It's taken me a few days to take this moment in and be able to type this.
A Princess of Mars was the first novel I ever read. It would set the tone for my reading habits for many years.
I was 8.
It would also color my world of what was possible, that as a species humans were capable of great things, and be contrasted by images of villages and bodies burning in Vietnam on television.
I didn't like television very much then. I preferred the company of my books. The confusion that a child feels is one of a deep and lasting nature. Children don't generally understand things like that at such a young age. I only knew that somehow, someway, as we reached out into space and landed on the moon that we were on a way to a great adventure and knowing then that Mars could never be what was written about in the books that somewhere we would find another Barsoom.
My only question was would we save it or would we burn it...
I have no delusions about this upcoming film version. Nothing can ever compare to the imagination of a child and the images that formed in the minds eye. But it's the thought that counts and for that I say thank you to all those who will have brought this special part of my childhood to the big screen.
Presented for those who have a bond with this type of literature is my small contribution to the re-examination of these worlds of wonder.
JOHN CARTER: WARLORD OF MARS Early Years
