Burroughs' Respone to Ackerman

I became aware of an interesting thing on the web today, although it's been up for about a year and a half.  It came across my Twitter feed, and now I can't find who sent it.  Apologies for lack of acknowledgement.  Anyway, this link is to a site showing correspondence between Edgar Rice Burroughs and a 14 year of fan named Forrest J. Ackerman.  (Yes, that Forrest J. Ackerman.)  I think Burroughs hits the nail on the head in his reply to Ackerman's letter.  Especially when he says

No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, of its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature

There's a reason Burroughs is still read after 100 years and so many bestsellers are forgotten.  Too many people, in academia or with agendas to promote, seem to have forgotten that.  

What I Thought of John Carter

Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris

Yeah, I know the movie is entitled John Carter, not Dejah Thoris, but I'd rather look at Lynn Collins than Taylor Kitsch. Besides, in many ways she's the central figure of the film.

This review is going to be a little different than some of the ones I've posted. Confession time:  As much science fiction and fantasy as I've read over the past [ NUMBER DELETED] decades, I've never actually gotten around to Burroughs until now.  (Please don't judge me.)  Every time I've intended to, something has disrupted my reading schedule.  Which is not to say that I'm not familiar with the basics of at least some of his work.  I just don't have a strong working knowledge of the details.  I'm about one-third of the way through A Princess of Mars right now, and I will definitely read the other books in the series.  So I won't discuss where the film deviates from the written work; there are plenty of people more knowledgeable than me to do that. Start with Ryan Harvey's review.  Instead, what I'm going to do is approach the film from the perspective of someone who would be a member of the general public rather than a fan.

Artist David Burton Passes Away

Damon Sasser is reporting this morning that artist David Burton has passed away.  Burton's many credits include Sasser's REH:  Two Gun Raconteur.  He was also praised by Edgar Rice Burroughs' grandson Danton Burroughs, who said that his illustrations of A Princess of Mars were the best anyone had done.  Damon has written a tribute to David, which is here.