The archetypal Lord of the Jungle was actually
born right here. And a Peoria novelist doesn't want us to forget it

Review essay by Bill Knight

THE DARK HEART OF TIME: A TARZAN NOVEL
Philip Jose Farmer, 1999
Del Rey I Ballantine

TARZAN FOREVER
The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Creator of Tarzan
John Taliaferro, 1999
Scribner

Many Illinois authors are recalled with predictable reverence. Carl Sandburg, Nelson Algren and Jane Addams, Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway and Saul Bellow come to mind. But at least one is almost always missing from this pantheon.

Now a Peoria author known for his science fiction reminds readers about Illinois writer Edgar Rice Burroughs by way of the best, most faithful Tarzan since Burroughs' death in 1950. Philip Jose Farmer's The Dark Heart of Time: A Tarzan Novel rekindles some of the fiery devotion to one of literature's most famous heroes created by one of the century's best-read authors. It also sparks awe that Tarzan has been used and abused by so many, with such varying degrees of success.

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Farmer, the Hugo Award-winning novelist whose The World of Tiers and Riverworld series are world famous, is a Tarzan expert, and a faithful fan who for decades has recognized Tarzan's enduring fascination.

"Tarzan is such a powerful character, even Hollywood couldn't destroy him," says Farmer. "Even Burroughs himself couldn't ruin Tarzan."

What is so captivating about Tarzan is his dual nature. Farmer says, his knack for coping with conflicting instincts and impulses. Tarzan is primitive and civilized, brutal and refined. "He was the feral human, in that ancient archetype of a hero. He was one with Nature, he sought God, he was tempted by seductive women, he was the lost heir to a throne, plus he rescued the fair maiden and slew dragons ---- or great beasts of all sorts, anyway."

Farmer says Tarzan---Burroughs' Tarzan, his Tarzan --has close parallels to fables and heroes, from Romulus and Remus, Moses, King Arthur and Hiawatha, to Hercules, Gilgamesh, Beowulf and Krishna.

The true Tarzan is not Hollywood's monosyllabic oaf, fondly recalled from Johnny Weismuller's Tarzan in 12 films from the 1930s and '40s. The real Tarzan is Lord Greystoke, a multilingual powerhouse who not only speaks to animals but listens to them. Knowledgeable in the weird ways of the world, this ape-man smells distant scents in the forest and hears vague sounds beneath the waters. "Tarzan is not at all the image we've seen in all those lousy movies about him," Farmer says.

That image is a good draw, however. And this summer we got Disney's version, a full-length animated film that has been well- received, though it presents a sanitized treatment of the original. This Lord of the Jungle, in his too-safe world, moves merchandise as much as moviegoers.

Kevin Lima, who co-directed with Chris Buck, says, "One of our main objectives was to create a paradise." The problem for most viewers, adolescent or older, is that they succeed. Disney's wilderness looks downright comfy compared to Burroughs' treacherous, clamorous setting, resurrected so well in Farmer's novel. The cartoon feature adapts Tarzan, but it's a revision that deprives audiences of the genuine article, those heart-racing, violent and thoughtful tales. (Of course, after Burroughs created Tarzan, the; author also exploited the character's commercial appeal.) Nevertheless, the Disney movie's best aspect may be that it provides an introduction to Burroughs' original and its 20-plus sequels --- including Farmer's. Farmer's latest addition to his own 70-some titles is a wonderful, wild adventure, blending the pacing and thrills of publishing's pulps and classic movie serials. The paperback also offers the most complete, accurate and full-bodied apeman in years. It takes inspiration from Burroughs and elements of his tales: strange surroundings, fantastic or exotic creatures, and such threats as kidnappings and unknown pursuers. But Farmer's story is never as derivative as it is faithful to the original. "I've always wanted to write a Tarzan novel using the name Tarzan. I hoped -- I hope --- that readers are inspired by, or at least appreciate, Tarzan. I remember playing Tarzan," says the 81-year- old Farmer. "After school, I used to give out a Tarzan yell. We all climbed trees and relished the idea of being totally free, raised by animals. It's a wonderful notion." In The Dark Heart of Time, Tarzan exudes both confidence and humility. There are few doubts he'll free his occasional bonds, maintain his unwavering

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drive or continue to survive his quite literally unique situation. However, this Tarzan knows his is only one part in a great land and planet, and he readily accepts others' names for his species: "Big Part-Pink Lumps," for instance, or "Sleeshintush" (translated as "The Stinking People" by his Shong friend Rahb). Readers rejoin Tarzan on a quest to rescue his wife Jane from German abductors in the waning days of World War I. Soon, the ape-man realizes that he's not only a predator, he's prey. Page after page, it becomes more obvious that Tarzan/Greystoke is the best and worst of humanity, simultaneously barbaric and cultured. Presented at a delightfully breakneck speed. Farmer's plot takes Tarzan and an increasingly diverse group of companions from rainforest treetops to ancient, alien locales, from earthquake- damaged territory to terrain nestled a bit beyond the reach of campfires' lights. Farmer enlivens his characters with personalities as well as odd nomenclature. There's the bright, emotional (but smelly) beast-plus that Tarzan dubs the Ben-go-uto; the ruthless, soulless industrialist Stonecraft; the helpless poet/trickster Waganero; the mysterious, perhaps ageless, Rafmana; and duplicitous mercenaries with axes to grind. Farmer also mixes Burroughs' terminology with imaginative wanderings of his own. So readers share Tarzan's interaction with Tantor the elephant, Sheeta the leopard, Nene the beetle, Ska the vulture, Bolgani the gorilla, but also Greystoke's hunt for the Crystal Tree of Time, the Ghost Frog, the City(s) Built by God, the Uncaused Causer and other deadly living legends. Consistent with Burroughs' character, Farmer's Tarzan seems both savage and cosmopolitan. Named Tarzan for his white skin, the child was raised in loincloth and learned the many uses of a knife. But he also adapted to society, wearing tailored suits, quoting Latin, flying a plane and supervising estates on two continents. Tarzan matured into his stature as the son and heir of England's Lord and Lady Greystoke, and Farmer revives that man.

Contrasting with the theme of freedom, Tarzan tales examine issues of bondage, from outright slavery to economic servitude, from society's disappointments to individuals' demands on each other. The Dark Heart of Time also features treasure hunting, betrayal, escapes from certain doom, and ambitious interpretations of history and religion, and the wry wit Farmer brings to all of his writing. Throughout, Farmer's Tarzan is at ease, on the one hand, with eating raw newly skinned birds, or insects plucked from branches, or pondering philosophy and the apparent lunacy of civilization on the other. Finally, readers arrive, almost breathless, at a climax that is tantalizing ---- and just partly resolved.

The Dark Heart of Time, as do most of Burroughs' and Farmer's writings, whispers at the pulse-pounding tempo of a cliffhanger but absolutely cries out for a continuation. In fact, it already has one. as Farmer placed this tale snugly between existing Burroughs books.

Farmer says he's had a relationship with Tarzan, Burroughs and Burroughs' estate since discovering the ape-man while searching Peoria library shelves as a boy. "I think it was 1928 when I first read Tarzan, and it was a helluva adventure story," he says. "But it was more. To me, to most kids ---- young males, anyway ------ there was the appealing idea of being Tarzan, of being a free person ---- at least as free as you can get. No school, no clothes, roaming through the trees, with no accounting to anybody. Nobody's going to bother you; nobody's going to tax you.

"As a writer, 1 think I was imprinted with Tarzan like ducklings are imprinted to their mother," he says. "I never relinquished that feeling, reading and studying him. Tarzan's part of people's collective unconscious, certainly part of my unconscious mind."

Perhaps that link to Farmer was a factor in Burroughs' estate, ERB Inc., authorizing him to continue the line. Or perhaps Farmer caught their attention in 1972 with his fictional biography of Tarzan/Greystoke, Tarzan Alive, which not only filled in many of the blanks never addressed in Burroughs' writing, but placed Tarzan

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in a more complete context, even claiming that Greystoke is real. In the biography. Farmer wrote that he met Tarzan once, then proceeded to trace his family tree to one including Sherlock Holmes, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Doc Savage, Nero Wolfe, Bulldog Drummond and other extraordinary figures.

Burroughs, too, was an extraordinary figure, as shown in John Taliaferro's new biography, Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Creator of Tarzan. Born in 1875 in Chicago, Burroughs was complicated, a man who sought action in his life, but for decades lived and worked in the shadows of such contemporaries as Jack London, Upton Sinclair and Ernest Hemingway. In his thorough and otherwise affectionate book, Taliaferro is critical of Burroughs for the conceit of commenting on issues without qualifications to do so (and often on the controversial side), for rarely straying far from the comforts of home and office, and for never finding it necessary to go to Africa. (Of course, Burroughs also never went to Mars or to a hollow Earth, either, but set some of his 75 novels there.)

Growing up in a family of all boys, Burroughs tried several public and private schools and even a stint in the army before a succession of jobs as a young man led him to conclude his life was "a flop." Before his almost nonstop production of stories and books began in 1911, Burroughs' best work had been as a supervisor managing 150 people in Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s stenographic department. Success as measured in fame and wealth started in 1912, when he penned three novel-length stories, including "Tarzan of the Apes." He immediately sought to publish his stories in book form, but that goal eluded him for two years, until A.C. McClurg of Chicago agreed to print the book.

"A book, regardless of who published it, was substantial, dignified, permanent, as opposed to a pulp magazine, which was inherently vulgar and ephemeral," Taliaferro writes. "Books would not sell just for a week or month, but for years and across borders. Tarzan and his author were indeed coming up in the world."

By 1919, McClurg had published five Tarzan books, while Burroughs lived in Oak Park. Currently, a local historical society's exhibit, the multimedia "Tarzan, Mars and the Fertile Mind of Edgar Rice Burroughs," is showing at Pleasant Home in that community.

In 1914, Burroughs sold the Tarzan motion picture rights to a fledgling film company, which made the first Tarzan movie in 1918 starring Eimo Lincoln. Since then, Tarzan movies have ranged from a 15-part serial and vehicles for the likes of Buster Crabbe and Gordon Scott, to serious efforts with Miles O'Keefe and Christopher Lambert, to Disney's cartoon.

Burroughs never stopped pursuing angles to what are now seen as intellectual properties, Taliaferro notes. Marketing a movie or a character is now routine, as can be seen in Disney's merchandising of Tarzan on television and cable, in retail outlets and restaurants. But it was almost unheard of in Burroughs' time. He became an innovator whose own participation in licensing Tarzan, selling movie and stage rights and staying active as an owner as well as a creator made him the George Lucas of the early part of this century.

"Well before Walt Disney ever hawked his first mouse ears or Ninja Turtle 'action figures' became film stars. Burroughs was already a grand master of a concept that would one day be known as multimedia," Taliaferro writes. "He grew weary of having to share his income with middlemen and began publishing his own books under the ERB Inc. imprint. Still not content with the return on his creative capital, he struck deals to turn Tarzan into a radio show, a daily newspaper strip, a Sunday comic page and, most lucrative of all, a motion picture character.

"Marketing experts and syndication agents warned that Tarzan on the radio would compete with Tarzan in the comics or that serial motion pictures would steal audiences from feature motion pictures," Taliaferro adds, "[but] Burroughs was convinced that the total would exceed the sum of the parts."

Tarzan became a multimedia figure whose adventures were chronicled in comic books and Saturday-morning network television, and whose endorsements sold toys, dolls, tobacco and ice cream. The International Museum of Cartoon Art in Boca Raton, Fla., wound down its summer- long show last month. The museum's "Tarzan: From Burroughs to Disney" displayed art by the likes of Hal Foster, Russ Manning, Joe Kubert and Neal Adams.

Burroughs was ambitious. A lifelong contributor to such pulp magazines as Blue Book and Argosy, he longed to be accepted by more prestigious magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post. An author of bestsellers, he drifted into movies; the man behind comic strips, Burroughs became a California rancher and real-estate developer.

Commenting on those who may have borrowed elements of The Jungle Book, author Rudyard Kipling wrote, "the genius of the genii was the one who wrote a series called Tarzan of the Apes."

Indeed, Burroughs became as popular as H.G. Wells, O. Henry, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and L. Frank Baum. But he never felt as respected — and his treatment since his death seems to bear that out, with most literati relegating him to second-class status.

Yet Farmer says the 20th century was made a brighter time because of Burroughs, one of Illinois' unlikeliest literary forces, a writer who captivated many minds. "It's a dirty shame that the Illinois State Library listing of Illinois writers doesn't have Burroughs," Farmer says of the literary names etched along the library's upper story "Tarzan's the most famous adventurer since Odysseus, the strongest man since Samson. It's hardly any wonder that he captures us so. Tarzan's an archetype of a human hero, and a comforting connection to youth.

"But some academics from Chicago or somewhere decided to put in obscure poets, but refused to include Burroughs. It's not right."

Bill Knight is a journalist who teaches at Western Illinois University in Macomb.

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