At the Earth’s Core
Cover Roy Krenkel Jr.
Written 1913
Published All-Star Weekly 1914
This was the last of the big three series from Edgar Rice Burroughs in order Barsoom, Tarzan and Pellucidar. I realized that only one is named after the characters since the others eventually focus on different characters besides the first heroes introduced. I think Burroughs even tried to branch out unsuccessfully with the Son of Tarzan which focused on Korak the errr Son of Tarzan.
At the Earth’s Core introduces us to Abner Perry, David Innes, Dian the Beautiful and the spectacular Mole. David Innes is ERB’s first everyman. He isn’t semi-immortal, he wasn’t royalty raised by a great swordsman or by great apes, he’s just an educated American with a professor friend. Innes is educated, in good shape and has had some experience in life. He just happens to be acquainted with a scientist who’s project he funds, which is a drilling vehicle for travel under the earth- The Mole.
At the turn of the century and into the time ERB started writing, science was a burgeoning unknown endeavor. You had the rock star scientists filling halls in London and elsewhere touting their newest discovery. From this stock you had such literary creations as Professor Challenger from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You had the explorers going to different ends of the earth to map out and discover new life, H.Rider Haggard’s Alan Quartermain comes to mind. You had the tinkerers like Edison who led to the creation of the Tom Swift series. To add to this ERB gives us Abner Perry. So Burroughs’ Mole is not as far fetched as a scientific endeavor although scientifically we now know it would not work well. The funding of such projects often came from a mentor or sponsor who then would have a cut in the profits. Marconi and the radio started out in such a way.
The Mole takes the pair into the center of the earth which is hollow instead of filled with molten rock. On the inside curve of the shell is the land of Pellucidar. This is where I marvel at Burroughs' world building ability. Previously ERB added customs and created civilizations on a dead planet with some nod to how water could exist on such a barren planet. He imagined the society of the apes and speculated on a decayed society with Opar. Here though he is tackling the implication of a world on the inner hull of the earth with a non-moving core sun.
To backtrack good science fiction and fantasy writers when imagining worlds different from ours have to think about the physical or magical rules that govern that world. Easiest to just have the world be earth or earth like but if you deviate the physical rules change. I mention magic since the better books tend to have a consistency to how magic works over pulling the proverbial “rabbit out of the hat”. As an example Larry Niven’s The Magic Goes Away was a science fiction writer’s attempt to create a magic land with laws akin to physics.
I side track because in At the Earth’s Core, Burroughs is one of the early world builders applying logical thought to the implications of this inner world. He is applying the physics and geology of the day so the impossible nature of the book today to a reader would have read as plausible to a reader in 1914. Keep in mind that German scientists under Hitler pursued multiple hollow earth theories in the 1930’s. ERB describes the disorientation of Innes dealing with the horizon rising instead of falling off at the line of sight, explaining how gravity would work in such a situation and how no moving sun affects both direction and time. It is with the last that Burroughs dealt with a question that is puzzling scientists today, the nature of time. Burroughs speculates that with no way to reference time, time has only meaning to the individual and those around them. What can seem like weeks to one individual because of their personal references might be minutes or hours to another due to their references. He explores the idea without rectifying it but the exploration was new at the time.
The romance strengthens a trope of Burroughs that of the woman who secretly loves the hero but won’t show it due to some slight the hero has perpetrated. Often the slight is a misunderstanding of culture or societal status. In the end these things seem to work out in an ERB novel.
My one sour note of the story comes from being a modern reader and an anthropology major in college. When reading Burroughs I have to set a sort of detachment from how unknown cultures are treated, even the Mahars. Burroughs is a man of his times where eugenics was considered a good thing, Europeans and their descendants were considered the peak of civilization and it was the duty to impose the Western way of life on those cultures less fortunate to be less technologically advanced. Innes condemns the Mahar’s because they are different while also acknowledging that they don’t view humans as equals. I liken it to the man - dolphin relationship, we know they are intelligent but we still use them in shows etc. because we can’t communicate with them. The Mahar’s use the humans as a workforce much like our draft animals when he is first introduced to them. Later it is revealed that humans are a food source so that puts them a little more adversarial. What I must keep in mind as I read is that this is early science fiction playing with the idea of meeting new races of beings and often they were written as adversarial for the adventure and expectations of the audience. It would be as society grows and we are more enlightened about ourselves that writers will tackle the notions of perception and moral superiority or lack thereof. Barry Longyear’s Enemy Mine comes to mind when I think about a story addressing these questions.
At the Earth’s Core remains a favorite for a group of reasons. First it touches upon my early adolescent love for prehistoric creatures with cave bears, smilodons and dinosaur-like creatures roaming about. Now put an everyday man, one who is resourceful, adequately athletic and bright into the mix. I could be David Innes as I got older. As an adult reading the book, I marvel at the details ERB included warping the inside world away from some of the realities of our own world and toying with those ideas as the story progressed. It still has some of what I term ERB’s fortuitous coincidences in how the characters meet up which I chuckle at when I see them. Again I keep in mind that sometimes these things must happen to keep a good story moving along.
Finally I have to thank ERB for inspiring one of the comic series I loved as a teenager, DC’s Warlord. There is no denying the influence and even blatant rip off of Pellucidar in creating Skartaris but for a teenager growing up, it kept my love of lost worlds in the center of the earth going.