| ERB has the reputation of being a rather juvenile | | | | most diabolical cruelties and the basest of crimes; |
| author, good on vivid colour and action but | | | | yet in the next moment he might perform a |
| hopelessly lacking in the ability to portray | | | | deed that if duplicated on Earth would have raised |
| characters of convincing depth. | | | | him to the highest pinnacle of man's esteem... He |
| When debating how true this is, and how far, if it | | | | had a purely scientific mind entirely devoid of the |
| is true, ERB should be criticised for it, one might | | | | cloying influences of sentiment, of which he |
| do worse than consider the theme of the mad | | | | possessed none. |
| scientist in the later Mars novels. | | | | A change is hinted at after Ras Thavas, having |
| The series set on Barsoom - Mars - runs to ten | | | | almost outlived his old body, has got his assistant |
| volumes. In my opinion, though all are good | | | | to transplant his brain into a new one, whereupon |
| (except the fourth), the best of them, apart | | | | the juices of youth begin to affect his mind. He |
| from the second which is superb, are the last five. | | | | still remains ruthless, but some confusion sets in. |
| In other words broadly speaking the quality of | | | | And there are further hints of his developing |
| writing increases as we go through the series. | | | | humanity in Synthetic Men of Mars, near the end |
| And it is interesting to note that the plots of the | | | | of which he refers to the narrator, who has been |
| sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth volumes all hang | | | | through great suffering and stress, as "my son". |
| rather closely on the misdeeds of a "mad | | | | It is an astonishing little throwaway hint, but no |
| scientist" - or at any rate a scientist who | | | | more. Burroughs does not labour the point and it |
| subordinates most normal human feeling to an | | | | is thereby all the more effective. |
| obsessive scientific ambition. | | | | Phor Tak in A Fighting Man of Mars is the most |
| In The Master Mind of Mars the surgeon, Ras | | | | temperamentally unhinged of the trio we are |
| Thavas, performs brain-transplants upon both | | | | considering. The protagonist Tan Hadron narrates: |
| willing and unwilling subjects. In A Fighting Man of | | | | We had not been long at Jhama before both Nur |
| Mars the physicist, Phor Tak, builds | | | | An and I became convinced that Phor Tak's mind |
| super-weapons and, quarrelling with his evil patron, | | | | was at least slightly deranged from long brooding |
| decides to set up on his own as a world | | | | over the wrongs inflicted upon him by Tul Axtar; |
| conqueror. In Swords of Mars Fal Sivas, creator | | | | though naturally possessed of a kindly disposition |
| of a programmable mechanical brain (yes, a | | | | he was obsessed by a maniacal desire to wreak |
| computer expert in a 1930s novel), hopes to | | | | vengeance upon the tyrant with utter disregard |
| acquire wealth and power by remote control. And | | | | of the consequences to himself and to others. |
| in Synthetic Men of Mars Ras Thavas is up to | | | | His characteristic "Heigh-oo!" cackle and his sudden |
| new tricks, though this time - creating | | | | mood-swings, fits of rage and manifestations of |
| uncontrollable synthetic life - he realizes he has | | | | slyness are memorably depicted. |
| bitten off more than he can chew. | | | | Lastly there is the rather nasty Fal Sivas, the only |
| Reflecting upon these examples it seems to me | | | | one of the three savants who turns out to be |
| that there is not much point in using the word | | | | personally cowardly, though he is cool enough at |
| "stereotype" as a criticism. I will admit that if they | | | | first, sitting "like a great cat watching its prey", |
| are considered separately, each mad scientist | | | | and fencing verbally with the swordsman Vandor, |
| might be labelled as such, and dismissed as such | | | | who, unbeknownst to him, is the disguised |
| by critics who respect analysis more than story. | | | | Warlord of Mars, telling him, "you may rest |
| However, what happens if you don't consider | | | | assured that if I ever decide that you must die, I |
| them separately; what happens if you compare | | | | shall not be within reach of your sword when that |
| them? | | | | sad event occurs." Fal Sivas operates, Nazi-style, |
| Immediately, you realize that the three of them | | | | on the brains of living people in order to perfect |
| are utterly different people. Burroughs as usual | | | | his mechanical brain. |
| achieves this effect without strain, probably | | | | "I, too, have paid a price. It has taken something |
| without conscious effort. He is a dreamer, not an | | | | out of me that can never be replaced. I believe, |
| intellectual writer at all, though he was far from | | | | Vandor, that it has robbed me of every human |
| stupid. His occasional scientific wafflings are there | | | | instinct. Except that I am mortal, I am as much a |
| merely to add colour, though by chance he | | | | creation of cold insensate formulas as that thing |
| scored a bull's eye of prediction regarding | | | | which you see resting there before you. |
| programmable computers in Swords of Mars. Let | | | | Sometimes, because of that, I hate it; and yet I |
| us consider each mad scientist in turn. | | | | would die for it. I would see others die for it, |
| Ras Thavas, the master surgeon, is the most | | | | countless others, in the future, as I have in the |
| impressive and the most vividly portrayed. His | | | | past. It must live. It is the greatest achievement |
| terrestrial assistant remarks of him: | | | | of the human mind." |
| He was never intentionally cruel; he was not, I am | | | | So there you are. Three mad scientists, definitely |
| sure, intentionally wicked. He was guilty of the | | | | not all the same. |