Light Eye
04-03-2006, 01:26 PM
Dear Friends,
Here's the latest from Richard Hoagland. Regardless of what you think of him
it's still an interesting read.
http://www.enterprisemission.com/LostCitiesofBarsoom.htm
Be Well, Be Love.
David
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ... and
"The Lost Cities of Barsoom" ....
When I was a kid growing up in Maryland in the 1950's, one day I stumbled
across an old book in the library with the distinctive title, "A Princess of
Mars." It was written (so the title page revealed) by an author with an equally
unusual-sounding name -- "Edgar Rice Burroughs" ... in a year that seemed to a
wide-eyed ten-year old almost as ancient as the Pyramids themselves: 1917!
Curious, I flipped through the first few pages ... and was immediately
captivated by the lavish illustrations and highly evocative descriptions ... of
an exotic, distant land (world?) that (for some strange reason) Burroughs
insisted on calling throughout the book (despite the title on the dust jacket
...)--
"Barsoom."
Miraculously, I was allowed to check this first-edition out on my own (even
though it wasn't in the "juvenile" section of the library ... and, in addition,
was extremely valuable), and actually take it home. Then, like John Carter --
the hero in Burrough's extraordinary tale -- almost at once, I found myself on
Mars--
Amid strange references to "thoats," the "Great Toonoolian Marshes," "Siths"
and "the Princess of Helium," Burroughs (and his son -- who did the
illustrations) literally painted a stark, haunting image of "a dying desert
world," populated by warring factions of alien "Red, White and Green Martians,"
all fighting over the few remaining reservoirs of water ... surrounded by
equally alien (and sometimes dramatically aggressive -- below) fauna and flora
of an alien land ....
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Here's the latest from Richard Hoagland. Regardless of what you think of him
it's still an interesting read.
http://www.enterprisemission.com/LostCitiesofBarsoom.htm
Be Well, Be Love.
David
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ... and
"The Lost Cities of Barsoom" ....
When I was a kid growing up in Maryland in the 1950's, one day I stumbled
across an old book in the library with the distinctive title, "A Princess of
Mars." It was written (so the title page revealed) by an author with an equally
unusual-sounding name -- "Edgar Rice Burroughs" ... in a year that seemed to a
wide-eyed ten-year old almost as ancient as the Pyramids themselves: 1917!
Curious, I flipped through the first few pages ... and was immediately
captivated by the lavish illustrations and highly evocative descriptions ... of
an exotic, distant land (world?) that (for some strange reason) Burroughs
insisted on calling throughout the book (despite the title on the dust jacket
...)--
"Barsoom."
Miraculously, I was allowed to check this first-edition out on my own (even
though it wasn't in the "juvenile" section of the library ... and, in addition,
was extremely valuable), and actually take it home. Then, like John Carter --
the hero in Burrough's extraordinary tale -- almost at once, I found myself on
Mars--
Amid strange references to "thoats," the "Great Toonoolian Marshes," "Siths"
and "the Princess of Helium," Burroughs (and his son -- who did the
illustrations) literally painted a stark, haunting image of "a dying desert
world," populated by warring factions of alien "Red, White and Green Martians,"
all fighting over the few remaining reservoirs of water ... surrounded by
equally alien (and sometimes dramatically aggressive -- below) fauna and flora
of an alien land ....
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]