Subj: Re: Favorite Phases

Date: 97-12-18 19:01:15 EST

From: Tarak THB

To: erblist@beginners.net

I happened to read some phrases from books recently, and think it would be interesting to hear some favorite phrases of ERBlisters. Also, this is my "Merry Christmas" to the list, since some people may leave tomorrow for the Holidays.

I'm not talking about, at least in this post, continual phrases such as "I still live," (many readers' favorite, apparently), or "Quick is _______but Tarzan of the Apes is lightning." (This one, to me, personifies ERB's prose, his Tarzan, and ERB himself, more than any other phrase, without exception) "I still live" is but a pale shadow of "Quick is Numa", in my view, regardless of Barsoomian fanatics who may believe otherwise. I'm pretty adamant in this view. Quick might the red men might be to argue, but Tarak is lightning in his defense of this oft-used, defining phrase of his ape-man.

I'm speaking of specific phrases. I posted Jane's some weeks ago when she tearfully spoke of her acknowledgment of her love for Tarzan, man or beast. This was a crucial, and moving, passage of prose, in Tarzan of the Apes.

I recently read what is certainly one of my all-time favorites; two passages which define her; early and at the end of the book: the last sentence being the last words spoken by my favorite heroine:

"My flying leather!" she commanded.

"But the guests!" exclaimed the slave girl. "Your father, the Warlord, will expect you to return."

"He will be disappointed," snapped Tara of Helium.

"Jed or Panthan," she said. "What does it matter what one's slave has been?" and she laughed roguishly into the face of her lover.

This sentence just sent me totally ga-ga, back in 1964, over a girl I had been falling in love with for two hundred and sixteen pages. Still ga-ga, I do feel it aptly characterizes Tara; defines her independent spirit; and gives her a final, fierce individuality which separates her from any other ERB female character. Dejah would not say this phrase. I suppose Tara taught it to Llana, but except for those two princesses, I doubt if any other ERB heroines would say this, in my view; nor do the others' chieftains have to put up with this phrase and others which these two girls undoubtedly think up with no apparent effort on a daily basis.

I find the phrase by Jane Porter I referred to above defines Jane in some respects, although the "no matter", and "this or that" part of love seemed to be a favorite of ERB.

Some phrases are defining. Others simply magical prose. Some, (like the above one to me), are both. Tara's last words resulted in an ongoing fictional romance which has existed for more than thirty years and will probably continue to infest my writing until that dark day when the first suspension for obsessive on-topic posting is handed down in the history of the Web.

Princess Guinalda was wholly different.

"Thou art a stranger among us, so unaccustomed to our ways, unversed in knightly practice--- so much so that there are many who doubt thy claims to knighthood. Yet thou are a brave man, or else a very simple one, or thou wouldst never have chosen to meet Sir Malaud with sword and buckler, for he be skilled with these while though art clumsy with them.".......

"Thou hast an impudent smile, sirrah!" she exclaimed angrily. "Meliketh it not. Then thou art too forward with the daughter of a Prince.".......

"Thou art a boor," she replied, in a voice as low as his.....

It's no wonder mere jesters and fools can't get into Princess Guinalda's castle, and have to live in the stables. This princess is not easily swept off her feet. Whew. I feel pretty much like Tarak of Boorsoom when she's around, which fortunately she is on a daily ERBasis. Our own princess has been gracious since this boorish barbarian stranger clumsily stumbled onto ERBlist. Sir James never heard such gentle words.

Another favorite:

"But your hair---your harness---even your figure belies your claim."

She laughed gaily. That, I was to find later, was one of her chief charms---that she could laugh so easily, yet never to wound.

"My voice betrayed me," she said. "It is too bad."

"What is too bad?" I asked.

"Because you would have felt better with a fighting man as a companion, whereas now you feel that you have only a burden".........

"And what is your name?" I asked.

"Tavia," she replied. "And what is yours?"

"Tan Hadron of Hastor," I replied.

"It is a nice name," she said...............

These are defining passages as to Tavia's character, as well as the first time we hear her name spoken, and this is one of the most beautiful names I've ever heard or read, anywhere. She is clearly a different character than other ERB girls, from these passages alone. Tavia rivaled Tara for my affections in some respects. Ah, but then there was Llana, and I now have a first edition with dust jacket of her, though I possess my Tara and Tavia in D&Gs with dust jackets now, too, collector that I've become.

Llana is unique:

"Llana!" I cried. "What are you doing here?"

"I might ask you the same question, my revered progenitor," she shot back, with that lack of respect for my great age which has always characterized those closest to me in blood and affection.

Pan Dan Chee came forward rather open-mouthed and goggle-eyed. "Llana of Gathol!" he whispered as one might voice the name of a goddess. The roomful of anachronisms looked on more or less apathetically.

"Who is this person?" demanded Llana of Gathol.

Clearly, Pan Dan Chee is in for some tough times ahead. I really liked Llana, too.

Consider Dejah, in the following passage, which clearly defines her indomitable spirit; her racial pride, yet her acknowledgment, unknown to JC, of her feelings, at an earlier stage than is normal for ERB heroines to do:

"Only in little ways, John Carter," she answered. "Nothing that can harm me outside my pride. They know that I am the daughter of ten thousand jeddaks, that I trace my ancestry back without a break to the builder of the first, great waterway, and they, who do not even know their own mothers, are jealous of me. At heart they hate their horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for everything they have not, and for all they most crave and can never attain. Let us pity them, my chieftain, for even though we die in their hands we can afford them pity, since we are greater than they and they know it."

This is an absolutely royal figure speaking here, and she knows it. Dejah possesses a majesty and grace which none of the other ERB heroines have. She is every inch the daughter and granddaughter of jeddaks. These are not words I would expect Tara, Tavia, or Llana to utter; yet Dejah is more impulsive in some ways than the others. She has already selected her chieftain, for all her royal blood; and his strangeness.

To me, this passage defines Dejah in some respects, and is the first time we hear those two words of love. It's one of my favorites, and reading it makes me feel I've neglected Dejah's qualities in my posts, and need to read about this princess again.

I seem to concentrate on the girls, and I did fall in love with most of them, but I do think I see more differences in the girls than I do in most of the male characters, most of whom are similarly honorable and dense. It may be just that I don't notice the guys' differences, since I get so captivated with the girls. I haven't read these books in a long time, but it seems to me ERB did try to make his heroines different from each other, as much as he could.

La was different from all others. Nemone unique. Dian so savage. Duare had her own special aspects, too, as did Nadara, Jana, Valli Dia; and others. And of course Jane, she who captured the heart of Tarzan of the Apes, if not his relatively continual physical presence.

Tarzan and JC (especially Tarzan) were unique for their abilities, among the guys.

Kala was certainly different; and perhaps the most heroic of all:

"Hidden beneath some friendly bush I lay for days and week with only Kala to nurse me--- poor, faithful Kala, who kept the insects from my wounds and warned off the beasts for prey.

When I called for water she brought it to me in her own mouth---the only way she knew to carry it."

Other ERBlisters may have favorite passages, for some reason or another. He had so many; with Tarzan and with other characters. Few could top Tara's specific one, though, in my view; and nothing will ever compare with "Quick is..."

Also, Merry Christmas to the above ERB heroines, in the words of Tawny, aided by ERB's, and to the other heroines on this list, who haven't a character persona, and no words but Tawny's to wish them a Happy Holiday.

Usha, who is forever in the presence of the ape-man, warning him of danger, apprising him of food. On occasion she is fickle, and hides things from him. She was his greatest protector, though, and is not fickle in her protections of the ape-man on this list.

J the V, for whom there is no ERB prose; and who apparently gets killed off periodically in the prose of another, but one whose posts are as plentiful as they are enjoyable.

To any I've forgotten, too.

Merry Christmas to the guys, too, of course. And to Seven of Nine. I hope everyone enjoys these ERB passages as much as I do. The only gift I could think of for the ERBlisters were passages about some of his most beautiful creations.

Tarak, Quicker than Predator, but forever slave to the roguish magic of Tara of Helium.