# Edgar Rice Burroughs on the American Presidency **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 19, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-rice-burroughs-on-the-american-presidency/810831 "2018-03-19T16:05:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-rice-burroughs-on-the-american-presidency/810831/1 "2018-03-19T16:05:46Z")
I’ve been reading an old Edgar Rice Burroughs book that I hadn’t read before – _Beyond the Farthest Star_. It seems to be a very late attempt by ERB to revive the idea of another new planet, like his much earlier series about Mars, Venus, a Pellucidar. This was written in 1941 about the distant planet Poloda that the hero (who doesn’t give his “Earth name”, identifying himself by the named “Tangor” bestowed on him by the Polodans) finds himself transported to, as John Carter got mysteriously transported to Mars. Burroughs evidently wanted it to be a series, but only one story got published in his lifetime. In 1964 Ace published it and a second unpublished story as a single volume. When the Polodans elect a leader, they submit him to an examination that includes an intelligence test. This leads Tangor to muse: > [@](#): > > I could not but compare this system with our own, under which it is not necessary for a Presidential candidate to be able either to read or write; even a congenital idiot could run for the Presidency of the United States of America, and serve if he were elected. I refrain from the obvious comments – they’re too obvious. But I do have to wonder why ERB wrote this. The proper lens to view speculative fiction through is its own time and place. ERB was writing for a United States witnessing a world at war, and about to get sucked in itself. Elsewhere in the story it’s clear that he doesn’t hold with the pacifists. But what could he have been thinking about here? I put this in the Pit instead of Café Society, because it has great potential to devolve into Pit material. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-rice-burroughs-on-the-american-presidency/810831/2 "2018-03-19T16:12:15Z")
[Maybe this is illuminating?](https://www.librarything.com/topic/133269) > [@](#): > > "There is also no doubt that Edgar Rice Burroughs himself was a political conservative whose views often influenced or appeared in his work. A memorable speech by the title character of A Princess of Mars, for example, offered a strong rebuke of collectivism in economic and social life… > > In other novels, Burroughs was even more explicit in his individualist politics — attacking Communism in his Moon Maid series, lampooning Nazism in his Carson Napier of Venus tales, celebrating the benefits of modern technology in his inner-world stories of Pellucidar, and having Tarzan traverse several continents to battle socialists, fascists, crony capitalists, radical egalitarians, Islamic extremists, and the agents of Joseph Stalin, among many others." A contempt for FDR, the New Deal, and racial inclusionism would be consistent, along with a belief that he and his supporters were stupid.