# John Carter again **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2012, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507 "2012-02-21T06:50:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/21 "2012-02-22T00:25:03Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Me too. I am going to be horribly disappointed, of course. But that won’t stop me from seeing it. It looks terrible. I loved those books when I read them in high school, but I think they’re cursed so as to be unfriendly to the big screen. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/22 "2012-02-22T00:29:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Exactly. It really doesn’t matter how. Though, for the time, the idea of astral projection was as good as any. I disagree, maybe I have been tainted by modern storytelling but I would spend the entire series wondering if Carter was really on Mars or in a mental institution or he smoked some PCP in a cave and is lost in the crazy delusions in his head. Such a weird opening would make me think there was something to it, because after that he has ego boosting mighty whitey fantasies about schooling a whole planet and scoring the babe, yea right he is probably in the chair at Recall. This must be their new package for geeks and nerds, did going to Mars make his schlong bigger too like in Den?😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/23 "2012-02-22T00:30:30Z")
> [@](#): > > I always assumed he was brought there by the Priest-Kings. After the first trip, he found himself able to do it at will, and would occasionally pop back to Earth to relate his adventures to his nephew and to play a few games of chess with him (the conceit is that the nephew was Burroughs, and that he was just transcribing what Carter told him). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/24 "2012-02-22T00:51:19Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > To be fair, this is Edgar Rice Burroughs. We’re not talking about great literature here. I think this seems to be lost on the fans of the books. I haven’t read them, but they seem like camp pulp\* to me, so they’re hardly sacrosanct. \*I may very well be 100% wrong on that assumption ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/25 "2012-02-22T01:09:03Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Carson? > He built a rocket ship to visit John Carter on Mars. But he forgot to include the Moon in his navigational plans, did a gravity whip around the Moon and hit Venus. > > I kid you not. Hey, Deja Thoris (sp) lays eggs… ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/26 "2012-02-22T02:01:59Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > I personally like the “Hey, I wished I was on Mars, and there I was” to be kind of refreshing. Seriously, the point is that you go to Mars and have adventures and rescue the princess. Exactly how or why you get your ass to Mars is totally irrelevant. See, if _I_ were John Carter of Mars, it would bother me. Being exposed to far too much fantastic fiction and cynical 21rst century mores, I’d be worrying the whole time about how this was happening. What cynical forces had engineered this? Am I being manipulated? How the hell was it accomplished? Is Dejah Thoris setting me up with some complicated mindfuck? She lays eggs? Really? Am I currently locked in a mental asylum somewhere? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?!? I’d be paralyzed by indecision, confusion and suspicion. Hence me making a really poor action hero :D. But man did I love that first book as a teen. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/27 "2012-02-22T02:36:49Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > She lays eggs? Really? > > I’d be paralyzed by indecision, confusion and suspicion. And wishing I’d paid a hell of a lot more attention in Biology 1300. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/28 "2012-02-22T02:56:47Z")
Am I misremembering? I thought Carter was mortally wounded on a civil war battlefield and saw Mars in the night sky, I always thought it was kind of a Valhalla. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/29 "2012-02-22T03:12:37Z")
I thought he was wounded by Indians after the Civil War and hiding out in a cave, staring at Mars. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/30 "2012-02-22T03:21:15Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Am I misremembering? I thought Carter was mortally wounded on a civil war battlefield and saw Mars in the night sky, I always thought it was kind of a Valhalla. That would be Ulysses Paxton, the second guy to reach Barsoom. He was in The Mastermind of Mars. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/31 "2012-02-22T03:23:03Z")
The Recently Discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs manuscript, written under the pseudonym of Carnivorousplant. What a dumb name…But I digress. [Link.](http://www.teemings.net/series_1/issue03/carprk.html) ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/32 "2012-02-22T03:25:18Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I thought he was wounded by Indians after the Civil War and hiding out in a cave, staring at Mars. He was in a cave, wounded and waiting for the Indians, and when they showed up they were frightened by something which was behind Carter and ran away. AFAIK,Burroughs never explained what that something was. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/33 "2012-02-22T05:36:08Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I think this seems to be lost on the fans of the books. I haven’t read them, but they seem like camp pulp\* to me, so they’re hardly sacrosanct. > > \*I may very well be 100% wrong on that assumption Well yeah, but Hollywood _wants_ to make camp pulp, since that’s what sells. Taking something that’s lasted a century due to its appeal as mass-marketable camp pulp and trying to “improve it” is stupid. If you’re making the film version of Moby Dick and hope to make a blockbuster, then it makes sense to liven it up a bit, add a love interest, etc. But if it’s as lively as they come and already has a love interest, what exactly are you trying to achieve by changing the tale? - Note that I’ve never read the book(s) and know nothing about them. I’m not a fan. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/34 "2012-02-22T06:07:42Z")
Well I hope the movie is a big success and inspires other companies to make Princess of Mars movies as they are out of copyright (written over a century ago). Maybe somebody like the Game of Thrones people or the Spartacus people will realize that naked Dejah Thoris might just get a few eyeballs to some screens. ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/35 "2012-02-22T13:06:52Z")
Like our friend **silenus** , I am eagerly awaiting the movie but I know I will likely be disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/36 "2012-02-22T15:04:43Z")
Never read the books so going into it clean. I’m looking forward to it. I like the fact that the director has stated he wants things to be a surprise and isn’t putting the whole plot in the trailers like most movies. I’m hoping for an enjoyable popcorn movie. I’m not expecting an Oscar winner. ---
**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:** [February 22, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/37 "2012-02-22T15:16:09Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Well yeah, but Hollywood _wants_ to make camp pulp, since that’s what sells. Taking something that’s lasted a century due to its appeal as mass-marketable camp pulp and trying to “improve it” is stupid. If you’re making the film version of Moby Dick and hope to make a blockbuster, then it makes sense to liven it up a bit, add a love interest, etc. But if it’s as lively as they come and already has a love interest, what exactly are you trying to achieve by changing the tale? > > - Note that I’ve never read the book(s) and know nothing about them. I’m not a fan. Note: When Hollywood first filmed **Moby Dick** as a silent film, **The Sea Beast** , they did _exactly_ this – they gave Captain Ahab a love interest (!!!), and they gave it a (relatively) happy ending – Ahab went home to his love, who rejected him. > **[The Sea Beast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sea_Beast)** > > The Sea Beast may refer to: ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/38 "2012-02-22T16:51:04Z")
I guess I don’t see the point of making a movie based on the old Barsoom novels unless you wanted to make a movie based on the old Barsoom novels. If you’re just going to change everything because you’re so much more creative and can tell a better story with better characters and a better setting, then why not just make a movie based on your own story? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/39 "2012-02-22T16:59:41Z")
Because Hollywood hates anything with the semblance of creativity. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507/40 "2012-02-22T21:40:04Z")
And because writers and directors and producers want to go into the movie riding on a preexisting universe and characters, to spare themselves the trouble of coming up with them from scratch. Now, there’s nothing wrong with an adaptation or derivative work, and novel-length source material almost necessarily has to be abridged to fit into feature-film length, that’s a given. But when the writers/producers/directors want to tell… maybe not tell another story, but they want to\* tell this story as they believe they would have had they been writing it today\*, because they feel today’s market would want to see something different (and hardcore fans are a limited segment, let’s face it), that’s when you end up with something more like expensive fanfiction. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-carter-again/613507.md?page=3)