The Sax Rohmer Thread

[BAYLOR]

He gave us one of the most interesting villains in literature , Dr FuManchu. by todays standards he not PC correct by any definition. Not a great writer but his books are fun to read.

Any thoughts on him as a writer and story teller?

 

[j d worthington]

Extremely variable. Brood of the Witch Queen is quite good, as I recall; some of the Fu Manchu pieces are not at all bad, while others descend into near unreadability; and the rest of his work falls throughout the spectrum. Never one I'd class as a first-rate writer but, yes, often entertaining, and capable of some fine atmospheric touches now and again.

 

[BAYLOR]

I can recall Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee and Peter Sellers all playing the part of Fu Manchu in the movies. I rather doubt there will ever be any more film adaptations.

 

[j d worthington]

Unlikely; though one which was (at least relatively) true to the first book wouldn't be at all bad. And, to be honest, Rohmer's view of "the Yellow Peril" is considerably less vitriolic than, say, Howard's in "Skull-Face"....

 

[dask]

I read THE HAND OF FU MANCHU and thought it was pretty good.

 

[AlanN]

The Sax Rohmer books are currently being republished by Titan books (very stylish covers). I agree they are not very PC, but still fun to read. His language can be rather difficult at times as well. They were very popular in their day and don't display half the racial prejudice and sexism that some other writers of the early 20th century do. Ian Fleming for instance.

 

[BAYLOR]

They are are what they are.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I just finished my first Fu Manchu book.

The Drums of Fu Manchu 1939 - Doctor Fu Manchu has a plan. He has a list of dictators and arms manufacturers currently working their towards an all-out war in Europe. He warns them that unless they renounce these plans he will kill them. For some bizarre reason, unavailable to the reader, our heroes think this is a BAD idea and do their utmost to protect thinly-disguised stand-ins for Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco from being killed and thus free to start their war.

WHAT?!

Our heroes' attempts to stop this heinous plot consists of running around Europe, instantly bumping into one of the three of Fu Manchu's minions to get name (in this book) anywhere they go, getting captured escaping, going somewhere else in Europe bumping into the minions again, getting captured, escaping... The book doesn't have a plot. Just a series of episodes. Towards the end of the book they manage to corner Fu Manchu who, rather than go through the laborious escape routines he forces his foes to go through, pulls out a fountain pen sized disintegrator ray from his pocket and vaporises holes in doors, ceilings roofs and anything else that gets in the way of a quick exit.

Then the book ends.

Nothing is resolved. Nothing has been thwarted. No one wins. The only thing that has changed is that one of Fu Manchu's minions - a young firebrand (these days we would call her a Social Justice Warrior - though, given her parents were killed by war-making colonial bombers in Africa she has a bit more of an understandable motive than most) has come over to the side of protecting fascism because she fancies the narrator sidekick hero.

Nayland Smith - Fu Manchu's arch opponent and supposed hero of the book comes across as a delusional paranoid roping in anyone he comes across into his bewildering world view. Fu Manchu on the other hand is shown as wanting to stop a war and we are told has never been known to lie.

I was utterly bewildered as to who I was supposed to be rooting for.



(The Republic film serial Drums of Fu Manchu doesn't, from what I can tell, use any of the book's protecting fascism's right to let white people slaughter white people without fiendish oriental interference, but just uses the title and hangs unused bits of other Fu Manchu stories off it.)

 

[Elckerlyc]

I read a few Fu Manchu books, more than 50 years ago. My father brought them from the library and I gave them a try. I was about 16, I think. The only thing I remember from those books was the mysteries that hung around this ageless Chinese character. A high-level criminal with unique resources.
I don't recall anything about contemporary politics, but than again, why would I?

 

[BAYLOR]

I just finished my first Fu Manchu book.

The Drums of Fu Manchu 1939 - Doctor Fu Manchu has a plan. He has a list of dictators and arms manufacturers currently working their towards an all-out war in Europe. He warns them that unless they renounce these plans he will kill them. For some bizarre reason, unavailable to the reader, our heroes think this is a BAD idea and do their utmost to protect thinly-disguised stand-ins for Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco from being killed and thus free to start their war.

WHAT?!

Our heroes' attempts to stop this heinous plot consists of running around Europe, instantly bumping into one of the three of Fu Manchu's minions to get name (in this book) anywhere they go, getting captured escaping, going somewhere else in Europe bumping into the minions again, getting captured, escaping... The book doesn't have a plot. Just a series of episodes. Towards the end of the book they manage to corner Fu Manchu who, rather than go through the laborious escape routines he forces his foes to go through, pulls out a fountain pen sized disintegrator ray from his pocket and vaporises holes in doors, ceilings roofs and anything else that gets in the way of a quick exit.

Then the book ends.

Nothing is resolved. Nothing has been thwarted. No one wins. The only thing that has changed is that one of Fu Manchu's minions - a young firebrand (these days we would call her a Social Justice Warrior - though, given her parents were killed by war-making colonial bombers in Africa she has a bit more of an understandable motive than most) has come over to the side of protecting fascism because she fancies the narrator sidekick hero.

Nayland Smith - Fu Manchu's arch opponent and supposed hero of the book comes across as a delusional paranoid roping in anyone he comes across into his bewildering world view. Fu Manchu on the other hand is shown as wanting to stop a war and we are told has never been known to lie.

I was utterly bewildered as to who I was supposed to be rooting for.



(The Republic film serial Drums of Fu Manchu doesn't, from what I can tell, use any of the book's protecting fascism's right to let white people slaughter white people without fiendish oriental interference, but just uses the title and hangs unused bits of other Fu Manchu stories off it.)

It sounds godawful.

 

[BAYLOR]

I read a few Fu Manchu books, more than 50 years ago. My father brought them from the library and I gave them a try. I was about 16, I think. The only thing I remember from those books was the mysteries that hung around this ageless Chinese character. A high-level criminal with unique resources.
I don't recall anything about contemporary politics, but than again, why would I?

Fu Manchu was the likely inspiration for the Flash Gordon's nemesis Ming the Merciless and possibly the James Bond villain Dr No?

 

[Elckerlyc]

Fu Manchu was the likely inspiration for the Flash Gordon's nemesis Ming the Merciless and possibly the James Bond villain Dr No?

Dr No? No, I don't really think so.
But both Chinese characters were possibly inspired by a more general notion of the 'Yellow Peril' and a fear of them conspiring to conquer the world.

 

[Mon0Zer0]

I like Sax Rohmer - I think his prose is so readable and fun that I can forgive the silliness and of-the-time-racial dodginess of his writing. It's not something anyone should take too seriously or expect too much from.

For a long while I've wanted to write a sort of Bildesroman for Fu Manchu, or at least to commission someone (possibly from the Chinese diaspora) to write it as if FM was a brilliant but psychologically real figure.

I think there's a seam to mine for a character growing up under the foreign occupation and through the Boxer rebellion - an idealistic character engaging in acts of resistance first against invading foreign powers and then against Empress Dowager Cixi as he forms part of the socialist intellectual clique that was happening at the turn of the 20th century.

In the process, the reality of violent resistance changes his character to the villain we see in the Rohmer books.

 

[Toby Frost]

According to Wikipedia:

Rohmer's work was banned in Nazi Germany, causing Rohmer to complain that he could not understand such censorship, stating "my stories are not inimical to Nazi ideals".

I can't say for sure whether Rohmer had fascist leanings, but I suspect that there were quite a few non-Nazi people in the UK and US before the war who foolishly thought that the fascists were doing a good job of holding the commies and savages at bay, even if they went a bit far sometimes. Orwell mocks rich people who saw WW2 as an "insane family squabble" rather than a fight for survival.

 

[BAYLOR]

I like Sax Rohmer - I think his prose is so readable and fun that I can forgive the silliness and of-the-time-racial dodginess of his writing. It's not something anyone should take too seriously or expect too much from.

For a long while I've wanted to write a sort of Bildesroman for Fu Manchu, or at least to commission someone (possibly from the Chinese diaspora) to write it as if FM was a brilliant but psychologically real figure.

I think there's a seam to mine for a character growing up under the foreign occupation and through the Boxer rebellion - an idealistic character engaging in acts of resistance first against invading foreign powers and then against Empress Dowager Cixi as he forms part of the socialist intellectual clique that was happening at the turn of the 20th century.

In the process, the reality of violent resistance changes his character to the villain we see in the Rohmer books.

Given him more depth and dimension and take him beyond the stereotype . Yes , Fu Manchu as a character has possibilities.

 

[Vladd67]

I preferred Dr Chou N Ginsberg MA (failed) to be honest, with the loveliest of his concubines Lotus Blossom.

 

[JunkMonkey]

According to Wikipedia:

Rohmer's work was banned in Nazi Germany, causing Rohmer to complain that he could not understand such censorship, stating "my stories are not inimical to Nazi ideals".

eek!

I can't say for sure whether Rohmer had fascist leanings, but I suspect that there were quite a few non-Nazi people in the UK and US before the war who foolishly thought that the fascists were doing a good job of holding the commies and savages at bay, even if they went a bit far sometimes. Orwell mocks rich people who saw WW2 as an "insane family squabble" rather than a fight for survival.

It's a bit alarming ( I know,"with hindsight...") seeing a Hitler figure described with admiration by a book's hero narrator. Here he's is hiding behind a convenient arras (yes, that kind of a book) spying on a confrontation between Adolph Hitler/ Rudolh Adlon and Fu Manchu:

I though that Rudolh Adlon was a very splendid figure.
And in that moment I understood why a great, intellectual nation had accepted him as its leader. Whatever his failings, this man was fearless.

 

[KiraAnn]

A long, long time ago, I bought some of Rohmer's paperbacks and read them. It didn't take me long to get tired of his "Yellow Peril" racism. It went beyond the casual racism of those times.

 

[BAYLOR]

I read one of the Morris Klaw Dream Detective tales. I quite enjoyed it .