Robert E. Howard, by Crom!
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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.
