09 PM

But Peace, when we were kids the only classics they had available to adapt were Beowulf and the Canturbury Tales...

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Peace
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 07:48 PM

LOL

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Dec 06 - 10:32 PM

I, also, Peace.

I wonder how many book reports in high school lit classes came from Classic Comics.

Now, I wouldn't know about that, of course. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Peter T.
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 07:38 AM

My favourite was the Classics Comic of Hamlet, with the "To Be..." soliloquy in one huge balloon over Hamlet's head on one full page.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Don Firth
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 01:13 PM

Hmm. I think I would have done that a bit differently. Hamlet is going through a bit of a personal crisis there. Calls for five panels at least. The general path of the soliloquy is, "Yes? No? Maybe? Well . . . maybe not. Aw, screw it!"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: DeJah Thoris
From: Cluin
Date: 19 Dec 06 - 07:02 AM

I had one of those Classics Illustrated comics when I was a kid that I remember. It was "The Odyssey". I just remember the illustrator making Circe look like Joan Crawford.

I spent more time engrossed in the struggles of Turok, Son of Stone against the honkers.