Sunday 4 June 2017

Tarzan, Jane And Wanda

"As a girl, Jane Goodall was so inspired by the stories of Tarzan that she later traveled to Africa to study chimpanzees, where she made ground-breaking discoveries in primate behavior."
John Joseph Adams, Under The Moons Of Mars (New York, 2013), p. 45)

In Poul Anderson's The Shield Of Time, we learn that Jane Goodall was a role model for Wanda Tamberly.

Thus, Tarzan inspired Jane who inspired Wanda: a perfect fiction-reality interaction.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Dang! You keep finding out ways where fictions of all kinds, whether written by PA or ERB or Stirling, had or has real world links or connections. Which is a big reason why I enjoy your blog!

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

It's not surprising. We experience the world through narrative. Fiction isn't "true" in the way that, say, an oceanographic survey is, but it conveys different types of experience.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Dear Mr. Stirling,

That's a simpler, more elegant way of putting what I was trying to say. I agree!

Sean