Editor’s Note: This is the first piece from a new contributor, Eric Onkenhout. He’s an expert in all things pulp and “Star Wars” and we hope to see more of his work around here. Without further ado, here is his first piece.
Before I review “Gulliver of Mars,” I have to be honest: as much as I’m a fan of pulp fiction/adventure stories of the early 20th century, I had a difficult time getting invested in this book. A lot of that is in due partly because nothing really happens in the story. If I hadn’t taken some notes as I was reading, I wouldn’t retain much of the story other than the character names.
“Gulliver of Mars,” by Edwin L. Arnold was originally written in 1905. I read the 1964 ACE Science Fiction Classic series, with cover art done by Frank Frazetta. Pre-dating Edgar Rice Burroughs “Barsoom” series by twelve years, “Gulliver of Mars” features Naval Lieutenant Gulliver Jones boarding a magic flying carpet and soon after magically appearing on the red planet. The similarities between this book and Burroughs’ Barsoom series are quite obvious. In fact, it’s very likely that he had some exposure to “Gulliver of Mars” before writing his own series of books. In turn, it’s also very likely that Arnold took some inspiration from H.G. Wells’ “Time Machine” when he used Wells’ Eloi and Morlocks, and transformed them into Hither and Thither folks, respectively.
From the first page, Gulliver seems just like a regular guy: a hero taken straight out of the monomyth, yet he’s never quite the hero. He almost does everything a hero should do—outwitting the enemy and defeating them with his bare hands, win the love of the female. “No, I was not rising equal to the occasion, and could not. The human mind is of but limited capacity after all.” Doesn’t exactly fill your soul with confidence in our protagonist, does it? Eventually, he finds himself aboard the magic carpet, returns to his girlfriend and finally marries her soon afterward. There is a scene near the end of the book where the King Ar-Hap holds possession of the girl, and Gulliver stands before the King claiming he is a spirit and will curse the King if he doesn’t hand over the girl. It plays out like a scene from Monty Python, where the King asks why he should hand over the girl, and Gulliver literally says, “There are some particularly good reasons why you should.” The King responds, “We have no wish to anger you.” It’s very Why? Because I said so! OK I’ll do it!
A similar scene plays out between Gulliver and his future wife Polly, where Gulliver asks her to marry him.
“Polly, will you marry me tomorrow?”
“No, certainly not, sir.”
“Then will you marry me on Monday?”
“Do you truly, truly want me to?”
“Truly, truly.”
“Then, yes.”
And they embrace. If it were only that simple.
As unremarkable as the story was, the writing style was enjoyable…for a while anyway. I typically love pulp writing style, it’s fun, exciting, visually easy to picture because everything is so delicately described. For much of this book, that was the case.
I particularly enjoyed a scene early on, soon after Gulliver lands on Mars, he is confronted by a local. Their mutual lack of knowledge of their respective languages causes a brief moment of confusion. Until, however, the Martian takes Gulliver by the head, his hands on either side of it, pulls Gulliver’s face so close to the Martians, their noses touch. Gulliver, narrating the story as it happens, goes on to say that maybe in the future we’ll all take in all information this way. This is a perfect illustration of pulp era imagination. Oh the possibilities!
The writing is so indubitably pulp it’s almost poetic;“The vistas of their lovely glades and the ivory town beyond only the fancy of a dream, and their talk as incontinent as the babble of a stream.”
This brings to mind Harrison Ford’s quote to George Lucas about his dialogue for Star Wars, “You can type this George, but you can’t say it.”
One element I found fascinating was a look into agender roles in turn of the century pulp fiction. The Hither folk are neither man nor woman. The initial Martian that Gulliver encountered was referred to as “him”, but as Gulliver narrates the story, he described his companion’s legs as “shapely”. Not typically a term used by men to describe another man’s legs. When questioned by Gulliver of the Martian’s gender, the alien says they are neither. That they started out as women who imitated men, but the gods disapproved of this behavior and deserted them. Gulliver insists that he must be on or the other.
The pulp-y writing does get to be a little bit too much after a while. The once fun, over-descriptiveness starts to lose its appeal and becomes tiring. A short break from the book could result in a refreshed attitude, and the pulp writing style will ring true once again.
Is it a great book? No. It’s average at best, but even still, Gulliver of Mars is a stepping stone to much more significant stories written in this style. In fact, when the story was published it met with such apathy Edwin Arnold stopped writing fiction altogether. If you’re a big fan of pulp fiction adventures stories (sword and planet) and want to read some of the early examples of it, then give it a shot. Otherwise, I’d pass on this one.
Eric Onkenhout was born and raised in Massachusetts and has been a massive Star Wars fan since day one. You can find him on Twitter and Facebook and you can find his work on sites like The Cantina Cast and The Bearded Trio, among others.