"Temporal sweet spot for Tarzan gaming" Topic

Tarzan is born in 1888 (+/-) but the canon 24 books have his adventures running from the early 1900s, (1907 in book one, roughly, ) to the 1940s – WW2.

In the canon ERB stories he faces multiple foes including Russian Communists, cultic lost cultures, run of the mill Evil Geniuses, creatures in nature, Ant Men, Pellucidar dinosaurs, and other bona fide Bad Guys.

In your opinion, given that Tarzan attains "agelessness" (immortality without invulnerability – i.e., he can be killed just not by aging) where in time do you find the "Sweet Spot" for Tarzan Adventures?

1) 1910s – Youth and his East Africa WW1 adventures

2) 1920s – in the Roaring 20s!

3) 1930s – in the "Pulp Era"

4) 1940s – WW2 and later

5) later, outside the ERB canonical books

6) Tarzan is always at his peak in any decade

Tough call, I am really found of Darkhorse's Tarzan vs Predators series which was set in WWII

'30s

Yes, I agree – 1930s – classic Pulp era.

6) any decade

yep, '30s.

Africa, Pellucidar, Lost Tribes.

Tarzan of the Apes was published in 1912, so I wouldn't set any of his adventures earlier than that. My own preference would be to keep it in the 1910s – 1920s era, unless one intends to pay lip service to the Tarzan movies.

Ron

IMHO, the best Tarzan novels were in the first through the early 1920's. Many Tarzan fans like "The Jewels of Opar" best. My favorites were "The Beasts of Tarzan" and "The Jewels of Opar" in that order. After "Tarzan and the Golden Lion" I started to notice a "sameness" to the plots and lost interest soon after.

For gaming scenarios I believe that the 1930's would allow him to meet every sort of villain and all of the pulp era heroes.

For the ageless part perhaps he`s another one that found Ayesha`s pool?

"… Tarzan of the Apes was published in 1912, so I wouldn't set any of his adventures earlier than that. My own preference would be to keep it in the 1910s – 1920s era, unless one intends to pay lip service to the Tarzan movies…"

Publishing date as as little to do with the "in story" age of the character as the Print date of 1998 of a map created in 1898 has to due with the currency of the data reflected on the map. Had that last bit in a professional conversation with a manager about cartographic products we were publishing.

Aside, the setting for Tarzan of The Apes has been postulated to occur as early as 1907 by one source but it definitely is "Post Victorian Age" so when people refer to it as "Victorian Science Fiction" I quietly add a mental "post" to their statement.

Back on topic – If Tarzan was born around the late 1880s, (one source estimated 1888 IIRC so let us use that,) then Tarzan would be 19 in 1907 and 24 in 1912 (around his physical prime of life.) Of course by WW1 [1914-1918 would put him at 26 – 30] in his mental prime of life and, say, strictly as a guess, 1943 in Sumatra he would have been flying in combat situations at age 55 which is remotely possible. Those vary from likely to viable so it is possible that in the 1930s he would be in his 40s.

"… For the ageless part perhaps he`s another one that found Ayesha`s pool?"

Tarzan's Quest has the incident where he possibly achieves agelessness/immortality. Kind a gruesome method of production of the product.

Publishing date as as little to do with the "in story" age of the character as the Print date of 1998 of a map created in 1898 has to due [sic] with the currency of the data reflected on the map.

Yes, I made an unstated assumption that Burroughs was relating events in the comparatively recent past; the dates provided within the novel tend to bear this out. I did do my sums before posting.

Ron

Coelacanth,

Fair enough. Using your assumptions I would have to say your model is at least as good as any other.

So, what do you think was his chronological age (+/-) in the first book, given a setting date for "contact with Humans" of 1912?

Interestingly, I believe ERB says in a book (later than Son of Tarzan?) that Tarzan found his childhood friends (Apes) had become (my words) distant from him, becoming dour adults. I wonder if being a human raised by Mangani made him peak earlier physically but extended his years of peak mental activity to later than normal?

And how long is the life span of "Apes" in the wild? Would the Mangani live longer than most other "Apes" for some reason (other than literary license/necessity?)

Great now you have me wondering/wandering afield from my own OP.

Deviating from the OP slightly.

Okay, Let's look at Young Tarzan/Adult Lord Greystoke in the 1910's through World War 1… and possibly beyond.

From Wikipedia (and using Coelacanth's model since it works as well as any)

1.1 Tarzan of the Apes (1912) – Tarzan is an adult human or at least a teenager? (what age did you achieve adulthood in 1910s?) so perhaps this occurred in 1907? Five years before publishing would not be unreasonable. How about a 10 year time lag? Events happening in 1902? Quite reasonable.

1.2 The Return of Tarzan (1913) – Marries Jane (call this happening in1908-1909? Alternatively 1913-1914 if a ten year lag before publishing?)

1.3 The Beasts of Tarzan (1914) – young son kidnapped (1911 – 1913 ?) Crap, how old does Jack appear to be in the book? Time to re-read the first few chapters… A toddler?

Here is where the internal timeline logic really loses me.

1.4 The Son of Tarzan (1914) Young son (cusp of adulthood?) and becomes Korak. What age would he be? I need to read the book again… The quote below "… two decades earlier..," implies he is probably a teenager or young adult to me.

Here is where I think it either breaks down using the "recent events" model given the Beats of Tarzan occurrences or you need to graft on an "adopted son" (which I don't see in the stories) Or the events of books 1 through 3 occurred significantly earlier…

"… Alexis Paulvitch, a henchman of Tarzan's now-deceased enemy, Nikolas Rokoff, survived his encounter with the ape-man in The Beasts of Tarzan and wants to even the score. Paulvitch lures Jack, Tarzan's son, away from London and into his clutches, but Jack escapes with the help of the ape named Akut. Akut & Jack flee into the deep African jungle where two decades earlier Tarzan himself had been raised. The young Jack Clayton, now on his own, becomes known as Korak the killer and builds a reputation for himself in the Jungle. Korak, like his father before him, finds his own place in the Jungle among the great apes, and also like his father, meets and rescues a beautiful young woman, Meriem. Meriem is the daughter of a Captain in the French Foreign Legion, who was also a Prince (Prince de Cadrenet), named Armand Jacot. Arguably, the book is as much about Meriem, wife of Korak, as it is about Tarzan's son…"

1.5 Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar (1916) – workable with publish date/story probable date but shouldn't Tarzan be looking to move to East Africa about now?

<skip 1.6 – Reminiscing/stories of Tarzan as a child/youth) >

1.7 Tarzan the Untamed (1920) WW1 setting
1.8 Tarzan the Terrible (1921) – WW1 setting

Okay, the rest below is just me being OCD (or CDO if you want to be alphabetical.) Skip it and you won't have missed anything.

1.9 Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1922/23) Opar and La again, first Tarzan look-alike.

Other than possibly Tarzan's Quest it begins to lose interest for me a bit here so let us drop it here by saying the timeline is pretty difficult to match with probable/postulated ages of the characters, historical events, and publishing dates +/- 5 years or even +/-10 years.

1.10 Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924) – Ho Hum, Gullivar of Africa
1.11 Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle (1927/28) – another lost city/Culture
1.12 Tarzan and the Lost Empire (1928) – and another lost city/Culture
1.13 Tarzan at the Earth's Core (1929) – Pellucidar connection, Ho Hum
1.14 Tarzan the Invincible (1930/31) – Opar and Communists, getting a little tiresome with the Opar schtick?
1.15 Tarzan Triumphant (1931) – Redux Opar and Communits
1.16 Tarzan and the City of Gold (1932) – another lost city/Culture
1.17 Tarzan and the Lion Man (1933/34) – ERB pokes fun at Hollywood, Tarzan Look alike
1.18 Tarzan and the Leopard Men (1935) – amnesia as a literary technique
1.19 Tarzan's Quest (1935/36) – immortality (or did he?)

After this it really gets repetitive in parts.

1.20 Tarzan and the Forbidden City (1938) – another lost city/Culture
1.21 Tarzan the Magnificent (1939) – revisiting a previous lost city/Culture
1.22 Tarzan and the Foreign Legion (1947) – WW2, Tarzan as pilot and resistance leader?
1.23 Tarzan and the Madman (1964) – another Tarzan look-alike
1.24 Tarzan and the Castaways (1965)

Okay, I think I will take a long hard look at the events of 1920s since the events of 1930s seems to go a little farther afield than I want.

Here is a timeline of the 1920s -

link

The 1930s looks okay (and all those pulp heroes/villains!) but a lot happening that is not where I want to go story-wise.

Re: Mute Bystander

…[W]e know only that on a bright May morning in 1888, John, Lord Greystoke and Lady Alice sailed from Dover on their way to Africa.

A month later they arrived in Freetown where they chartered a small sailing vessel,, the Fuwalda, which was to bear them to their final destination.

And here John, Lord Greystoke, and Lady Alice, his wife, vanish from the eyes and from the knowledge of men.

--Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes

Burroughs gives us a few other tidbits:

• At the time they sailed from Dover, the Claytons had been married for three months.
  
• The mutiny which was to leave the couple marooned in Africa was only a few days after Fuwalda sailed.
  
• British warships found wreckage from Fuwalda two months after she had sailed from Freetown
  

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that little Lord Greystoke couldn't have been born much before the end of 1888, or more likely the beginning of 1889. So the timeline you mentioned earlier, of Tarzan being between nineteen and twenty-four at the time of his first encounter with Europeans seems very reasonable.

I haven't read the novel in which Tarzan ceases to age, but it seems pretty typical of Burroughs (John Carter of Mars was ageless as well). It seems what Burroughs needed was "comic book time", where the characters inhabit a perpetual "now", and the facts of their lives are retconned to suit whatever the current story timeline demands.

Ron

I think I would go with #1, the 1910s, and even more specifically to pre-August 1914. My reasoning isn't based on logic, just feel – 1) after WWI breaks out we're into an age of more industrial adventure (I know there were plenty of other jungle adventurers written about afterwards) and 2) we can have scheming Germans who aren't officially enemies.

Coelacanth,

Thanks, just back from celebrating my birthday (one day early) with family and about to dive into Tarzan of The Apes.

Yes, I re-read the Tarzan's Quest ending and… Tarzan, Jane, Brown, Annette, Tibbs, NKima – it's not clear in that story ANY of them took the pills. I guess when I re-read the last of the core 24 I will get a hint whether Tarzan (or anyone) actually took the pills…

My Temporal Sweet Spot vice Analysis of Tarzan's Age:

Late 1890's (as a young adult) through early 1910's (as a mature adult).

Sweet Spot based on the availablity and type of firearms I find most fun to have Tarzan come up against while still keeping him "Tarzan" (to me).

Lost world dinos, aliens, ancient cults, and magic don't really tie the stories (and thus, the wargame encounters) to a calendar – they could happen at any time.