THE DEEP ONES: "Black Amazon of Mars" by Leigh Brackett

"Black Amazon of Mars" by Leigh Brackett

Discussion begins March 6.

First published in the March 1951 issue of Planet Stories.



ONLINE VERSIONS

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32664
http://manybooks.net/titles/brackettl3266432664.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?77086

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

Sea Kings of Mars
Stark and the Star Kings
Black Amazon of Mars

MISCELLANY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Brackett
http://www.librarypoint.org/leigh_brackett
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0102824/
http://www.grasslimb.com/sallis/GlobeColumns/globe.09.brackett.html
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/issue250/brackett1.html
http://tinyurl.com/ajnajhp

I'll be reading it in the excellent Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories.

I downloaded the ebook from Gutenberg onto my cell phone. I also invited our fellow LTers over at Science Fiction Fans to join our discussion if they're interested (I kinda felt obliged to, since the Planet Stories cover Kenton put up in #1 is their primary picture) - hope no one objects.

I'll be reading this one off Gutenberg too. Surprisingly, it's not in The Best of Leigh Brackett.

Favorite line from Brackett's Wikipedia page (link in #1)(parenthetical punctuation mine):

Hollywood director Howard Hawks was so impressed by (Brackett's) novel No Good from a Corpse that he had his secretary call in "this guy Brackett"(!) to help William Faulkner(!!) write the script for The Big Sleep (1946).

***

Has anyone here read anything by Brackett's husband Edmond Hamilton? I seem to recall reading a couple of his short stories but nothing that I was too impressed by. Anything I'm missing out on?

5> I have read very little of "World Wrecker" aka "World Saver" Hamilton. At one time, he was a big space opera guy. Haffner Press put out a series of his stuff.

The only things I've read of his are short stuff: the very good "What's It Like Out There?" (a very good, unromantic story of colonizing another world), "Castaway" (kind of an interesting story about Poe -- I cover it in my review of The Man Who Called Himself Poe, and "The Earth-Brain" which is in Acolytes of Cthulhu.

I believe he had a degree in English literature.

>6 RandyStafford:

I've read his "Evolution Island" and "The Seeds from Outside" and remember next to nothing about either one of them - not usually a good sign. :/

Can't find any info re: his education other than he studied at Westminster College in Pennsylvania for 3 years. Also looks like he wrote quite a bit for DC Comics in the Golden and Silver Ages, which is kind of interesting.

Cracked open James Gunn's introduction to Hamilton's "What's It Like Out There?" in The Road to Science Fiction #2.

His first publication was in Weird Tales in 1926. His friend Jack Williamson claimed Weird Tales never rejected one of his stories.

He was kicked out of college for missing chapel one too many times.

Science Fiction Encyclopedia says a lot of his earlier stuff was influenced by A. Merritt. His first book had the promising title The Horror on the Asteroid and Other Tales of Planetary Horror. Looks like he worked on Superman comics.

I liked it a lot (why don't I own anything by Brackett anyway?), tho I spotted the reveal from a good way away.

I went googling for a good picture of Eric John Stark, and came up frustratingly empty. Although it is more obvious in some stories than others, I'm pretty darn sure he's supposed to be black, though he's rarely illustrated that way. Most often Brackett describes him as "dark." He's certainly an interesting character, with his sometimes-repressed feral aspect and exaggerated ideas of personal loyalty. I liked the elemental symbolism that made Stark the air to Ciara(n)'s fire.

As I was re-reading this one, it occurred to me that the solar system of pre-1960 planetary romance (a subgenre in which Brackett is preeminent) may transplant and translate certain increasingly-unfashionable modern geocultural tropes. The "older" planets are farther from the sun, and correspond to the East with its ancient wisdom, hidden treasures, and decadent societies. The "newer" planets in toward the sun are like the West, with innovation and violent frontiers to be tamed. Stark, as an "Earthman out of Mercury" sits in the Martian setting like the Western hero of a typical Orientalist yarn: he's violent and morally upright, and he's confronted with exotic beauty and spooky mysteries.

On a completely different note, this story--although not set on Earth--is a polar adventure that might be compared with The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and At the Mountains of Madness.

This is a pretty solid heroic fantasy with enough minor twists to keep it interesting, although it is a bit overlong. For instance, I expected Stark to ally with Ciaran when he is first captured at the beginning, but no - he pummels his way out of the camp and lights out for Kushat instead. On the other hand, Ciaran's identity hardly comes as a surprise, as Andreas notes above.

"Yes, I have the talisman! And I have had a taste of its purpose. I think Ban Cruach left it as a warning, so that none would follow him. I have seen the temples and the palaces glitter in the ice. I have seen the Gates of Death—not with my own eyes, Ciara, but with his. With the eyes and the memories of Ban Cruach!"

Is Bracket making a nod to Robert E. Howard's obsession with racial memory via this talismanic device?

11 > Since you mention REH, a thought that came to me while reading this y'dy was that it's like a Conan story except better. I don't appreciate the Cimmerian as much as a weird fiction fan perhaps ought, Brackett pulls the type of story off better to my tastes.

Follow-up to my #10:

Under the influence of astronomical information accumulating in the middle of the 20th century, the idea of an ancient, decadent Mars gradually gave way to Mars as a new frontier, as notably expressed in Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, and extrapolated to a wonderful extent in McDonald's Desolation Road. Perhaps the latest version of a fully "Orientalist Mars" was Lin Carter's Mysteries of Mars, starting with The Man Who Loved Mars--inspired by Brackett's Mars.

>12 AndreasJ:

I've heard that argument, and while Brackett writes an involving tale here, Stark strikes me as more of a 20th century man despite his "werewolf"-like freakouts. I simply prefer Howard's more enigmatic brutes who seem more there in the mise-en-scene. Matter of taste, to be sure.

I've always seen Stark as a Conan-esque type (the barbarian, not the night show host). Certainly Stark's durability and cunning, as well as his attitude towards the fairer sex, harks back to REH.

I noticed that this story is the gender-reversal of Moore's The Black God's Kiss in that it is Stark who meets his ideal mate and fights (almost) to the death. Of course, Stark has The Urge for Going, so it can't last.

The description of the ice city is very fine. I love it that Ban Cruach's solution to bottling up the kings of the glacial ice was to set up a giant microwave projector by the Gates of Death so that they would get cooked if they tried to pass.

Is anybody else bothered by the metrical problem with the name Eric John Stark? I want the name to be John Eric Stark, but I am not sure what rule of prosody makes me feel that.

Well, these days he'd be a candidate as a lone gunman (swordman?) because of the three names...:)

"Serial killers only have two names. Ever notice that? But lone assassins always have three. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, Mark David Chapman..."

More seriously, I don't personally notice an issue with how the name sounds.

>10 paradoxosalpha:

I'm pretty darn sure he's supposed to be black, though he's rarely illustrated that way.

You could be right there - Stark identifies himself as "N'Chaka, the Man-Without-a-Tribe". Speaking of names, that reminds me T'Challa, Prince of the African kingdom of Wakanda. A.K.A. Black Panther of Marvel Comics fame.

Ban Cruach sounds like a mix of English and Scottish.

Weird mash-up of names in this story!

#10, 18

Chaka Zulu was the founder of the Zulu Nation, which ceased to exist as a distinct political entity in 1879. Which would make Stark indeed a 'man without a tribe'. Interesting idea...

paradoxosalpha > 10,

Very interesting, associating planetary position with colonial-archetypal regions of the Earth. I've never encountered that idea before - the planetary ordering, that is; the mapping of colonial imagery to the planets in planetary romance is standard. Cool.

What I found most interesting about this story is the physiology and sociology of these two diametrically opposed Martian races. The notion that natural selection would evolve two independent species on the same planet with oppositional physiology, where the only way life would prosper on Mars is if one of these two species is, if not eradicated, kept in their little "corner of the world" as it were. I find most interesting the dual outlook of Ban Cruach by these two species. the warm blooded humanoid Martians hail him as a hero, a great ruler, and close to being a godhead, while the ameobic-like northern species that thrives on extreme freezing temperatures see him as a tyrant and mass-murderer. Mother Nature is a heartless bitch on Mars where there can be no peace between the two different types of Martians, no co-existence, they must fight and slaughter each other, or at least, incapacitate the other in order for life to reign on Mars.

> 21

I wonder if both the polar creatures and the humanoid "Martians" did evolve on Mars. With all of her Martian tales, I can't recall Brackett ever offering a firm view on whether there was a common ancestry for terrestrial humans and the awfully human Martian natives, which would still leave open the point of origin for the two. Likewise, the polar tower-builders could have arrived on Mars from elsewhere.

>22 paradoxosalpha:

That would make more sense, than this chaotic situation where two sentient species would have to compete over the same 'homeworld' that they evolved from. However, it is more romantic and thrilling to have an environment that encourages such grand scale genocide for the sake of species prosperity, particularly for a 'weird tale'. I noticed a certain lack of origin tales in the story in regards to both Martian races, while both claim stake in the Planet for millenia. It would be likely and interesting if both races weren't true 'Martians' but alien species fighting over their new home.

>10 paradoxosalpha: et al.

I found the shining ones to be much more sympathetic than they are depicited in the story. After all, they only want back what was originally theirs. Then again, they don't particularly heartbroken regarding the notion that this will entail the virtual extinction of the humanoid populace of Mars.

>18 gwendetenebre:

Speaking of Marvel, this tale would have made for a kick-ass Marvel Comics adaptation back in the 70s. Can't even decide who should have done the art (Jack Kirby? Gil Kane? John Buscema? Wally Wood?). I even can see the cover blurb for the issue that adapts the part where Stark escapes after his lashing - "STARK - RAVING MAD!"

:D

Like others have noted, the title telegraphs and undercuts the surprise of Lord Ciaran being revealed to be an Amazon. Once that got out of the way, I liked this story.

I think Brackett would have to be one of the prime creators of "science fantasy". Sure, the "old gods" and the regular humans of Mars use opposing forms of radiation, but, as paradoxalpha noted, they're described like magical forces.

I certainly was reminded of a Western with the Martians being Indians.

>10 paradoxosalpha: I didn't get the impression Stark was black. But I don't think it's an unreasonable hypothesis. Brackett seemed to have an interest in racial matters. The Science Fiction Encyclopedia mentions her story "All the Colors of the Rainbow" (1957) which has an alien woman lynched in a town in southern America because they think she's black.

The whole thing, of course, owes a debt to Edgar Rice Burroughs. In fact, I'd argue that Stark is a Tarzan-like figure. As the Science Fiction Encyclopedia puts it, he's "an orphan of advanced civilization raised by aboriginals of Mercury" which is like Lord Greystoke being raised by apes. Like Tarzan, he has a feral side. Brackett frequently emphasizes Stark's animal nature.

Brian Stableford, the sf critic, notes that Barsoom is a vital Mars of adventure. Brackett's Mars is one of decadence. (Though, as I recall, Barsoom was enough past its prime to need air factories.)

>10 paradoxosalpha: I love these polar adventure stories. However, I thought Brackett was a little weak on evoking the sense of cold in the landscape though she was great on the imagery of snow and ice. I thought her prose was multi-sensory.

I thought the whole idea of the threat posed by the gods' need for ice on a desert planet was an interesting play on the idea of a canaled Mars.

>10 paradoxosalpha: & 25

What the Wikipedia article on Stark states is an accurate depiction of him based on Brackett's descriptions:

http://paizo.com/image/product/catalog/PZO/PZO8010_500.jpeg

>10 paradoxosalpha:

On a completely different note, this story--although not set on Earth--is a polar adventure that might be compared with The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and At the Mountains of Madness.

Good comparison, although I think the earlier ATMOM is the more sophisticated (or at least less anthropocentric) story.

***

Regarding the ERB and REH comparisions, this story felt to me like a Barsoom story with either Tarzan or Conan as the protagonist (i.e., more feral/barbaric than the gentlemanly John Carter). I also found a lot of Brackett's imagery to be strongly reminiscent of A. Merritt's.

I thought of something else that I wanted to ask about: why did the riders of Mekh not want Stark's gun?

> 24

Barry Windsor Smith? P. Craig Russell?

> 25

Brackett was certainly a Burroughs fan, and I'm flabbergasted that I didn't see Stark's origins in Tarzan until your mention of it. (Does this genealogy take us back further to Kipling's Mowgli?)

Ciara(n), on the other hand, is Joan of Arc by way of Jirel of Joiry, I think. (Eowyn hadn't yet reached her vogue.)

>29 paradoxosalpha:

Barry Windsor Smith? P. Craig Russell?

I'm sure either one of them would have done a bang-up job also (PCR wasn't working professionally until the 80s, though, right?).

ETA: My mistake - from Wikipedia:

Russell broke into comics in 1972, and first became well known with his 11-issue Amazing Adventures run and subsequent graphic novel featuring Killraven, hero of a future version of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, collaborating with writer Don McGregor.

>31 artturnerjr:

I loved that Killraven series when it came out. Has it been published in collected form yet?

Yeah, it was Killraven-era Russell work I was imagining!

The touchstone leads to the graphic novel, which does not collect individual comics, but was a sort of novelette-epilogue to them ... and very good.

ETA: It looks like there's an Essential Killraven title that collects individual issues along with the graphic novel.

>33 paradoxosalpha:

Thanks. The "Essential" series from Marvel is black-and-white on cheap paper, but it is generally complete-in-one (especially for a shorter series like this one) and affordable. I might pick this up next time I'm at the comics store.

I've just finished reading this one, and I don't think I've got anything to add to the previous comments.

I thought, too, there was a touch of the Western in this story, but in the early part, with the riders of Mekh in the Native American role. And is Stark in the Planet Stories cover based on Victor Mature?

>35 housefulofpaper:

The cover does look quite a bit like Victor Mature and maybe Rita Hayworth were the models. I bet it was done on purpose.

Leigh Brackett died today in 1978. I'm currently reading her classic SF novel The Long Tomorrow, which is low key and just great.

A fine appreciation of/homage to Ms. Brackett and her work by Bud Webster (Anthopology 101) can be found here:

http://www.philsp.com/articles/pastmasters_05.html

Figuring that necromancy is always topical for The Weird Tradition ...

>10 paradoxosalpha:

I don't believe Eric John Stark is meant to be black as in negroid. I recently read "Queen of the Martian Catacombs", the first story he appears in, and while his skin is said to be almost as dark as his black hair, we're also told that this is the result of growing up under the fierce Sun of Mercury. His parents are implied to have been white-skinned.

N'Chaka is the name he was given by the Mercurian indigenes he was raised by, and means simply "Man-without-a-tribe" in their language.

>38 AndreasJ: I don't believe Eric John Stark is meant to be black as in negroid.

Allow me to suggest that in the matter of illustration color that that is a distinction without much difference. Pictures range from pale to tan: certainly none "almost as dark as his black hair." Whether "negroid" or not, Stark is an anti-imperialist, to the extent that Brackett characterizes him as a "mercenary specializing in the small wars of remote peoples fighting for survival against stronger opponents" (The Book of Skaith, 466). So if a reader identifies him with the subaltern status of the black "race" in the 20th-century West, they won't be far wrong.

I must say that when I read the title of this thread it did not prepare me for seeing Maureen O'Hara wielding a double-headed axe and charging towards me while wearing a figure hugging outfit.

>40 pgmcc:

I love that cover. Rita Hayworth for me. :-D

>41 gwendetenebre: I agree it's a great cover. Quite an interesting bit of artwork for 1951; featuring a kick-ass female in the foreground seemingly having an easier time of it than the male character in the background. It has always struck me as questionable that the Black Amazon of Mars appears to be an Irish lass though... Still, for the time period, I suppose it would have been too much to ask for the character to be both female and dark-skinned. There again, most people at the time probably were not aware that Brackett was female either...

>40 pgmcc: Honestly, who is ever prepared for that?!? ;-)

>42 ScoLgo: It has always struck me as questionable that the Black Amazon of Mars appears to be an Irish lass though...

In this case, the blackness is not one of skin for any reason:

The throat he held was white and strong, and his hands around it were buried in a mane of red-gold hair that fell down over the shirt of mail. A red mouth passionate with fury, wonderful curving bone under sculptured flesh, eyes fierce and proud and tameless as the eyes of a young eagle, fire-blue, defying him, hating him.

It was rather the black armor for which the "Lord" Ciaran was known:

From neck to thigh his lean body was cased in black link mail, and under that a tunic of leather, dyed black. Across his knees he held a sable axe, a great thing made for the shearing of skulls, and his hands lay upon it gently, as though it were a toy he loved.

Ciara was left alone. Stark saw her fight the rearing beast she rode and then flung herself out of the saddle and let it go. She came toward him, running, clad all in her black armor, the great axe swinging high.

Simple as that?

Ciara was left alone. Stark saw her fight the rearing beast she rode and then flung herself out of the saddle and let it go. She came toward him, running, clad all in her black armor, the great axe swinging high.

Yep.

>44 gwendetenebre:,>45 gwendetenebre:

ETA

LT conniption. Thought the first was lost, posted the second. Both showed up.

>43 paradoxosalpha: >44 gwendetenebre:

Ah-hah! Thanks for that.

>39 paradoxosalpha:

I'm not defending the cover artists, who routinely get Stark's skin colour wrong (along with much else: Covers Always Lie). I merely thought Brackett's choice interesting in itself. In the '40s it presumably made the character more acceptable to a white American audience than a "real" black man would have been. A modern-day reader may identify him as you suggest, but I know people who'd more likely regard the putting of a (genetically) white man in a black one's shoes, by a white author, as offensively colonialist.

The quote from The Book of Skaith, incidentally, sounds more committedly anti-imperialist than he comes across in "Queen of the Martian Catacombs", where he indeed is noted to sympathize with barbarians over civilization, but also agrees to try and avert a barbarian rebellion on the grounds it'd only end in slaughter. I wonder if this reflects a change in Brackett's own attitudes?

I wonder if Lando Calrissian was Brackett's invention.

FWIW, the WP article on Lando Calrissian says (without citation) that "The first draft of The Empire Strikes Back featured a character named Lando Kadar, a veteran of the Clone Wars who lived on Hoth. His name and familiar aspects of his backstory materialized in the second draft."

Only the first draft was written by Brackett, acc'd the article on The Empire Strikes Back.