Consider this an advertisement to attend the weekly John Locke Foundation Shaftesbury Society meeting in person.
Due to a technical glitch, we will be unable to provide a video of today’s speech from JLF President John Hood on Ronald Reagan’s favorite action hero: John Carter, warlord of Mars.
Click the link below to view slides from Hood’s presentation. Remember you can attend Shaftesbury Society meetings most Mondays at noon.
Dutch is Ronald “Dutch” Reagan. ERB is Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of John Carter and Tarzan, two great characters in the world of fiction.
Ronald Reagan is the younger child in the picture on the left. The picture on the right shows Reagan at about the age he initially discovered Burroughs’ work.
Reagan spent his formative years in Dixon, Illinois.
The photo on the left shows lifeguard Ronald Reagan. The photo on the right shows the new movie depiction of John Carter.
John Hood discussed the history of “speculative fiction,” which dates back as least as far as The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Speculative fiction thrived thanks to the rise of pulp magazines.
Hood delved into Edgar Rice Burroughs’ history.
In addition to John Carter, Burroughs created an even more famous character. He wasn’t always referred to as Tarzan.
The John Carter story helped develop some “tropes” that have cropped up often in other speculative fiction.
In addition to influencing other stories and movies, Burroughs and his John Carter series influenced other key contributors to pop culture.
Burroughs also influenced key people in the world of science.
Burroughs devoted much of his work to fighting Nazis, communists, and socialist ideas … as evidenced by the quote below.
While John Hood says the connection between Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ronald Reagan has been “overblown,” especially when it’s suggested that the Strategic Defense Initiative (“Star Wars”) sprang directly from Reagan’s reading of Burroughs, the 40th president did learn from his reading of Burroughs’ work.
Hood ended his presentation with two great quotes about the spread of freedom.