On Tarzan [Paperback]

Alex Vernon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0820332054 | ISBN-13: 978-0820332055 | Publication Date: October 15, 2008 | Edition: illustrated edition

On Tarzan is a sometimes playful, sometimes serious, and always provocative consideration of the twentieth century's best-known fictional character. It is also the first book-length investigation of a century's worth of Tarzan's incarnations and our varied imaginative responses to them. As Alex Vernon looks at how and why we have accorded mythical, archetypal status to Tarzan, he takes stock of the Tarzan books, films, and comics as well as some of the many faux- and femme-Tarzan rip-offs, the toys and other tie-in products, the fanzines, and the appropriation of Tarzan's image in the media. Tarzan first appeared in 1912. To ponder his journey from jungle lord then to Disney boy-toy now is, as Vernon writes, to touch on "childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, especially for the male of the species; on colonialism and nationhood; on Hollywood and commerce, race and gender, sex and death, Darwin and Freud. On nature--is Tarzan friend or foe? On imagination and identity." Vernon exposes the contradictions, ambiguities, and coincidences of the Tarzan phenomenon. Tarzan is noble and savage, eternal adolescent and eternal adult, hero to immigrants and orphans but also to nativist Americans. Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan story is racist, but Tarzan himself is racially slippery. Although Tarzan asserts his white superiority over savage Africans, his adventures flirt with miscegenation and engage our ongoing obsession with all things primitive. As the 2012 centennial of Tarzan's creation approaches, the ape-man's hold on us can still manifest itself in surprising ways. This entertaining study, with its rich and multilayered associations, offers a provocative model for understanding the life cycle of pop culture phenomena.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An elegantly written foray into the cultural jungle that has grown up around Tarzan." --Matt Cohen, editor of Brother Men: The Correspondence of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Herbert T. Weston

"On Tarzan is a wonderful read . . . a great introduction to cultural studies, to American studies, and also to the 'American Century.' The book hinges neatly on Vernon's continual discovery of paradox and/or contradiction both within relevant contexts (gender, sexuality, colonialism, etc.) and across them." --Kevin Kopelson, author of Sedaris

Review

"entertainingly subjective"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press; illustrated edition edition (October 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820332054
• ISBN-13: 978-0820332055
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #931,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A singularly important contribution to the reading lists for all dedicated Tarzan fans, November 8, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: On Tarzan (Paperback)

Only Superman and Batman have had a stronger and more enduring impact on 20th century American popular culture than Edgar Rice Burroughs' literary creation of "Tarzan". The orphaned son of an English couple marooned on the shores of Africa and raised by apes captured popular attention from his first introduction in 1912 in the novel "Tarzan of the Apes". Since then the character has appeared in dozens of books (both authorized and unauthorized), been the subject of dozens of films (both American and foreign), appeared as several television series, been the mainstay of comic books, graphic novels, radio plays, and given rise to innumerable toys, fanzines, and other products. In his seminal work "On Tarzan", Alex Vernon (Associate Professor of English, Hendrix College) lays out the mythical, even archetypal status of this fictional character, the differences between Tarzan of the novels and Tarzan of the films, the 'Walt Disneyfictation' phenomenon, and so much more. Of special note is the analysis of racism in the Tarzan mythos and literature. A work of seminal and impressive scholarship, "On Tarzan" is strongly recommended for academic and community library Literary Studies and American Popular Culture reference collections, as well as a singularly important contribution to the reading lists for all dedicated Tarzan fans.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing..., May 4, 2010

By 

Anthony L. Mascia (Montvale, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: On Tarzan (Paperback)

The author clearly is articulate and has done his homework with both Tarzan movies and the Edgar Rice Burroughs' book series.

However...

Two huge problems with this book. One: the author is obviously cherry-picking out-of-context book passages and movie scenes to fit his own (occasionally bizarre) views on how Tarzan has effected or influenced our culture. Two: more importantly, even if one was inclined to agree with the author, it would be hard to discover this, as the book is written more from a stream-of-consciousness style, than with a coherent, logical progression. This style is further aggravated with an almost smirky (NOT playful or witty) tone.

While one previous reviewer was a little extreme in suggesting Burroughs' family sue the author, the reviewer from the Midwest Book Review has some real explaining ( 5 stars???) to do.

There should be no surprise why the Paperback edition of this book is being sold at a VERY deep discount.

2.0 out of 5 stars Predictable academic bushwa, February 26, 2011

By 

Tony Arnold (Athens, GA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: On Tarzan (Paperback)

Though Vernon has done an impressive amount of research into his subject, it's all for nought in the end: this is just one more excrescence of "literary criticism" that fails to generate a fraction of the originality of its intended subject. Intellectuals who have lost the ability to simply enjoy fantasy apparently feel the need to examine such fantasy (even their need for fantasy) and eviscerate it in the process, much like the laboratory frog. It's a cynical, condescending way of disregarding worthy entertainment such as the Tarzan mythos, while adding nothing to the mythos itself. I can just see the editors clucking over their publication of a book about "that sort of thing," while reading their Virginia Woolf: an author who seriously deserves condescension and derision.