Talk:Barsoom

The literary influence might be better at a Martian Tales, with this article more focussed on description of Barsoom proper. Stan 08:42, 18 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Another Barsoom-inspired work (or series of works) is Michael Moorcock's 'A Warrior of Mars'. --Trithemius 10:02, Nov 22, 2004 (UTC)

Shouldn't there be a mention of Ulysses Paxton here? He's the OTHER earthman to visit Barsoom. - Kevingarcia 04:45, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Barsoom in Roman mythology

This new section needs a reference, or it will have to be deleted. Rick Norwood 18:50, 6 April 2006 (UTC)

Ownership edits

See Talk:Bran Mak Morn#Ownership edits. 69.182.106.50 19:52, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

Pictures

The article mentions that the first five novels have had their copyright expired. I am wondering if anyone has access to the illustrations and/or cover art of these books? We have one picture, which is great, but I think the article would look better with more. -- Sam Barsoom (talk) 18:59, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

You can find illustrations to the first novel (and possibly others) at Project Gutenberg. They are not of the highest quality, however. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.208.120.38 (talk) 02:14, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Apt

The article suggests that the apt has four limbs, but in my 1985 copy of Warlord of Mars, on page 79, we are told the apt has 6 limbs. This discrepancy should be addressed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.96.88.118 (talk) 20:26, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

At the end of Thuvia, Maid of Mars there is a glossary, which describes the apt:

A huge, white-furred creature with six limbs, four of which, short and heavy, carry it over the snow and ice; the other two, which grow forward from its shoulders on either side of its long, powerful neck, terminate in white, hairless hands with which it seizes and holds its prey.

So it has six limbs but could be said to have four feet. This might be the cause of the confusion. 84.215.6.188 (talk) 03:05, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Barsoom Article

Have done a fairly major revision and expansion of the article, trying to reference as much as possible. I have pretty run out of sources for the time being, so if anyone has any more for the unreferenced stuff it would help - particularly some of the details about the world like the fauna section which is completely unsourced at the moment (anyone with a copy of The Reader's Guide to Barsoom and Amtor, A guide to Barsoom or such could help a lot here, doubt I am going to find a copy of either or anything like it in a hurry). Some of the refs are still a bit of a mess, one source in particularly I will return and unravel when the pain of figuring it all out goes away, as it references 5-6 pages when the info is usually on one or two of them. Character focus, Form and Motifs is missing quite a few references too, although I think most of this stuff is pretty true to the books... hope it is:) Mesmacat (talk) 10:25, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with File:Gulliver of Mars.jpg

The image File:Gulliver of Mars.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

• That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
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This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --16:32, 3 March 2009 (UTC)

Correlation between martian geographical feaures and barsoom

"Some of Barsoom's other major physical features do correspond to albedo features of Mars known at the time, flipped upside-down in reflection of the images of the planet as seen through telescopes. For instance, Burroughs' snow-covered Artolian Hills can be roughly equated to the bright feature Hellas (actually a huge impact crater), and the Great Toonolian Marshes to the dark feature represented by the Valles Marineris."

Took out this paragraph which seemed like speculation to me, but can of course be returned to the article is someone provides a context as where these ideas come from or a reference. Mesmacat (talk) 08:09, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

Word origin

The origin of the word Barsoom cannot logically be words [he made up] from the languages spoken by the peoples in his novels, because if he made them up, he could have chosen any word. Isn't Barsoom just pig latin for Mars?--87.162.29.223 (talk) 16:14, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Measurement

The section on measurement gives the sofad as "11.68+ inches". This appears to be based on a fan-club's working out of details; dividing a modern figure for the Martian equator by 360, 100, 200 then 10 does indeed arrive at about this. However, the actual values given in Thuvia, Maid of Mars, part way through Chapter VI, are off from this – and not consistent with one another:

On Barsoom the AD is the basis of linear measurement. It is the equivalent of an Earthly foot, measuring about 11.694 Earth inches.

Note that this is the ad, not the sofad.

A haad, or Barsoomian mile, contains about 2,339 Earth feet. A karad is one degree. A sofad about 1.17 Earth inches.

Note that 11.694×200 = 2338.8, so the given number of feet in the haad would be the consistent number of inches in 200 ad. The glossary at the end of the same work also gives the "Od" as "Martian foot", clearly sorted under O in the alphabetic ordering.

I am consequently inclined to suppose Burroughs messed up; this is, at least, worth mention in the section. Are there later books of the series that corrected the inconsistencies in Thuvia ? 84.215.6.188 (talk) 03:20, 6 November 2010 (UTC)