Tarzan of the Apes
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan monkeys are largely a product of their age: they are filled with bloodthirsty natives and bulky, unconscious American negresse, and zoo experts now persecute by charismatic megafauna (large animals that grow, roar and stalk inappropriately in most real African forests). However, Burroughs resists such inaccuracies with some rather unappealing ideas about white civilization — rebellious, murderous sailors, effete aristos, self-engaged academics, and violent cowards. At the heart of Tarzan lies the creative and ugly hero, a man increasingly torn between a civilian and a savage, whose cutlery will never be less than a nightmare. The passages in which the nut-brown child teaches himself to read and write are virtuoso and among the incredible, creative best in the book. How attractive it is to accept the term of a ten-year-old child for letters - "little bugs"! And old Tarzan's civilized realization that "humans are really more stupid and cruel than forest animals" is nonetheless powerful, if not an entirely new concept. Burroughs' first film in the series, the memorable "When Tarzan killed, he smiled more than ridiculed; and smiles are the foundation of beauty."
