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| by Cosmo Lee |
Recently I read Robert E. Howard for the first time. Fantastical settings are not my thing; only last year did I read the first “fantasy” book I’ve ever read, other than books by Tolkien and Rowling. That was a free offering on Stanza, an e-reader iPhone app that I recommend. So was the Robert E. Howard anthology that I read. Free was the right price; I wound up enjoying both.
The Howard anthology seemed very long, so I think I have a decent grasp of what he is about. However, even a cursory perusal of his Wikipedia entry and various fansites reveals that he and his work are more multifaceted than I thought.
At any rate, here are my impressions. Howard was not much of a writer, in the sense that he did not wield language well, at least for my taste. I prefer streamlined language; I often found myself mentally editing his sentences to be shorter. I also found his dialogue abysmal. His characters tend not to speak, but to orate. He falls into the sci-fi crutch of having his characters explain the story. Finally, I often found his characters one-dimensional. The men are usually supermen, and the women are usually scantily clothed.
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Such characters have their appeal, though, and not in the obvious ways. Howard focuses on big themes: justice, loyalty, physical prowess, individuals as movers and shakers in history. He writes about heroes, which, despite a popular TV show with that name, are rather unfashionable today. Heroes these days are more interesting when they fail — see, for example, tabloid culture, Blabbermouth, TMZ, and so on. It seems corny to have some dude just slaying everything. The superman of my generation, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is usually appreciated through a heavy dose of irony.
Thus, Howard’s work is idealistic in a way that’s very metal. It was eye-opening to see how much inspiration metal has drawn from him. His fans in bands are legion: The Gates of Slumber, Manilla Road, Ironsword, Bal-Sagoth, Reverend Bizarre, and on and on. The wonderful Shadow Kingdom label takes its name from a Howard story. Even the most infamous commenter in Blabbermouth history got his handle from Howard: Kull the Valusian.
However, Howard’s metal acolytes seem to miss, or at least fail to convey, his gift for atmosphere. His stories involve temporal instability, shape-shifting, things not being as they seem, and a general wispiness that belies their sword-and-loincloth trappings. From what I’ve read about Lovecraft, he has a similar way with atmosphere. (I’d love to read Howard’s correspondence with him.) I’ve never read Lovecraft — a metal sin, I know — because he seems to have similar weaknesses to Howard’s. But I made it through Howard, so I can probably make it through Lovecraft. On deck for me is a free Lovecraft collection I just downloaded on Stanza.
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Lovecraft's writing is even more purple, but he comes across as more skillful. He sort of sidesteps the same weaknesses in dialogue by using epistulatory narrative a lot. You're in for a treat!
*GROAN*
Would that all writers wrote like AP Copy Eds.
you post an ironsword song rather than anything by crom? *shakes head in disappointment*
Who is this Lovecraft guy???
Man, Lovecraft and Howard! Without them, I wouldn't be the person I am today (twitchy, insular, paranoid). I even played the H.P. Lovecraft role-playing game! I always enjoyed their prose, but yes, McMaster is right, compared to Lovecraft, Howard's writing is pretty restrained.
I think Gates of Slumber gets Robert E. Howard's atmosphere pretty dead-on, actually. Especially in the "Dark Valley Suite" on Conqueror.
LOL Abboreno, I played that too once or twice – I thought reading the RPG book was more interesting than playing the game, especially with the "bestiary" of all the gods and stuff. I wish I still had that book.
(I ran Call of Cthulhu paper and pencil for a long time.)
Howard uses language wonderfully and H.P.L also, at least as far as I can tell as a non-native reader. They're (along with other pulp writers) often maligned because readers come with different expectations of what exactly prose should be. Similarly listeners come to Heavy Metal with different expectations and call it naive or sloppy or noisy or whatever else. Your request for direct language is similar to a person's request for "less solos, please". It is the artist's job to upset your expectations, manifest a different reality, become from an external force to an internal re-arranger. You write about a lot of music on this blog and it's not all of it that has achieved that for you so perhaps you're growing used to approaching art as a distanced critic (every some months you say how you've burnt out on metal, for example) but he didn't write to achieve this minor effect on you, he wrote to alter you significantly.
If for whatever reason he didn't achieve that, it's not because he doesn't use language well, it's about how much you also put into it. If you're coming to such a significant writer like Howard (or Lovecraft) with expectations, you're only going to get this much out of it. Instead, courage to surrender!
'TheChaosPath said…
LOL Abboreno, I played that too once or twice – I thought reading the RPG book was more interesting than playing the game, especially with the "bestiary" of all the gods and stuff. I wish I still had that book.'
Loose 2D6 SAN!…I still do, the third edition smells of old and secrets, its a true lovecraftian tome. I got into Howard and Lovecraft because of metal and pretty much everything i do now creatively is influenced by them to some degree.
The use of language that Cosmo mentions is one of quirks that draws people, probably the same way that people are drawn to the quirks of early BM for eg.
Cogent:
"It is the artist's job to upset your expectations, manifest a different reality, become from an external force to an internal re-arranger."
Too bad there aint an "app" for that, huh?
Cos, if you want spectacular language wielding, I highly recommend Gene Wolfe's The Shadow of the Torturer. Dude's a master.
Caveat: The setting is fantastical, but Wolfe's wordplay is so sublime it balances the cheese for even the strictest lactose-intolerant.
And Stewart, sarcasm or no (re: your first comment) I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Helm – I approached Howard with no expectations. (Not paying anything does that.) For me, the disruptive benefit you mentioned came from what he said, not how he said it. There are other artists with some of the same qualities – Woolf, Debussy – whose work feels more seamless to me. Ambition is fine, but if I can see its seams, that lessens the effect.
Van Damned – I'm not necessarily into spectacular language wielding. I'm more into using the right tool for the job. But if Wolfe can deliver "spectacular," I'm game.
Mr. Van Damned:
Not only is it sarcasm, it's also Attic/Ionic in construction, namely, "hopeless wish."
Cosmo: Here's to ambition! Seams 'n' all.
i like this spot sooooo much
I'm very glad you took the plunge into reading Howard, especially since (by your own admission) you're not a fan of fantasy settings. Nonetheless, I can't help but be disappointed that you didn't enjoy it more. Such is life.
"Howard was not much of a writer, in the sense that he did not wield language well, at least for my taste. I prefer streamlined language; I often found myself mentally editing his sentences to be shorter."
I'm rather amazed you found Howard to a poor writer, since it's my experience that Howard was pretty concise with his wordage.
"I also found his dialogue abysmal. His characters tend not to speak, but to orate. He falls into the sci-fi crutch of having his characters explain the story."
You have to remember that many of his stories were serialised in Weird Tales: a certain amount of exposition is often necessary in his longer stories.
"Finally, I often found his characters one-dimensional. The men are usually supermen, and the women are usually scantily clothed."
To be frank, I consider that a rather facile generalization. His women were scantily clothed because he was writing for a magazine whose cover illustrator was a notorious sappophile with a penchant for sadomasochism. If he did scenes that could grab her attention (yes, Brundage was a woman), then he'd get the extra acclaim and money for the cover.
That said, the only men who could be described as "supermen" would be his historical and Swords-and-Sorcery heroes, and frankly, given their occupation, I can't imagine how they could survive their worlds if they weren't badasses. It's simply more realistic for your character to survive a story if he has the faculties to do so.
As for "one-dimensional," well, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, since I find the conflicted Solomon Kane, the unpredictable Conan, and the tragic Bran Mak Morn far more nuanced than "one-dimensional."
Continued…
"Heroes these days are more interesting when they fail ? see, for example, tabloid culture, Blabbermouth, TMZ, and so on. It seems corny to have some dude just slaying everything."
Howard's heroes certainly do not always succeed, and even when they prevail, it's often either more than they bargained for, or the classic Lovecraftian revelation of things being worse than they imagined. Certainly more than "some dude just slaying everything."
Sure, Kull slew the Serpent Men in "The Shadow Kingdom", but he now has to live his life constantly on guard, never knowing who to trust, or even having rest, until the Serpent Men are exterminated. Sure Bran Mak Morn destroyed the Roman Fort, but in doing so doomed his own people to extinction, and brought a great evil upon the world. A shame Heroes in the Wind doesn't include "Beyond the Black River," since that's an unequivocal downer ending for all involved.
"Thus, Howard's work is idealistic in a way that's very metal."
I have to chortle a little at the idea of Howard being "idealistic," when the overwhelming descriptor I would choose for his work is "bleak." Even with his heroes winning their small victories, occassionally getting the girl and fabulous treasure (more often than not, they're lucky to get away with their skin intact, much less with a girl and jewels in tow), Howard's work is imbued with a powerful, devastating sense of futility, that all man's work and dreams are as nothing more than a spark of light in the suffocating dark of the cosmos.
That said, the very surface stuff like the drinking, wenching and killing is obviously noticed by metal fans, especially the likes of Manowar, but Manilla Road and others go beyond that, and write more varied tracts based on his work.
If you're interested in reading more Howard, I recommend the two "Best of Robert E. Howard" omnibus volumes from Del Rey, as they have a cross-section of the very best Howard stories.
It would be helpful to know which stories you had read, since being an author who wrote well over 800 stories, it's remarkably easy to get a bad cross-section. It would also be nice to know exactly what stories gave you such impressions.
Still, for all my disagreements with your assessments, I commend you in experiencing something new. In that, I have no reservations in giving you a thumbs up.
I've never read Robert E. Howard either (but I plan on it very soon) but Conan the Barbarian is my favorite movie of all time haha
On a side note- Cosmo I just read your review in Decibel of Aetherius Obscuritas and I must say that I actually noticed the same thing you did (the whole dudes turning into body builders out of nowhere) when I checked these guys out about a month ago! Haha I'm glad you pointed this out in the review because my friends and I were pretty amused by it when we first saw those pictures on their website. It's fucking ridiculous!
Taranaich – Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Your assessment of Howard comports with others I've seen. Ergo, my "more multifaceted than I thought" statement.
My standards for concision are severe. Many writers, even prominent ones, fail to satisfy them.
I like your explanations regarding the need, diegetic or not, for supermen and scantily-clad women. I still feel they are one-dimensional, as the women feel disposable to me, and the supermen win 99% of the time (in what I read). As I was reading the stories, I had zero doubt that Conan, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn would live to the end of them. If Howard's world is so "bleak," why doesn't it defeat his heroes more? I suppose that commerce dictated the survival of his heroes, and now that I think about it – with all the permutations of Batman that I've read, he always lives, but is not necessarily better off for doing so.
I did read "Beyond the Black River," which was in the anthology I read, the first volume of the Best of Robert E. Howard omnibus from Del Rey. It is indeed a downer – but Conan lives, as I had no doubt he would while reading it, and the original protagonist felt expendable.
Growing up amid Robert De Niro and Raymond Carver, I, like, much of my generation, am used to anti-heroes and unused to heroes. When heroes bat over .900 (that was my feeling from this anthology, anyway), they seem one-dimensional. As you point out, that perception may be simplistic.
WULF – Perhaps the band turned into Howard characters!
Speaking of which, the current Del Rey reprints of Howard (grouped by theme or character) do variously include some of his correspondence, and I believe some of the Lovecraft letters are there.
(I'm 99% sure I saw at least one in the appendix to Bran Mak Morn, but I didn't look at them closely.)
I wouldn't doubt an upcoming collection of his letters.
(And another thing is that Howard and Lovecraft, especially Lovecraft, are in the Machen and Dunsany tradition of the "weird tale" more than "fantasy" as the genre is defined now.
A "fantasy" setting, perhaps, but many of the tales of Conan would keep their essence if translated into, say, the South Pacific in the Second World War – a very non-fantasy setting, just as Lovecraft's Innsmouth.)
Iron Maiden + RE Howard = Sun & Steel/Awesome
I've been reading fantasy and scifi for a couple decades now. What's funky is the supposed relation to metal from fantasy and Conan-style books. Metal's a great fantasy so it's only natural that metal dudes feel the appeal of a fantasy novel. I don't think fantasy is inherently metal, but bands out there certainly love their Conan-lore, especially in the trad metal area. Is it any surprise that fantasy metal (Iron Maiden, Cirith Ungol, basically all black metal) is the cheesiest of metal out there? Yeah, black metal is fucking cheesy and there's no amount of seriousness offered in it that will change that.
Fantasy novels really took off when D&D; was unleashed to the world. Ever third kid, like me, was fascinated by this other world, strange dialects, races, spells, all these things I'd never heard of. Fantasy and sci-fi is all over the place now, but in the early 80's when I was a kid it just blew me away, like it did a lot of youths. I outgrew it because there isn't much good fantasy going on because of D&D;, which took Lord of the Rings and then imagined it on your tabletop. For some reason the stories declined and the fighting took over.
Lord of the Rings is the starting point basically, and if you read it enough you'll realize it isn't fantasy but a history novel featuring intense character development. Another thing that not many realize is that LOTR has a huge amount of it's story based off and taken directly from the Bible. The same is true for The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe books. That one almost directly parallels the Bible, including the rapture at the end. I'd say the third set of books that influence fantasy the most are the Arthurian novels, for me T.H. White's The Once and Future King began my fascination with history. Harry Potter is trash, and she is not a good writer at all, but she certainly knows how to make us feel for and want to be her characters. Fantasy these days is gimmicky and sort of whimsical, whereas the older stuff is vastly more grim. The failings of modern fantasy novels is in creating characters who aren't real. The reason Lord of the Rings was so grand, besides the absurd amount of detail of the world, was that people could relate to the characters. Piers Anthony is a somewhat more recent writer who takes the cake in fantasy for me.
I haven't touched up on science fiction, which is both very similar and nothing like fantasy. If you're interested in the modern style of sci-fi, my favorite is Asimov. The Currents of Space is one of his shorter novels and a page-turner, but it's got everything that makes his work what it is. The thing that makes sci-fi and fantasy great is how it's characters react to these situations that would never happen in real life, or very well could.
There's a lot out there, and I'm sorry for the length but it's easier spending paragraphs writing about books than it is music.
I meant to add that Arthur novels have a surprising amount to do with Christ, which is strange because the novels were partially born out of the pagan gods being worshipped by the native English.
Also, Lancelot is a total french creation! Romance my ass, bring me that head on your sword!
Conduit – No, it's great to discuss books at length, so thanks for that. I don't follow sci-fi, but I read it occasionally and have an aficionado friend who recommends me good stuff. I'm heartened to see that people still read.
I recently got into 60's era sci-fi and fantasy by picking up a bunch of old paperbacks at the Salvation Army last summer.
Robert Silverberg turned out to be the cream of the crop for me. His short stories almost always contain a shocking or uncomfortable element that causes one to questions his views on morality or the rules of a society or class system. I found myself pondering the stories and their potential meanings days after I'd read them…much like the first time I read the Watchmen. They both opened my eyes to new or different ways of thinking about the world.
Sorry to repost, but in response to Conduit: Lord of the Rings was not the starting point. Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) " was.
Wagner was basically THE forefather of metal. He liked myth, the occult, and he like his music heavy.
God damn what a badass. I know there is earlier fantasy works, Beowulf is the oldest one, but I think Lord of the Rings went so far above anything literary before that it's the beginning for most of what's there today when it comes to fantasy. Also I'm a total loser for the books. It's the same way the Jules Verne snoozers is one of the earliest scifi novels yet there's a field of things that came before it that lead up to it. I never thought to look to an opera for that kind of inspiration.
Then again, I don't know shit and this is just what I've gathered from searching through history.
Cosmo – I think reading of the same way as listening to music. So long as people are writing or playing, people will be there to receive. And once the writing stops, the readers will begin to write.
"Taranaich – Thanks for the thoughtful comment. Your assessment of Howard comports with others I've seen. Ergo, my "more multifaceted than I thought" statement."
Not at all, I'm just glad to see more people read Howard.
"My standards for concision are severe. Many writers, even prominent ones, fail to satisfy them."
I see. We all have our idiosyncrasies.
"As I was reading the stories, I had zero doubt that Conan, Kull, and Bran Mak Morn would live to the end of them. If Howard's world is so "bleak," why doesn't it defeat his heroes more?"
The primary reason Conan, Kull and Bran Mak Morn survive the stories is because they're series characters. I don't think you're really meant to doubt that they'd survive, like your Batman example. They proved to be bankable hits, and Howard kept them alive for as long as he could write about them.
Looking to other Howard fantasies, however, you'd be hard pressed to find a protagonist that survives the adventure. "The Valley of the Worm," "Children of the Night," "The People of the Black Coast," "Marchers of Valhalla" etc. And when you get down to pure numbers, Conan only accounts for something like 5% of Howard's entire literary output, so one can't really accurate gauge Howard based only on his Conan stories.
"I did read "Beyond the Black River," which was in the anthology I read, the first volume of the Best of Robert E. Howard omnibus from Del Rey. It is indeed a downer – but Conan lives, as I had no doubt he would while reading it, and the original protagonist felt expendable."
You have to admit though, Balthus' death was a hell of a blaze of glory. Indeed, the secondary protagonists are there precisely because there's never a real possibility of Conan dying, but it depends on the other protagonist. Some survive, others don't. Oddly, I consider Balthus to be one of the more human and interesting of Howard's ancillary characters, but them's the breaks.
Sigivald: the Robert E. Howard foundation has printed the entire sum of Howard's correspondence in "The Collected Letters" volume. Pretty expensive, but for Howard fans it's really a must have. If not, "A Means to Freedom" contains all the Lovecraft/Howard correspondence, edited by S.T. Joshi and Rusty Burke, two giants of Lovecraft/Howard scholarship respectively.
And people say metal fans are a bunch of drunken morons. Fie, I say.
The forefather of all things Heavy Metal and all things epic in particular is Homer with the Iliad and the Odyssey. Subordinate to the domination.
Fun fact- Howard was a Texan and much of his world was inspired by his (tragically short) life in the hill country. Take a trip through Fredricksburg and the magic of the region will work on you.
HP Lovecraft, though great, is weak when run against RE Howard. I love them both. But Howard is action. Howard is horror. Nobody before or since has been as good and anyone who says otherwise probably wrote the lame story they are claming is better.
Sorry, but that's just how it is. "I found myself editing his sentences…" Says the dude who will not have anyone talking about him 74 years after he's dead. Once you come up with one story that anyone aside from your dumb girlfriend thinks is 'alright' or one character half as good as Steve Costigan then you can edit Howard's work. Until then shut the fuck up.
Anon – This seems like the same argument as, "Don't criticize a band unless you can make better music." Or "Don't criticize anything unless you can do it better." There may be something to that, actually.