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Saturday, March 3, 2012

Gay Prison Farms of "A Princess of Mars"


A naked chained Dejah Thoris drawn by Darren Geers, one of the many talented artists at Deviantart. This image is less than half the size of the original - I urge you to hie youreself hence to his Deviantart page and check out plenty of other excellent fantasy and gaming art in his gallery there.

So, I was reading "A Princess of Mars" again because I'm psyched at the prospect of seeing "John Carter" in about a week, when I ran across this curious passage, describing a farm on Mars:

These brothers, with their wives and children, occupied three similar houses on this farm. They did no work themselves, being government officers in charge. The labor was performed by convicts, prisoners of war, delinquent debtors and confirmed bachelors who were too poor to pay the high celibate tax which all red-Martian governments impose.

You can find the quote here.

"Confirmed bachelor" in case you did not know, is an old-timey code word for "gay." So, apparently, the red Martians, the dominant Martian race that Dejah Thoris belongs to, charges crushingly high taxes on anyone who wishes not to procreate, and that includes gays. So they have to work at what are essentially prison farms along with convicts and prisoners of war.

Somehow, I do not think this particular passage is going to make it into the Disney adaptation of "Princess of Mars." Along with all the Martians running around nekkid, of course. Perhaps some future adaptation by a bolder group will. But in the meantime ... bwah hahahahahahahahaha!

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