this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2024
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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 22 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Fucking Tarzan was fighting evil white exploiters of pristine Africa in books back in the early 1900s.

A good white saviour from the evil white people, because the indigenous can't do it for themselves. Just like in Ferngully and Avatar.

[–] Vespair@lemm.ee 6 points 4 days ago

I can't decide if I should post the "wait, it's all the failures of capitalism?" or "wait, it's all systemic racism?" meme, cuz it's wait it's all both (always has been).

[–] Hoimo@ani.social 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Are there even any indigenous people in Tarzan? I haven't read the book, but from the movie I only remember his gorilla buddy and the little elephant. I think Tarzan is more about rebelling against civilization in general, instead of colonization in specific (which James Cameron's Avatar is). It's very post-industrialization in that sense.

Edit: Whoops, just read the synopsis on Wikipedia. I don't think Tarzan is the white saviour you're looking for...

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Which Tarzan book did you read the synopsis for? Burroughs wrote 24 of them.

[–] Hoimo@ani.social 2 points 3 days ago

Sorry, it wasn't as much a synopsis as it was the criticism section: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan#Themes_of_gender_and_race

Looking at it now, I see citations for the essays, but not for the factual claims made by those essays, so I hope the editor who wrote it didn't take their word for it.