WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.200 You know, it is funny how we tend to view the 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:06.080 authors behind our favorite fictional worlds. 00:00:06.099 --> 00:00:07.980 Oh, absolutely. Like, we usually picture them 00:00:07.980 --> 00:00:11.339 sitting in these dusty wood paneled studies, 00:00:11.519 --> 00:00:14.259 right? Yeah. Just channeling profound truths 00:00:14.259 --> 00:00:17.179 from the universe straight onto the page. Right. 00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:21.079 Like, they are these untouched creative geniuses. 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:23.800 Yeah. But what happens when the author themselves 00:00:23.800 --> 00:00:26.079 is, I mean, when they are just as much of a fiction 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:28.100 as the characters they're writing. It is a really 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:30.539 great question. Because we assume there is this 00:00:30.539 --> 00:00:32.939 solid, unbreakable line between the creator and 00:00:32.939 --> 00:00:35.399 the creation, but sometimes that line doesn't 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:39.479 just blur. It dissolves entirely. It just vanishes. 00:00:39.659 --> 00:00:41.920 Exactly. The mask basically becomes the face. 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:44.420 And that is the exact paradox we are jumping 00:00:44.420 --> 00:00:47.020 into today. We're taking a deep dive into the 00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:49.539 life, the work, and the highly debated legacy 00:00:49.539 --> 00:00:52.820 of a man named Arthur Henry Ward. Though most 00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:54.479 people definitely do not know him by that name. 00:00:54.600 --> 00:00:56.079 No, not at all. If you know him at all, you know 00:00:56.079 --> 00:00:59.500 him by his pen name, Sax Roemer. The architect 00:00:59.500 --> 00:01:02.119 of, well, really one of the 20th century's most 00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:05.480 infamous pulp fiction empires. He really was. 00:01:05.780 --> 00:01:07.760 Yeah. And just to set the stage for you listening, 00:01:08.180 --> 00:01:10.799 we are pulling from a really comprehensive source 00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:14.260 for this deep dive today. It is a detailed Wikipedia 00:01:14.260 --> 00:01:17.280 biographical article that covers Romer's entire 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:21.079 timeline, basically from his birth in 1883 all 00:01:21.079 --> 00:01:23.920 the way to his death in 1959. It is a lot of 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:26.739 ground to cover. It is. And our mission here 00:01:26.739 --> 00:01:30.200 is to figure out how this this working class 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:32.659 kid from Birmingham transformed himself into 00:01:32.659 --> 00:01:36.650 a wildly wealthy pulp fiction mastermind. We're 00:01:36.650 --> 00:01:39.290 going to explore the mechanics behind how he 00:01:39.290 --> 00:01:42.489 created the notorious literary villain Fu Manchu, 00:01:42.969 --> 00:01:46.090 and we're going to unpack the incredibly complex 00:01:46.090 --> 00:01:48.409 cultural footprint he left behind. Yeah, and 00:01:48.409 --> 00:01:51.370 for you listening, if you enjoy dissecting how 00:01:51.370 --> 00:01:53.109 media shapes public perception, I mean, this 00:01:53.109 --> 00:01:55.409 is essentially masterclass. Oh, totally. It is 00:01:55.409 --> 00:01:58.370 a perfect case study in how fiction, public anxiety, 00:01:58.549 --> 00:02:01.150 and highly opportunistic storytelling all just 00:02:01.150 --> 00:02:03.549 collide to create a massive cultural phenomena. 00:02:03.730 --> 00:02:05.349 Okay, let's unpack this, because before we can 00:02:05.349 --> 00:02:07.349 even talk about his most famous creations, we 00:02:07.349 --> 00:02:09.449 really have to look at the man himself, Arthur 00:02:09.449 --> 00:02:11.770 Henry Ward. As I mentioned, he was born in Birmingham 00:02:11.770 --> 00:02:15.250 to working -class Irish parents, and he actually 00:02:15.250 --> 00:02:17.449 started out his professional life as a civil 00:02:17.449 --> 00:02:20.069 servant. Which is not exactly the glamorous backstory 00:02:20.069 --> 00:02:23.610 you expect. Not at all. But he eventually pivots. 00:02:23.870 --> 00:02:26.330 He gets into writing comedy sketches, songs, 00:02:26.650 --> 00:02:30.699 and poetry for musical performers. And I guess 00:02:30.699 --> 00:02:33.460 I am wondering why the music hall? Well, the 00:02:33.460 --> 00:02:36.560 music hall was basically the popular vaudeville 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:39.780 -style entertainment of the day in Britain. And 00:02:39.780 --> 00:02:41.879 what is crucial to understand about this environment 00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:45.000 is the pacing. OK. It was rowdy. It was very 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:46.840 theatrical. And it was highly immediate. You 00:02:46.840 --> 00:02:49.219 had to grab a distracted audience's attention 00:02:49.219 --> 00:02:51.539 instantly, or you just lost them completely. 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:54.629 Wow, tough crowd. Exactly. And what's fascinating 00:02:54.629 --> 00:02:56.789 here is how that theatrical background gave him 00:02:56.789 --> 00:02:59.349 the absolute perfect training for what he was 00:02:59.349 --> 00:03:01.409 about to do in literature. He wasn't trained 00:03:01.409 --> 00:03:03.909 as a classical novelist pondering deep themes, 00:03:03.909 --> 00:03:06.310 you know. He was trained in the art of the hook, 00:03:06.610 --> 00:03:08.750 the cliffhanger, the dramatic reveal. And he 00:03:08.750 --> 00:03:11.150 applied that exact same dramatic flair to his 00:03:11.150 --> 00:03:13.550 own identity, right? He absolutely did. I mean, 00:03:13.710 --> 00:03:17.210 he invents this persona, Sax Roemer, and suddenly 00:03:17.210 --> 00:03:20.830 he is no longer a former bureaucrat writing comedy. 00:03:21.310 --> 00:03:23.810 He starts claiming he belongs to these elite, 00:03:24.229 --> 00:03:27.210 mysterious, occult factions. This is quite the 00:03:27.210 --> 00:03:29.669 rebrand. It really is. He says he is a member 00:03:29.669 --> 00:03:32.439 of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. which 00:03:32.439 --> 00:03:35.199 that was a real occult group, right? Yeah, it 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:37.740 was a real group that contemporaries of his, 00:03:37.939 --> 00:03:39.819 like Algernon Blackwood, are actually tied to. 00:03:40.020 --> 00:03:42.759 OK. And he even claimed ties to the Rosicrucians. 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:45.419 Right. Because he understood that to sell mysterious 00:03:45.419 --> 00:03:48.240 stories, you needed a mysterious author. I find 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:50.599 this so surprisingly modern. If you think about 00:03:50.599 --> 00:03:53.360 it, he is basically functioning like a modern 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:55.879 internet personality. Oh, for sure. Just curating 00:03:55.879 --> 00:03:58.819 this highly calculated fake aesthetic. He's an 00:03:58.819 --> 00:04:01.439 ex -bureaucrat, artificially rebranding himself 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:04.659 as an enigmatic occult insider just to build 00:04:04.659 --> 00:04:06.460 a brand and move product. It was all marketing. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:08.599 Pure marketing. Because the reality check from 00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:11.319 our source text is just amazing. His only actual 00:04:11.319 --> 00:04:13.740 legitimate connection to any of these mystical 00:04:13.740 --> 00:04:16.319 shadowy organizations might have just been his 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:19.199 doctor. Yeah. Dr. Richard Watson, counsel. Yes, 00:04:19.860 --> 00:04:22.180 his doctor and family friend. That might have 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:24.339 been his entire link to the occult underground. 00:04:24.620 --> 00:04:27.740 It is just brilliant marketing. It really is. 00:04:27.779 --> 00:04:29.839 It demonstrates that he understood the mechanics 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:32.560 of audience desire. Readers in the early 20th 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:35.040 century, they wanted mystery. They craved the 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:37.079 exotic and they wanted the forbidden. And Arthur 00:04:37.079 --> 00:04:38.579 Ward, the civil servant, couldn't give it to 00:04:38.579 --> 00:04:41.300 them. Exactly. But Sax Rummer, the occult insider, 00:04:41.420 --> 00:04:43.579 certainly could. He constructed an authority 00:04:43.579 --> 00:04:46.079 for himself out of thin air, which leads right 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:49.699 into his massive breakthrough. By 1912, he had 00:04:49.699 --> 00:04:52.439 been doing some ghost writing, but then he debuts 00:04:52.439 --> 00:04:55.740 a serialization that shifts his entire trajectory. 00:04:55.899 --> 00:04:59.279 Right, from October 1912 to June 1913. Yeah, 00:04:59.279 --> 00:05:01.759 he publishes The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu. And 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:04.300 it was just an explosive success. The narrative 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:06.879 follows two heroes, Dennis Nalen Smith and Dr. 00:05:07.100 --> 00:05:09.060 Petrie, as they face off against the supposed 00:05:09.060 --> 00:05:12.660 worldwide conspiracy. It is classic serialized 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:15.019 melodrama. But the inspiration for this villain 00:05:15.019 --> 00:05:17.730 is a crucial piece of the puzzle here. because 00:05:17.730 --> 00:05:20.370 it wasn't just a random act of imagination. No, 00:05:20.449 --> 00:05:23.310 not at all. Romer was very explicit about his 00:05:23.310 --> 00:05:26.230 timing and his methods. He stated that the conditions 00:05:26.230 --> 00:05:29.930 for launching a Chinese villain were ideal specifically 00:05:29.930 --> 00:05:32.769 because of the Boxer Rebellion. Which was a real 00:05:32.769 --> 00:05:35.829 geopolitical event. Right. He explicitly noted 00:05:35.829 --> 00:05:38.990 that this real world conflict had, in his words, 00:05:39.490 --> 00:05:41.730 started off rumors of a yellow peril which had 00:05:41.730 --> 00:05:44.449 not yet died down. Here's where it gets really 00:05:44.449 --> 00:05:47.629 interesting because that is just sheer opportunism. 00:05:47.730 --> 00:05:50.850 Very much so. He is looking at newspaper headlines, 00:05:51.529 --> 00:05:54.550 seeing this widespread geopolitical paranoia 00:05:54.550 --> 00:05:57.250 sweeping through London and saying, hey, that 00:05:57.250 --> 00:05:59.629 is a fantastic marketing angle for a villain. 00:05:59.889 --> 00:06:02.509 He saw what the public was afraid of and monetized 00:06:02.509 --> 00:06:04.589 it. Yeah. But I have to push back a little on 00:06:04.589 --> 00:06:06.149 the idea that this was just clever marketing. 00:06:06.550 --> 00:06:08.149 Do you think he was just giving the audience 00:06:08.149 --> 00:06:10.629 the thrilling escapism they wanted? Or does a 00:06:10.629 --> 00:06:13.009 writer in that position bear responsibility for 00:06:13.009 --> 00:06:15.649 validating and amplifying real world paranoia? 00:06:15.750 --> 00:06:17.430 If we connect this to the bigger picture, it 00:06:17.430 --> 00:06:19.709 is a tension that exists in almost all popular 00:06:19.709 --> 00:06:22.029 media. Authors have always mined current events 00:06:22.029 --> 00:06:25.149 for plot devices. But the mechanism of what Roemer 00:06:25.149 --> 00:06:28.430 did is what matters here. He struck gold by treating 00:06:28.430 --> 00:06:32.410 very real, very potent geopolitical rumors as 00:06:32.459 --> 00:06:36.279 raw material for melodrama. He saw a societal 00:06:36.279 --> 00:06:39.379 anxiety, and rather than seeking to analyze it 00:06:39.379 --> 00:06:42.139 or understand it, he weaponized it for entertainment. 00:06:42.139 --> 00:06:45.180 Wow. And the financial reward for that weaponization 00:06:45.180 --> 00:06:47.680 was staggering. Staggering is definitely the 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:50.560 right word. The source notes that the Fu Manchu 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:53.120 stories, along with his other characters, people 00:06:53.120 --> 00:06:56.259 like Paul Harley, Gaston Max, and this occult 00:06:56.259 --> 00:06:59.000 detective named Morris Claw, They made Romer 00:06:59.000 --> 00:07:01.220 one of the most successful and financially well 00:07:01.220 --> 00:07:05.019 -off authors of the 1920s and 1930s. He was everywhere. 00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:07.560 He was churning out these highly dramatic serialized 00:07:07.560 --> 00:07:09.680 pulp fictions, and the public was just buying 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:11.680 them as fast as he could write them. But of course, 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:13.879 when you build a publishing empire by tapping 00:07:13.879 --> 00:07:16.779 into real -world anxieties and ethnic stereotyping, 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:19.540 that immense financial success inevitably sparks 00:07:19.540 --> 00:07:21.920 a broader cultural reaction. Right. And as we 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:23.980 look at this next part, we want to impartially 00:07:23.980 --> 00:07:26.019 report what the academic source material lays 00:07:26.019 --> 00:07:28.579 out, because the cultural footprint here is heavy. 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:31.220 and it is heavily debated. The Fu Manchu series 00:07:31.220 --> 00:07:33.579 was actively criticized by the Chinese government, 00:07:33.720 --> 00:07:35.620 as well as by Chinese communities in the United 00:07:35.620 --> 00:07:38.800 States, for what was perceived as highly negative 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:41.560 ethnic stereotyping. And sociologists have pointed 00:07:41.560 --> 00:07:44.639 out the vast disconnect between Romer's fictional 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:47.300 world and the actual reality of the communities 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:49.620 he was writing about. Which is really eye -opening. 00:07:49.819 --> 00:07:52.060 Yeah. Virginia Barrage makes a very specific 00:07:52.060 --> 00:07:55.399 observation about this. In his books, Romer created 00:07:55.399 --> 00:07:58.569 this vivid image of London's Chinese community 00:07:58.569 --> 00:08:02.329 in the Limehouse district as a dangerous, crime 00:08:02.329 --> 00:08:05.389 -ridden underworld, it was central to his whole 00:08:05.389 --> 00:08:08.560 aesthetic. But Berridge notes that the sociological 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:11.500 data shows a totally different reality. Exactly. 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:14.240 Berridge points out that in reality, the Limehouse 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:16.879 Chinese were actually one of the most law abiding 00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:20.040 of all of London's ethnic minorities. The fiction 00:08:20.040 --> 00:08:22.379 was entirely divorced from the facts on the ground. 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:24.620 So what does this all mean? We have a situation 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:26.839 where a real community is living their labs, 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:29.959 largely obeying the law, but they are being portrayed 00:08:29.959 --> 00:08:32.980 to millions of readers as a shadowy syndicate 00:08:32.980 --> 00:08:35.159 simply to give a fictional detective somebody 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:38.169 to fight. It is quite a contrast. It really is. 00:08:38.250 --> 00:08:40.529 And for you, listening, if you think about the 00:08:40.529 --> 00:08:42.690 media you consume today, it makes you wonder 00:08:42.690 --> 00:08:45.889 how often an entire demographic is misrepresented 00:08:45.889 --> 00:08:49.590 or exaggerated in a movie or a TV show just for 00:08:49.590 --> 00:08:51.830 the sake of an exciting plot mechanism. This 00:08:51.830 --> 00:08:53.950 raises an important question about how we analyze 00:08:53.950 --> 00:08:56.389 historical fiction, and the literary critics 00:08:56.389 --> 00:08:58.830 in our source material are deeply divided on 00:08:58.830 --> 00:09:01.909 how to view Romer's authorial intent versus his 00:09:01.909 --> 00:09:04.970 impact. Well, on one side of the debate, you 00:09:04.970 --> 00:09:08.590 have the critic Jack Adrian. He argues that Romer's 00:09:08.590 --> 00:09:11.649 racism was, quote, careless and casual, a mere 00:09:11.649 --> 00:09:14.110 symptom of his times. OK, so like a passive thing. 00:09:14.269 --> 00:09:16.690 Right. Adrian is essentially arguing it was thoughtless 00:09:16.690 --> 00:09:19.710 opportunism rather than deliberate malice. But 00:09:19.710 --> 00:09:21.500 then you have Colin Watson. Watson, who looks 00:09:21.500 --> 00:09:23.779 directly at the text and pushes back hard on 00:09:23.779 --> 00:09:26.720 that interpretation. Watson argues that Romer's 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:28.779 references to Asiatic plotting against white 00:09:28.779 --> 00:09:32.399 civilization were so, quote, vehement and repetitive 00:09:32.399 --> 00:09:34.840 that they cannot just be dismissed as the frills 00:09:34.840 --> 00:09:37.940 of melodramatic narration. Watson is basically 00:09:37.940 --> 00:09:40.299 saying the sheer volume and intensity of the 00:09:40.299 --> 00:09:42.820 repetition moves it past casual opportunism. 00:09:43.179 --> 00:09:46.080 It is the classic debate between passive absorption 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:49.539 of cultural prejudice versus the act of propagation 00:09:49.539 --> 00:09:52.799 of it. And that is a tension you, as the listener, 00:09:53.019 --> 00:09:55.059 have to weigh for yourself. Right. Can you ever 00:09:55.059 --> 00:09:57.480 really separate the two? Exactly. Can a work 00:09:57.480 --> 00:09:59.960 of fiction that had such a massive, tangible 00:09:59.960 --> 00:10:02.460 impact on how a group of people were perceived 00:10:02.460 --> 00:10:05.860 ever truly be separated from that impact, even 00:10:05.860 --> 00:10:08.000 if the author himself claimed he was just writing 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:11.740 a fun thriller? It is. A profound question. And 00:10:11.740 --> 00:10:14.299 the irony of all of this is that while the critics 00:10:14.299 --> 00:10:16.899 were debating the cultural harm, and while the 00:10:16.899 --> 00:10:20.220 massive royalty checks were pouring in, Romer 00:10:20.220 --> 00:10:22.500 actually grew to hate his own creation. Yeah, 00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:25.039 he found himself effectively trapped by the monster 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:27.740 he built. It is a fascinating psychological dilemma 00:10:27.740 --> 00:10:30.340 for a creator. He wanted to escape the genre 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:32.740 he defined, but the financial gravity of the 00:10:32.740 --> 00:10:34.559 franchise simply wouldn't let him. Right, the 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:36.679 money was just too good. To give you an idea 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:38.940 of how much he wanted out, The source notes there 00:10:38.940 --> 00:10:41.960 is a massive 14 -year gap between the third Fu 00:10:41.960 --> 00:10:44.419 Manchu book and the fourth one. 14 years is a 00:10:44.419 --> 00:10:47.440 long time in publishing. A lifetime. The fourth 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:50.000 one, Daughter of Fu Manchu, didn't come out until 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:53.879 1931. And the reason for that gap is simply that 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:56.000 Romer desperately wanted to be rid of the series. 00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:58.840 He was totally exhausted by it. He actually attempted 00:10:58.840 --> 00:11:01.679 a major creative pivot during that time. He wrote 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:04.279 a book called The Emperor of America, and his 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:06.759 original intent was for the head of the criminal 00:11:06.759 --> 00:11:10.259 organization in that book to be Fu Manchu's daughter. 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:13.399 Oh, interesting. But he changed his mind, presumably 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:16.500 to distance himself further. He kept the mechanical 00:11:16.500 --> 00:11:19.779 concept of a female criminal mastermind, a character 00:11:19.779 --> 00:11:22.100 named Head Center who fought against a hero named 00:11:22.100 --> 00:11:25.179 Drake Roscoe. But the pivot failed, right? The 00:11:25.179 --> 00:11:27.120 source tells us he was very unhappy with the 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:29.639 book, both as he was starting it and in its finished 00:11:29.639 --> 00:11:32.120 form. It just didn't work for him. I see this 00:11:32.120 --> 00:11:35.059 as the ultimate modern creator dilemma. It is 00:11:35.059 --> 00:11:38.139 like a tech founder who builds a wildly successful 00:11:38.139 --> 00:11:41.379 app realizes they actually despise the app, but 00:11:41.379 --> 00:11:43.419 they cannot stop updating it and releasing new 00:11:43.419 --> 00:11:45.299 versions because it's the only thing paying the 00:11:45.299 --> 00:11:48.179 server bills. That is a perfect analogy. He tried 00:11:48.179 --> 00:11:50.679 to launch a new product. It didn't work. He wasn't 00:11:50.679 --> 00:11:52.960 creatively fulfilled. And so the market inevitably 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:55.330 pulls him right back to his golden goose. And 00:11:55.330 --> 00:11:58.850 that poll was formalized in 1930. He is essentially 00:11:58.850 --> 00:12:01.710 forced to revive the franchise to fulfill a deal 00:12:01.710 --> 00:12:03.669 for Collier's magazine. Right. He had to pay 00:12:03.669 --> 00:12:07.029 the bills. Yep. He brings back Dennis Nalyn Smith, 00:12:07.110 --> 00:12:09.669 who is now older and knighted as the protagonist. 00:12:10.149 --> 00:12:12.970 And this jump started the whole serialization 00:12:12.970 --> 00:12:15.669 engine all over again. Over the course of nearly 00:12:15.669 --> 00:12:19.250 30 years, from 1931 to 1959, he added another 00:12:19.250 --> 00:12:22.269 10 books to the series. Ending up with 13 Fu 00:12:22.269 --> 00:12:24.940 Manchu books in total. Exactly. He is locked 00:12:24.940 --> 00:12:28.279 back into the Fu Manchu universe. But I noticed 00:12:28.279 --> 00:12:30.740 in the source that he never fully abandoned that 00:12:30.740 --> 00:12:33.860 other concept, the female supervillain from his 00:12:33.860 --> 00:12:36.360 failed pivot. He didn't. And this illustrates 00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:38.779 how incredibly difficult it is for authors to 00:12:38.779 --> 00:12:41.019 escape their own successful structural formulas. 00:12:41.470 --> 00:12:43.909 When forced to create new content, he ended up 00:12:43.909 --> 00:12:45.929 recycling his own tropes. He just couldn't help 00:12:45.929 --> 00:12:48.309 himself. He took that female supervillain concept 00:12:48.309 --> 00:12:50.909 from The Emperor of America and later found six 00:12:50.909 --> 00:12:53.669 stand -up it via a BBC Light program radio series 00:12:53.669 --> 00:12:57.350 in the late 1940s. Oh, wow. Yeah, that radio 00:12:57.350 --> 00:13:00.110 show eventually spawned a five book series featuring 00:13:00.110 --> 00:13:02.269 a character named Sumuru. Who was essentially 00:13:02.269 --> 00:13:05.409 just a female variation of the exact same Fu 00:13:05.409 --> 00:13:09.169 Manchu archetype. Precisely. The aesthetics changed 00:13:09.169 --> 00:13:12.360 slightly. But the underlying machinery of the 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:15.279 plot was identical. He just couldn't escape the 00:13:15.279 --> 00:13:19.820 blueprint. But if we look past these famous masterminds, 00:13:20.039 --> 00:13:22.700 there are these deeper cuts in Romer's biography 00:13:22.700 --> 00:13:26.570 that reveal a man who was full of bizarre, fascinating 00:13:26.570 --> 00:13:29.409 contradictions. Oh, his actual life, outside 00:13:29.409 --> 00:13:31.649 of the plotting of his books, is arguably even 00:13:31.649 --> 00:13:34.230 more theatrical than his fiction. Yeah. For instance, 00:13:34.269 --> 00:13:36.509 he formed a real -life friendship with the famous 00:13:36.509 --> 00:13:39.210 escapologist Harry Houdini. Which, when you think 00:13:39.210 --> 00:13:41.570 about it, makes perfect sense. The guy who built 00:13:41.570 --> 00:13:44.350 his entire career on theatricality, mystery, 00:13:44.470 --> 00:13:46.809 and illusion becomes friends with the world's 00:13:46.809 --> 00:13:48.750 greatest illusionist. They were completely on 00:13:48.750 --> 00:13:51.110 the same wavelength. Houdini even wrote to Romer, 00:13:51.289 --> 00:13:52.990 praising a book he wrote called The Romance of 00:13:52.990 --> 00:13:55.730 Sorcery. And Romer would turn the favor by basing 00:13:55.730 --> 00:13:58.750 his own mystery solving magician character, Buzzerata, 00:13:59.370 --> 00:14:01.970 directly on Houdini. They were kindred spirits 00:14:01.970 --> 00:14:04.570 in understanding how to manipulate an audience's 00:14:04.570 --> 00:14:07.549 perception. But then you have a book like The 00:14:07.549 --> 00:14:10.110 Orchard of Tears. Oh, this is my absolute favorite 00:14:10.110 --> 00:14:13.049 detail from the entire deep dive. Because you 00:14:13.049 --> 00:14:16.990 picture Sax Romer, the undisputed master of the 00:14:16.990 --> 00:14:21.730 dark, exotic, pulse pounding pulp thriller. sitting 00:14:21.730 --> 00:14:24.470 down at his typewriter, the man who writes global 00:14:24.470 --> 00:14:26.830 syndicates and deadly traps. And what does he 00:14:26.830 --> 00:14:29.649 produce? The Orchard of Kears. The source describes 00:14:29.649 --> 00:14:32.330 it as an extremely odd book in the context of 00:14:32.330 --> 00:14:34.830 his bibliography. There are no villains. There 00:14:34.830 --> 00:14:37.529 are no exotic locations. It is literally just 00:14:37.529 --> 00:14:39.769 gentle rabbits and lambs in pastoral settings 00:14:39.769 --> 00:14:42.389 filled with a great deal of philosophical musing. 00:14:42.570 --> 00:14:45.230 It really highlights a deeply serious, perhaps 00:14:45.230 --> 00:14:47.190 insecure side to him that the reading public 00:14:47.190 --> 00:14:50.110 rarely saw. As much as he enjoyed the notoriety 00:14:50.110 --> 00:14:52.350 and the massive income from his thrillers, there 00:14:52.350 --> 00:14:54.309 was clearly a part of him that wanted to be taken 00:14:54.309 --> 00:14:56.549 seriously as a thinker, not just an entertainer. 00:14:56.629 --> 00:14:59.230 Yeah, he wanted to be profound. Exactly. The 00:14:59.230 --> 00:15:01.889 dedication of that book alone is wildly out of 00:15:01.889 --> 00:15:04.509 character for a pulp novelist. He dedicates it, 00:15:04.509 --> 00:15:07.629 quote, to the slaves of the pomegranate, sons 00:15:07.629 --> 00:15:09.929 of Adam and daughters of Eve who drink at the 00:15:09.929 --> 00:15:12.830 fountain of life. This chalice is offered as 00:15:12.830 --> 00:15:15.629 a loving cup. I cannot help but laugh at the 00:15:15.629 --> 00:15:19.009 mental image of the guy who writes violent cliffhanger 00:15:19.009 --> 00:15:22.029 pulp fiction, suddenly sliding a manuscript across 00:15:22.029 --> 00:15:25.470 his publisher's desk about gentle lambs and slaves 00:15:25.470 --> 00:15:27.970 of the pomegranate. It is quite the pivot. You 00:15:27.970 --> 00:15:29.590 can just imagine the publisher flipping through 00:15:29.590 --> 00:15:32.590 the pages going, uh, Sachs, where are the secret 00:15:32.590 --> 00:15:35.559 lairs? Where is Nailin Smith? It is a supreme 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:38.440 historical irony. Here is a man of immense imagination 00:15:38.440 --> 00:15:40.919 who could construct these elaborate clockwork 00:15:40.919 --> 00:15:44.440 plots of global domination. Yet he was notoriously 00:15:44.440 --> 00:15:46.700 terrible at managing the reality of his own life. 00:15:46.860 --> 00:15:49.519 Oh, right. His finances. Yeah. The source explicitly 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:51.980 states that despite the immense wealth he generated 00:15:51.980 --> 00:15:55.000 in the 1920s and 30s, he was incredibly poor 00:15:55.000 --> 00:15:57.620 at managing his money. He made several disastrous 00:15:57.620 --> 00:15:59.740 business decisions that hampered his financial 00:15:59.740 --> 00:16:03.039 stability for his entire career. He can orchestrate 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:05.980 a fictional worldwide syndicate, but he can't 00:16:05.980 --> 00:16:08.899 balance his own ledger. Exactly. And the ironies 00:16:08.899 --> 00:16:10.820 just keep escalating right up to the end of his 00:16:10.820 --> 00:16:13.960 life. During World War Two, his work was actually 00:16:13.960 --> 00:16:17.080 banned in Nazi Germany. Now, for most authors, 00:16:17.279 --> 00:16:19.879 being banned by an authoritarian regime is worn 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:22.570 as a badge of honor. But Romer's reaction was 00:16:22.570 --> 00:16:24.750 entirely different. He was reportedly confused 00:16:24.750 --> 00:16:26.850 by the censorship. He actually complained about 00:16:26.850 --> 00:16:29.470 the band, stating, quote, My stories are not 00:16:29.470 --> 00:16:32.269 inimical to Nazi ideals. It is such a baffling 00:16:32.269 --> 00:16:35.029 defense. It is baffling, but it speaks directly 00:16:35.029 --> 00:16:37.970 to how disconnected he was from the ideological 00:16:37.970 --> 00:16:40.850 implications of his own writing. He viewed his 00:16:40.850 --> 00:16:43.950 work strictly as a mechanical exercise in entertainment. 00:16:44.370 --> 00:16:46.659 Right. He didn't see the depth of it. He seemingly 00:16:46.659 --> 00:16:49.860 failed to understand how a regime obsessed with 00:16:49.860 --> 00:16:52.440 racial purity and authoritarian control might 00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:55.159 interpret or object to his underlying themes 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:58.279 of racial peril and global conspiracies. He couldn't 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:00.620 see the real world weight of his own tropes. 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:03.919 And then the final, almost unbelievable irony 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:07.279 of his story. Arthur Henry Ward, the man who 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:09.660 built an entire publishing empire by profiting 00:17:09.660 --> 00:17:12.059 off the fear of the yellow peril and manufacturing 00:17:12.059 --> 00:17:15.990 Asian conspiracies. He dies in 1959. at the age 00:17:15.990 --> 00:17:19.549 of 76 and the cause of death an outbreak of the 00:17:19.549 --> 00:17:22.029 asian flu it really is a life story that feels 00:17:22.029 --> 00:17:24.150 like it was plotted by a slightly heavy -handed 00:17:24.150 --> 00:17:26.890 novelist a man who was trapped by his own massive 00:17:26.890 --> 00:17:29.390 success unable to manage the day -to -day reality 00:17:29.390 --> 00:17:32.250 he actually lived in while simultaneously exerting 00:17:32.250 --> 00:17:34.910 a massive controversial influence over the reality 00:17:34.910 --> 00:17:37.569 of millions of his readers so we've covered a 00:17:37.569 --> 00:17:39.230 lot of ground today we've journeyed through the 00:17:39.230 --> 00:17:42.109 timeline of Arthur Henry Ward we saw him start 00:17:42.109 --> 00:17:44.750 as a civil servant in Birmingham We explored 00:17:44.750 --> 00:17:46.869 how he used the mechanics of the Rowdy Music 00:17:46.869 --> 00:17:49.809 Hall to invent the Sax Roamer persona. And build 00:17:49.809 --> 00:17:52.630 a brand. Exactly. We analyzed how he weaponized 00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:54.950 real -world geopolitical fears to build the most 00:17:54.950 --> 00:17:57.450 infamous pulp fiction empire of the 20th century. 00:17:57.930 --> 00:18:00.529 We looked at the sociological and literary controversy 00:18:00.529 --> 00:18:03.250 that followed, and we saw a creator who ultimately 00:18:03.250 --> 00:18:05.710 felt trapped by the very monster he brought to 00:18:05.710 --> 00:18:08.329 life. And as we wrap up this exploration, I want 00:18:08.329 --> 00:18:10.549 to leave you with a new thought to mull over, 00:18:10.950 --> 00:18:12.769 building on the mechanics of storytelling we 00:18:12.769 --> 00:18:15.750 have discussed today. Think about the monsters 00:18:15.750 --> 00:18:17.829 or the villains in the pop culture you consume 00:18:17.829 --> 00:18:20.309 right now. Oh, that is a good point. How many 00:18:20.309 --> 00:18:23.160 of those antagonists are actually just Reflections 00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:25.779 of our current geopolitical anxieties dressed 00:18:25.779 --> 00:18:28.099 up in a different costume. The next time you 00:18:28.099 --> 00:18:30.140 sit down to watch a blockbuster thriller or read 00:18:30.140 --> 00:18:32.759 a best -selling novel, ask yourself, who is the 00:18:32.759 --> 00:18:35.299 modern day Limehouse community being cast as 00:18:35.299 --> 00:18:38.420 the villain simply to provide an easy antagonist 00:18:38.420 --> 00:18:41.720 and sell tickets? That is such a fantastic lens 00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:44.400 to take away from this because whether it's 1913 00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:46.740 or today, there is always someone figuring out 00:18:46.740 --> 00:18:49.960 how to package anxiety and sell you a mask. Thank 00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:51.640 you so much for joining us on this deep dive. 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:54.079 Keep asking those critical questions. Keep looking 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:56.019 past the surface mechanics of the stories you 00:18:56.019 --> 00:18:58.500 consume. And remember, sometimes the author hiding 00:18:58.500 --> 00:19:00.819 behind the curtain is just as fictional as the 00:19:00.819 --> 00:19:01.519 story on the page.