antmanreview

Tarzan and the Ant Men

some thoughts by Rod Hunsicker
9-5-1999

One wonders why ERB started Tarzan and the Ant Men with an update on the whereabouts and fate of Esteban Miranda. Miranda is a man, born in civilization, who appears to be everything that Tarzan is, or at least he appears to a replica of the exact physical form of the Lord of the Jungle. It may be that ERB wanted to keep Miranda in the story to continue a contrast between the Spaniard and the ape-man. Such a comparison between these two men illustrated the immense difference in quality that flowed beneath their bronze skins. So similar on the outside, so vastly different on the inside.

So the first chapter deals with Miranda's escape from a village of cannibals. He accomplishes this by tricking a native girl, Uhha, into freeing him. Like a devil, Miranda tempts the girl with promises of a long life and great reward. He assumes the guise of a river devil and adds the threat that if she doesn't release him he will soon destroy the village. His trickery works, and she does find the key to his chains and releases him.

The reward that she obtains is not a good life, it is captivity in the hands of Miranda. The Spaniard shows how untarzanlike he is when he decides that he must keep the girl for companionship because he fears being lonely in the deep, dark jungle. Though both men assume the guise of a jungle spirit, it is to very different conclusions that their deceptions travel.

The scene shifts to Tarzan in the second chapter. Here we learn several things about the ape-man. First, that he is attentive to the opinions and directives of his wife. Tarzan wants to take his first solo flight in an airplane. Korak, his son, advises him not to, and brings up the fact that Jane, Tarzan's mate, wouldn't let him do it if she were not visiting in England. Tarzan admits that Jane might stop him, but in her absence he shrugs off Korak's objections.

The reason for Tarzan wishing to pilot the airplane is simple. He is King of the Waziri. Korak had already trained several Waziri men as mechanics and pilots of the airplane, and Tarzan was loathe to remain unable to do something important that could be done by men in his command. As ERB put it:

"...lay a biplane, in the shade of which lolled two Waziri warriors
who had been trained by Korak....., in the duties of mechanicians
and, later to pilot the ship themselves; a fact that had not been
without weight in determining Tarzan to perfect himself in the
art of flying, since, as chief of the Waziri, it was not mete that the
lesser warriors of his tribe should excel him in any particular."

An illustration of Tarzan's drive for excellence and mastery. A drive that differentiated him from the miserable Miranda.

Tarzan takes the biplane up, like Icarus he makes a mistake and falls to the ground. Flying high in the air, he has crossed the barrier of the Great Thorn Forest and crashes in unknown territory, a strange, dreamy land of giants and midgets.

His unconscious body is found by the First Woman. She is an example of a bestial humanoid race called the Alali. These creatures are of manlike form, though much thicker and muscular. They are Amazonian; their culture dominated by females of almost superhuman strength and ferocity. Their culture cannot be called matriarchal, because after the dominant woman of the family group releases her son into the wild, she soon forgets him and might catch and mate with him at some future date. Each family unit has a dominant female, who keeps her family penned up behind enormously heavy slabs of stone blocking the only exit from the cave her family is inhabiting.

The dominant females fight savagely amongst themselves, both for food and for the puny males that they mate with. The men of this race live a miserable existence. If they are not penned in with the rest of the dominant female's familial brood, they are roaming the jungle in constant terror of being captured by the Alali women.

So does Tarzan awaken in this topsy turvy society, if such a sophisticated word might be applied to the life style of the Alali. It seems clear to me that ERB thought that a woman dominated lifestyle was wrong.

"The hideous life of the Alali was the natural result of the
unnatural reversal of sex dominance. It is the province of the
male to initiate love and by his masterfulness to inspire first
respect, the admiration in the breast of the female he seeks to
attract. Love itself developed after these other emotions. The
gradually increasing ascendancy of the female Alalus (as their
culture evolved) over the male eventually prevented the emotions
of respect and admiration for the male from being aroused, with the
result that love never followed."

So there, in a nutshell, might be ERB's philosophy of natural love. Into this perverted corruption of what is natural has fallen Tarzan of the Apes, who is one of the most natural men to be written about.

Captive in the stone corral of one of the Alali women, Tarzan is faced with the approach of one of these brutish creatures, though it is in the form of a girlish resident of the cave. Unafraid, Tarzan watches the girl and two of her cohorts, stalked him with the intention of killing and eating him. The chivalric ape-man is uncertain what to do. One of the young males in the cave, (Alali males are not released into the wild until they are 16 or so years old), stands by the ape-man, obeying some atavistic instinct that bonds men together. Tarzan is spared the problem of fighting the girl, since a fully adult Alalus woman rolls back the slabs blocking the exit to the amphitheater and enters the "family home."

Tarzan judges that he might be killed by this monstrous woman and decides that discretion is the better part of valor. Because he knows no fear, the ape-man flees the woman without moral qualms. He carries the boy who stood by him up a slightly tilted slab, leaps up and catches the rim of the stones forming the corral and vaults over the wall to freedom.

Tarzan swiftly escapes to the trees, and the boy is ignored by the woman because he is to young to mate with. It is no trouble to them that he escapes into the jungle because it is the place they would have driven him into sooner or later.

Later, Tarzan returns and saves the boy from a lion. He keeps the boy with him, and begins to teach him how to hunt and fight. Gradually there is a change in the boy's attitude as he absorbs from Tarzan a new, masculine way of thinking. He becomes confident as none of his peers had been for ages. He casts off the timid behavior of the male Alali and assumes a masculine identity more reminiscent of his teacher, Tarzan.

Soon the Alalus youth grows more competent in hunting, and Tarzan begins to hunt on his own more often as he is inclined to do. It is during once such solitary excursion, that the ape-man begins his second adventure in the land beyond the Great Thorn Forest.

One quote that I had found interesting was this:

"The older girl, nothing daunted, leaped forward, her face hideous in a snarl of rage. The boy cast another stone at her then turned and ran toward the ape-man. What reception he expected he himself probably did not know. Perhaps it was the recrudescence of a long dead emotion of fellowship that prompted him to place himself at Tarzan's side--possibly Tarzan himself in whom loyalty to kind was strong had inspired this reawakening of an atrophied soul-sense. However that may be the fact remains that the boy came and stood at Tarzan's side while the girl, evidently sensing danger to herself in this strange, new temerity of her brother, advanced more cautiously."

Two things are being said here. First that the mere presence of Tarzan is enough to inspire other men to act like men. Or boys to act as men. His presence is so powerful, especially in his natural element, that other males just naturally follow him and wish to be like him.

Second, it is interesting that ERB uses the word soul-sense. Is he pointing to some primordial male instinct, or is he proposing that the Alalus boy had a soul, and that soul was in some way aligned to the soul of Tarzan.

Or was he indicating that the Alalus boy was tapping into the strength of an unconscious archetype, and that Tarzan represented the physical manifestation of that archetype. If Tarzan represented some inner truth of manliness wouldn't it make it easier for the boy to recognize his own unconscious elements of manliness.

This quote and the possible connotations arising from it was one of the reasons I began to wonder if ERB believed in archetypes (in the Jungian sense) and if Tarzan was a representation of masculine archetypes. But that is another story!

Later when referring to the boy, ERB made this statement:

"The youth was of a mind to flee, for ages of inherited instinct prompted him to flight. Always the male Alalus fled from danger....."

It may be that ERB is simply stating that the male Alalus were bred to be timid. If one links that statement with the statements in the preceding paragraphs of this paper, one wonders if the argument that ERB believed (either consciously or unconsciously) in archetypes. If the Alali males were bred to be submissive, then something beyond their genetic breeding must have been the soul-sense that aligned the boy with Tarzan even in the face of a very real and present danger.

Food for thought.

One small passage in the book that ERB had written while Tarzan was among the Alali, was the description of Tarzan stalking and killing Bara the deer. That he would remain motionless for hours if need be was interesting and a testament to Tarzan's patience as a hunter. Later a lion flushes the deer Tarzan is hunting under the ape-man's tree. Tarzan leaps down, breaks the deer's neck and, carrying over one shoulder, he leaps back into the trees all before the lion can reach him.

That is pure Tarzan!

Many ERB fans have wondered how Tarzan would have fared on Barsoom.
When the ape-man ventures into the lands of the Minuni, the Ant Men, it is almost as if Tarzan has stepped on the soil of Mars. There are so many similarities that the reader feels free to second guess the reason ERB wrote this story.

Though Tarzan goes among the Minuni as a "giant" standing well above their general 18 inch height, he is soon reduced to the standard foot and a half by the miraculous wizardry of an enemy scientist called Zoanthrohago. Before this happens, Tarzan rescues and makes a good friend of a local prince, one Komodoflorensal of Trohanadalmakus. The manner in which he does this is mildly interesting.

So often I see images from the Greek Myths in ERB's work. When Tarzan rescues Komodoflorensal, he does so by slaying an Alalus woman with an arrow. Images of Hercules slaying the Giants and Monsters in the battle for Olympus entered my mind. Part of Tarzan's Promethean gift to the Atalus boy-man was archery. Perhaps Tarzan can be compared to the Solar deity, Apollo, but in terms of deeds and manner in which he accomplishes things, he is Herculean. The true mythological essence of Tarzan might be a smattering of this god or that.

After rescuing the little prince, Tarzan goes with Komodoflorensal to his city. On the way, he notes that the Minuni do not know the bow. They grow to trust and admire this strange, almost magical giant. At the city of the Trohanadalmakus, the city of King Adendrohahkis (Komodoflorensal's father), Tarzan is accepted as a friend.

Taking a look at the Minunians themselves, we see a miniature, warlike race living in domed high rises made of stone, hence the term, ant men. All of them are brave. They fight with swords, spears and daggers. They wear leather harnesses of a sort. Military strategy consists of a mounted force and infantry. Their mounts are a sort of miniature antelope called the Royal Antelope. The Trohanadalmakians, with whom Tarzan has luckily cast, are highly efficient, economical and seriously dedicated to war. Tarzan learns of Minunian war tactics while he stays with the Trohanadalmakians.

His stay is not long before the city of Adendrohahkis is attacked by another group of ant-men, the Veltopismakusians. Lying on the ground, Tarzan had felt the vibration of the approaching army, and it is he who warns the Trohanadalmakians. Later, against the advise of his diminutive hosts, Tarzan decides to stay and watch the battle and perhaps participate in it. This overconfidence, probably born in the notion that he is vastly superior to any individual Minunian, proves his undoing. He is overwhelmed by numbers and taken captive by the Veltopismakusian invaders.

Then begins a strange adventure, certainly Barsoomian, in the city of the Veltopismakusians. By some miraculous means, the ape-man is reduced to a size proportional to the ant-men. At first he doesn't believe this, and wonders how the Minunians had attained his own height. Eventually, a multitude of evidence convinces him that it is truly he who has shrunk.

As a captive of the Veltopismakusians, Tarzan has some odd adventures. He meets Elkomoelhago, the egocentric ruler of the Veltopismakusians and his daughter, Janzara. At first Tarzan is mistaken for a Zertalacolol, which is the Minunian name for the Alali. He feigns muteness to gain an advantage among a people who he thought might be more liberal in his presence if they thought he could not speak or understand their language. Later this proves to be a good strategy when Komodoflorensal is assigned to him as a translator, which is a ruse to keep the two friends together. As I read this ploy, I could not help but remember Odysseus telling the Cyclops that his name was No-man. These two strategies are not quite a match, but are alike enough to suggest a similar cunning in both mythological tricksters.

When the Veltopismakusians muse over Tarzan's identity, they mention some characteristics that are prominent in most of ERB's heroes. In the battle that captured Tarzan, they note that he did not yield or retreat and fought like "a warrior born", and "always (while he fought) he smiled." These martial qualities can be found in another great ERB hero, John Carter of Mars.

Courage, martial skill, and war are the main occupation of the free men of Minunia. This is very similar to the red warriors of Barsoom. All true work is done by slaves. The slave culture of the ant-men is very well organized and divided into status based on which generation of slaves one belongs too. I found this interesting because it was an attempt to describe in greater detail a slave culture than was ever described in the Mars series. Slaves that were trusted of a longer lineage than more recently acquired slaves wore white tunics. Earlier generations wore green tunics. White tunicked slaves wore the emblem of their master and a symbol that indicated their occupation. Green tunicked slaves of the second generation wore their master's insignia on front and back, while green tunicked slaves of the first generation wore a black emblem on their chest denoting the city and an emblem on their back denoting their master.

I have often wondered about the nature of slavery on Mars. In some ways, this treatment of slavery in Tarzan and the Ant Men answers some of these questions, even though it is not a book written specifically about Mars.

While on the subject of slavery, another occurrence in the book seemed Barsoomian to me. There are a plethora of beauties in ERB's books. One of the most beautiful is the petite Talaskar. A woman so beautiful should have been scooped up by some randy warrior long ago, except for her unusual trick of distorting her face into something quite unsightly. It reminded me of a voluntary bitter beer face. This trick is almost magical, something that is as unearthly as anything that might happen on Barsoom. Unless, of course Talaskar was in possession of a bitter beer!

I can't get over the impression that ERB had the image of Tarzan on Mars when he wrote this story. Taking a look at Tarzan himself, his greater strength and leaping power is reminiscent of John Carter. This is explained by the fact that though the ape-man was reduced in actual size, his strength had remained the same. In fact, ERB points to Tarzan's superhuman status by having the Minunians call him Zuanthrol, or giant in their native language. Imagine the mighty muscles of the Lord of the Jungle propelling an eighteen inch figure through the air. Maybe not as impressive as some of Carter's leaps, but certainly similar.

Another issue that ERB addressed was the quality of Tarzan's swordsmanship. He describes the hours of fencing practice that Tarzan enjoyed with his friend D'Arnot. This skill, while not nearly the equal to the Greatest Swordsman on Two Worlds, is enough to make Tarzan a formidable opponent when coupled with his innate speed and strength.

There is the issue of Tarzan's shrinking. This was accomplished through the agency of the walmak, Zoanthrohago. ERB defines a walmak as, "a scientist who works miracles." Zoanthrohago describes the process of shrinking to his king by pointing to the base of Tarzan's head and speaking of an organ that controls the growth of the body. By rubbing a stone on this gland through the neck he stimulates shrinking. Because this is a foolish explanation, ERB ventures into the metaphysical to supplement his description of Zoanthrohago's work. ERB writes of infinitesimal particles that "constitute the basic structure of all things whether animate or inanimate, corporeal or incorporeal. The frequency, quantity and rhythm of the emanations determine the nature of the substance."

If one can find the frequency of these particles in the growth gland, it is simply a matter of reversing this frequency so that the growth gland would cause the being to shrink rather than grow. This explanation is true science fantasy. If it had been in a story dealing with an adventure on Mars, it would have fit in nicely. In a Tarzan story, it is grossly out of place, unless this was a fantasy tale of Tarzan on Mars!

While Tarzan is among the ant-men, he becomes involved in two romantic triangles. The most important one is between himself, Talaskar and Komodoflorensal. The prince makes a mistake in thinking that Tarzan is romantically interested in the slave girl, and this causes him to become jealous because he is in love with her. The problem is further complicated because while the ant-men often take mates from the captives and slaves of other cities, it is the duty of a prince to take a mate from the royalty of other cities. It certainly appears that Talaskar is not a princess. These two factors make Komodoflorensal very unhappy.

The second triangle is less significant. It involves Tarzan, Janzara and Zoanthrohago. Janzara, a princess (and the one who might have been Komodoflorensal's proper mate) loves Tarzan, while the walmak loves Janzara.

Both of these romances are ironed out in the end with those who love each other getting together as ERB meant them to be. As an added bonus Talaskar turns out to be a lost princess in her own right.

Many of the ant-men characters could be transported to Barsoom without alteration and fit in the scheme of things there quite well.

Later, Tarzan is saved by the Alalus youth whom he had helped earlier.

One last element in this story that must be mentioned. It is something that escaped me at first. Again, I was returned to the Odyssey when I figured it out.

What is the purpose of Miranda? For most of the book he was little more than an annoyance for me. At the end of the book, a battered, sickly Miranda is found by a Waziri and near him is Tarzan's locket, placed there through sheer coincidence. Putting one and one together, Tarzan's people decide that Miranda is Tarzan. They care for him, send for Jane, and lament of his deplorable condition. Yet when Miranda entered Tarzan's home, the animals, Jad and the estate dogs, turned away from him. They knew he wasn't Tarzan. Even faithful Jane was fooled by the locket and Miranda's resemblance to Tarzan. How blunted are the senses of civilized people! How often they depend on rules and circumstantial evidence instead of their personal perception of their environment.! How strange it was that Flora Hawkes that recognizes Miranda by the curve of his smile. Perhaps, Jane would have noticed that this was not her husband given a moment longer. We will never know because it is that opportune time that Tarzan steps into the picture and reclaims his wife and his life.

Tarzan picks up two new languages in this book. First he acquires the sign language of the Alali:

"With doglike devotion the Alalus youth clung to Tarzan. The latter had mastered the meager sign language of his protégé giving them a means of communication that was adequate for all their needs."

And second the language of the Minunians:

"In the village of the ant men Tarzan found a warm welcome and having decided to remain for a while that he might study them and their customs he set to work, as was his wont when thrown among strange peoples, to learn their language as quickly as possible. Having already mastered several languages and numerous dialects the ape-man never found it difficult to add to his linguistic attainments, and so it was only a matter of a comparatively short time before he found it possible to understand his hosts and to make himself understood by them."

Needless to say from the way he conversed with them throughout the rest of the book he must have learned their language very well indeed.

One more interesting observation, and this was a similarity to something I read in a Conan tale by Robert E. Howard. It reminded me of Conan's battle with Baal-pteor in the yarn, " Shadows in Zamboula".

From that yarn:

"Conan's low laugh was merciless as the ring of steel.

"You fool!" he all but whispered. "I think you never saw a man from the West before. Did you deem yourself strong, because you were able to twist the heads off civilized folk, poor weaklings with muscles like rotten strings? Hell! Break the neck of a wild Cimmerian bull before you call yourself strong. I did that, before I was a full-grown man--like this!"

And with a savage wrench he twisted Baal-pteor's head around until the ghastly face leered over the left shoulder, and the vertebrae snapped like a rotten branch."

When Tarzan slays Caraftap in Talaskar's cell, he speaks in a terrifying, mocking manner to his victim.

"As he (Caraftap) did so steel fingers reached forth out of the
darkness and closed upon his throat. He would have screamed
in terror, but no sound could be forced through his tight-closed
throat. He struggled and struck at the thing that held him--a thing
so powerful that he knew it could not be human, and then a
low voice, cold and terrifying, whispered in his ear.

"Die, Caraftap!" it said. "Meet the fate that you deserve and that
you well knew you deserved when you said that you dared not
return to the quarters of the slaves of Zoanthrohago after betraying
two of your number. Die, Caraftap! and know before you die
that he whom you would have betrayed is your slayer. You
searched for Zuanthrol and--you have found him!" With the last
word the terrible fingers closed upon the man's neck.
Spasmodically the slave struggled, fighting for air. Then the two
hands that gripped him turned slowly in opposite directions
and the head of the traitor was twisted from his body."

Done in a true REH fashion! Or ERB fashion. Or, hell, both. They both seem very similar to me and very entertaining.

So it would seen that ERB wrote two books in Tarzan and the Ant Men. One journey in the land of giants and one in the land of small men. Now where have I heard that plot before?

Rod Hunsicker comments

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