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Red and Yellow, Black and White

Race is a topic that pops up time and time again in Princess of Mars, in subtle—and sometimes not-so-subtle—ways.  (Well, not to mention sexism, a topic certainly worthy of its own post.)

This latest chapter, “With Dejah Thoris”, is perhaps another interesting look into the mind of our hero, John Carter, and subsequently the author, Edgar Rice Burroughs … if we use the topic of race as our lens.

It has already been established that there are at least two major sentient races on Barsoom: the “barbaric” green Tharks, and the “civilized” red Martians.

A podcast listener pointed out to me that, in chapter one, Carter could not distinguish the culture of the Tharkian horde from that of the Apache tribe that killed his friend, James K. Powell, and that had pursued Carter to the mouth of the cave.  In so doing, Carter paints both groups as savage and violent, killing for pleasure, and having little regard for human life.  He further describes the the Tharks as deadly scavengers that plunder what provisions they cannot otherwise manufacture themselves by attacking innocent civilians.

In contrast to this are the red-skinned race of human-like Martians.  The princess Dejah Thoris explains to John Carter the scientific innovations that her race has made to allow life to survive on their dying planet.  When her convoy was attacked by the Tharks, they were in the midst of conducting scientific test on atmospheric density.  Later in chapter 11, she tells Carter that they have instruments that can observe in great detail any world they wish, because they are simply “hanging in the heavens in plain sight”.

But, according to Dejah Thoris, the red and green races haven’t always been the only ones populating Barsoom.  In chapter 11, we are also introduced to three others, existing 100,000 years prior to the events in A Princess of Mars.  One is a community of “fair-skinned” (presumably white) people, which Carter notes are very similar to himself in appearance, judging from the artwork he sees on the walls of his quarters.  The second is a race of reddish-yellow Martians, which at this point are little-described.  Third, and perhaps most notably, he mentions a people with black skin, counting them among the three great races of old.

These three distinct ethnic groups are forced to inter-marry as a means of survival due to the deteriorating conditions of their planet.  After many millennia in interbreeding, the race of red Martians gradually forms: Dejah Thoris’ progenitors.

When this story was written, in 1912, race was very much (and still is) a contentious issue in America and elsewhere in the world.  The concept of races intermarrying was completely unheard of.  Only in 1967 did the Supreme Court of the United States decide that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional.  But the law of the land doesn’t necessarily change the minds of all its people.  The children of interracial parents are bullied about their race by the people who fear the so-called “beige-ing of America”—a fear that a non-white majority will rise to power and marginalize what was once the former majority, until the white race disappears under the waves of a sea of interbreeding.

Was any of this playing in John Carter’s mind?  Let’s take a moment to recall his origins.  In the beginning of chapter one, he unapologetically introduces himself as a captain in the army of the Confederate States of America—a government which formed as a direct result of the election of a new, anti-slavery Republican party to office.  When the southern slave states were defeated in the Civil War, John Carter curiously seems to accept the defeat in stride.  He re-architects his life by moving out west with his buddy Powell (another Confederate soldier), in a search for gold to replace all their worthless Confederate dollars.

Due to his political and military affiliations, it’s probably a foregone conclusion that John Carter, a Virginian, was pro-slavery and therefore had a strong opinion about the equality of the races.  Despite that (or because of it), he chronicles in his memoirs the topic of the “great races” of Mars in clear detail, rather than omitting it entirely.  He states in very blunt terms that these races needed to align and combine for the survival of all involved, and makes no opinion on the matter one way or another.

But perhaps the most intriguing fact of all is that he—a Confederate officer of a pro-slavery nation—has no hesitations or moral issues about falling in love with someone who is the descendent of many races (including, interestingly, the black race of Barsoom).  Rather, she is someone with whom he ascribes Earthly, womanly traits … traits that are achingly familiar to him.

If John Carter felt this way in the context of the story, I wonder what Edgar Rice Burroughs thought of the whole thing.  In the recorded forward to this novel, I consciously omitted a line written by the fictional “Edgar Rice Burroughs”: “We all loved [Captain Carter], and our slaves fairly worshipped the ground he trod.”  I omitted this line because I felt that it really had no place in the story, and I was uncomfortable reading it.  Besides, chronologically, this fictional Burroughs’ life existed well before the actual life of the real author.

Was “Edgar Rice Burroughs” shocked by Captain Carter’s memoirs and admittances?  Was the real Edgar Rice Burroughs poking at his own internal prejudices?  Is his opinion even reflected in this story?  It’s all very interesting to me.

Accentuate the Positive

A few weeks after The Phantom Menace hit the screen, movie critics from across the country began to slam the film and George Lucas for perpetuating racial stereotypes.  An article in The Nation described the junk-dealing Watto as being “both anti-Arab and anti-Jew”.  The Neimoidians’ dialog comes “complete with Hollywood oriental accents” according to U.S. News and World Report.

Then, of course, there’s the most famous Gungan of all: Jar Jar Binks.  He’s been described by the WSJ’s critic Joe Morgenstern as a “Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit on platform hoofs, crossed annoyingly with Butterfly McQueen.”  I could go on.

Why am I bringing all this up?  Well, in this latest chapter of A Princess of Mars, we finally get to hear the Tharks—the green Martians—speak.  And I decided to give them an accent.  My thought was: Edgar Rice Burroughs has already given me the words, so how do I give the Tharks a voice?

A Princess of Mars is a story that’s far older than our current notions of political correctness (and I’m not even talking about the antiquated way that women are portrayed in the story; that’s worthy of its own topic). Burroughs, through Carter, narrates how different the green Martians are from the other races of Barsoom.  The Tharks are presented as being tribal and nomadic; their red counterparts are portrayed as (relatively) peaceful and civilized.

Decades of Hollywood stereotyping have carved a trench in my mind, where I think of a “civilized” accent as being something along the lines of, “Pardon me, would you happen to have any Grey Poupon?”, whereas I imagine a “savage” accent to be, “Me want fancy yellow.  You have?”  I did not want my Tharks to be a bunch of ooga-booga Mungos.

So, should I even give the Tharks an accent?  According to Merriem-Webster, an accent is “a way of speaking typical of a particular group of people and especially of the natives or residents of a region”.  Maybe it’s not so much about what the word “accent” means, but what would be the least offensive accent to choose.  Which one would be “correct”?  From a linguistics perspective, all accents are equal; none is above the other in terms of prestige.  I think I agree with this, but only to a point.

Returning briefly to the Jar Jar example, Alynda Wheat of Salon.com wrote: “Accents in and of themselves may not be stereotypical. But it’s the overall image of Jar Jar that smacks of racism. His buffoonery, gait, appearance […] and word choice all combine to make him offensive.”

Approaching this from a different angle, this is a podcast, an audiobook.  The only thing I have at my disposal to differentiate the various scenes and characters in this book is my voice.  I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) make the Tharks put on a rain dance (or whatever stereotype one would choose for a group of “savages”). Come to think of it, a rain dance on Mars would be a bit ironic in and of itself … but I digress.

I have a couple of other reasons for creating the accent, as well.

This is a race set apart from John Carter, not just an Earthling, but a Virginian soldier from the Confederate States of America.  So yes, they would talk differently than him.

Further, NetherWords is my demo reel, of sorts.  I want to showcase my ability to do voices, whenever the story allows.  Unlike LucasFilm (or Disney, for that matter) I don’t have the time, budget or art department to create my own elaborate vision of Naboo or Barsoom.  I’m just a guy, sitting in my car, recording a podcast.  Sometimes, I need to invent a voice, and, what the heck, let’s make it have an accent.  I don’t know what a Martian accent sounds like, but it’s probably really un-Virginian.

So, I came up with something that’s probably a little French, a lot Caribbean and a little Scottish.  Why not.  I can only hope it does not offend; it certainly isn’t meant to.  Besides, I don’t think I do many accents all that well, so if I screw up “Carib-franglo-scots”, maybe I make it that much more my own creation!  Right?

Practice Makes Pod-fect

There Is A GapOne of the challenges I’ve run into in generating publicity for my podcast … is the task of generating publicity for my podcast.

I’ve set up this website to help facilitate that task, along with a Facebook page and a Twitter feed.  But generating awareness and driving traffic to any of these outlets is the bigger issue.

Maybe what it boils down to is simple patience.  The more episodes I record and publish, the more diverse the content—hopefully resulting in an array of stories that will eventually resonate with newer listeners.  Their word-of-mouth endorsements are the main channels of advertisement upon which I currently rely.

Another thing I need to focus on is the quality of my podcasts.  While I like to think that they have a decent production value for the equipment that I use, I’m sure there’s room for improvement.  (This is one reason why I’m so proud of the music that I’ve got for it, scored for me by composer Edwin Wendler.)

Maybe I just need to keep trucking along.  The feedback will eventually happen, and I won’t feel that my podcasts are just disappearing into that great, dark void of the Internet.  As NPR host Ira Glass stated, “It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile.”

In the meantime, I’ll keep doing them for me.  They’re pretty fun to produce, and I’m having a blast!

Disney’s John Carter

Teaser poster for Disney's "John Carter" (2012)

Teaser poster for Disney's "John Carter" (2012)

While I’d planned on recording and producing Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars for awhile now, it’s no coincidence that I’ve timed it to coincide with the recent publicity of the upcoming movie John Carter, being distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.

I find myself with mixed feelings about the movie after seeing the trailer (viewable below).  While it certainly looks like they’ve remained very faithful to the source material, the designs of the green men of Mars are not quite how they’re described in the books—now arguable looking more human, especially in the face. Also, Mars looks a lot like Utah.

Having said that, I can’t help but notice that there are also very recognizable scenes depicted in this trailer; indeed ones in which I’ve already narrated in the NetherWords episodes I’ve released so far: the yellow moss-like vegetation surrounding John Carter on his advent on Mars, the incredible leaps he makes in front of the green men, and even the sad tidings of John Carter’s apparent death in the Foreword of the book (both links go to the applicable podcasts that I’ve recorded).

The cast looks fairly impressive, and I’m thrilled that Michael Giacchino (Star Trek (2009), The Incredibles) will be scoring the film.  Here are some cast highlights, at least as far as the characters to which we’ve so-far encountered in the podcast:

  • Taylor Kitsch (John Carter)
  • Willem Dafoe (Tars Tarkas)
  • Samantha Morton (Sola)
  • Daryl Sabara (A fictional version of Edgar Rice Burroughs)

So anyway, I’m hoping that by releasing this particular story at this particular time, that I will not only increase my subscriber base, but also give the listener a tour of the original source material that is (hopefully) being followed in this upcoming film. Take a look at the trailer, and judge for yourself!

Blue Snowball Microphone

Blue MicI use the Snowball mic by Blue to record my podcasts.  When I was researching what was popular out there among podcasters, this mic came up time and time again.  While I’ve been impressed by its sound quality (it certainly beats the iPhone earbud/mic combo that I used for “The Twonky”), I had an issue with it right out of the box.

Its three settings allow one to record directly into it (cardioid), record live music (cardioid -10db), and record groups (omni-directional).  The latter two settings work fine, but on the first directional setting, there was a noticeable high-pitch hum that accompanied my words.

My first attempt at a solution was to purchase an externally-powered USB hub for the mic to draw power from, but this didn’t help.  So I tore it apart to check to see if any wires were in contact with one another.  While I didn’t notice anything amiss, I tested out recording while I was squeezing various parts of its innards together.  At one point, while my thumb was holding one of the circuit boards in place, I even picked up some AM radio signals!

I eventually gave up and re-assembled it, this time making sure that no wires were within touching distance of each other.  I tried recording again, and this time the hum was very much diminished (but not entirely gone).

When mixing and editing all the sound files in Audacity, I use a couple of noise reduction passes to eliminate the remaining hum, but it’s still kind of annoying having to deal with it.  When some more time passes, I may invest in the Yeti mic (also by Blue), which seems to be a more professional-quality mic.

Behind the Scenes

Here’s my first attempt at a video blog.  I take the listener (viewer!) on a trip behind the scenes of a NetherWords production.  If you listen really carefully, you’ll hear me accidentally refer to a bluetooth keyboard as a USB keyboard.  *gasp!*