영어로 읽는 SF고전 _ 에드가 R. 버로스의 타잔과 개미인간들
"타잔과 개미인간들"은 20세기 초에 쓰여진 에드가 라이스 버로스의 소설입니다. 이야기는 식인종들에게 감금된 채 자신을 류인원 타잔이라고 믿는 에스테반 미란다와, 별도의 모험을 하고 있는 실제 타잔을 따라갑니다. 서사는 모험, 판타지, 그리고 탐험의 요소들을 혼합하며, 피그미들의 환상적인 세계와 등장인물들이 환경 및 서로에 맞서 벌이는 투쟁을 깊이 있게 다룹니다.
소설의 시작에서, 독자들은 식인종 마을에 쇠사슬로 묶인 채 타잔의 정체성을 취한 스페인 사람 에스테반 미란다를 만나게 됩니다. 생존을 시도하면서, 그는 마을 사람들에게 자신이 강력한 강의 악마라고 믿게 만듭니다. 그는 주술사의 딸 우하를 만나고, 그들의 상호작용을 통해 그녀를 설득하여 탈출을 돕게 합니다.
한편, 서사는 타잔이 호기심 많은 생물들이 사는 숨겨진 땅을 알게 되면서 시작되는 그만의 발견 여정도 암시합니다. 도입부는 정체성, 생존, 그리고 문명과 정글의 원시적 본능 사이의 충돌이라는 주제들이 녹아든 모험 이야기의 무대를 마련합니다.
Classics Read in English _ Tarzan and the Ant Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs
"Tarzan and the Ant Men" is a novel written in the early 20th century by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The story follows Esteban Miranda, a character who has been imprisoned by cannibals and believes himself to be Tarzan of the Apes, as well as the actual Tarzan, who is on a separate adventure. The narrative blends elements of adventure, fantasy, and exploration, as it delves into both the fantastical world of pygmies and the struggles of its characters against their environments and each other.
At the start of the novel, readers are introduced to Esteban Miranda, a Spaniard who is chained in a cannibal village and has adopted the persona of Tarzan. Attempting to survive, he manipulates the villagers into believing he is a powerful river devil. He encounters Uhha, the daughter of the witch doctor, and through their interaction, he persuades her to help him escape.
Meanwhile, the narrative also hints at Tarzan's own journey of discovery as he becomes aware of a hidden land populated by curious creatures. The opening sets the stage for a tale of adventure tinged with themes of identity, survival, and the clash between civilization and the primal instincts of the jungle.
Among the contents
In the filth of a dark hut, in the village of Obebe the cannibal, upon the banks of the Ugogo, Esteban Miranda squatted upon his haunches and gnawed upon the remnants of a half-cooked fish. About his neck was an iron slave collar from which a few feet of rusty chain ran to a stout post set deep in the ground near the low entranceway that let upon the village street not far from the hut of Obebe himself.
For a year Esteban Miranda had been chained thus, like a dog, and like a dog he sometimes crawled through the low doorway of his kennel and basked in the sun outside. Two diversions had he; and only two. One was the persistent idea that he was Tarzan of the Apes, whom he had impersonated for so long and with such growing success that, like the good actor he was, he had come not only to act the part, but to live it?to be it. He was, as far as he was concerned, Tarzan of the Apes?there was no other?and he was Tarzan of the Apes to Obebe, too; but the village witch doctor still insisted that he was the river devil and as such, one to propitiate rather than to anger.
