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Powers and abilities: Physical perfection. Occupation: Lord of the Jungle, Adventurer, Physique Model, Historical Object of Sublimated Lust for Women and Closeted Men.Ĭostume: Animal-skin loincloth (in comics, generally depicted as leopard) or nothin' at all ("clothes were a hindrance and a nuisance," according to Burroughs).
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Turns out that in the debut Tarzan novel, the narrator casually informs us that he didn't personally witness any of the events he's about to relate, and "in the telling of it to you I have taken fictitious names for the principal characters." So. True name: John Clayton, son of Lord and Lady Greystoke. Name: Tarzan (meaning "white skin" in ape language.) (Yeah.) (We haven't even gotten to the colonial stuff yet! Even this dude's name is fraught!) Tarzanįirst appearance(s): All-Story (magazine), October 1912 Tarzan of the Apes (novel), 1914. Here's everything you need to know about the Ape Man to get you up to speed. But the DNA of the character remains: a British guy who imposes moral order on an untamed, savage land by dint of his good breeding. This new film evidently attempts to do some course-correction on that score, casting a greedy Belgian diamond miner as the villain (played by - contain your shock - Christoph Waltz) and reportedly imbuing African characters with more agency than Tarzan films have generally allotted them. It can't help but show: the stink of colonialism, racial stereotyping and the cringeworthy narrative of The White Savior have always clung to the character. It's only the latest in a very long line of depictions of Edgar Rice Burroughs' noble, gray-eyed savage in books, films, radio, comic books, comic strips and on television.īurroughs always acknowledged that his conception of Tarzan borrowed heavily from Kipling. The Legend of Tarzan, starring Alexander Skarsgard, opens in theaters today. "Tarzan serve Blue Steel! Want tell you about Tarzan's paleo regimen!": Alexander Skarsgard in The Legend of Tarzan.