D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

[Eyes of Nine]

Conan remains a favorite of mine, one I will continue to return to for years to come. But I am also a bit of An Old. I do think that REH continues to exist in fantasy DNA in much the same way Tolkien does. It perhaps isn't always as obvious, but if someone were to remove REH's works from existence, it would dramatically change fiction. Same with, say ERB's Barsoom series, or the works of Lord Dunsany.


Looking at Amazon's Fantasy category, definitely:

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When my doctor tells me her (adult) kids are reading a fantasy series, that's when I know it's penetrated beyond the geekosphere.

 

[Clint_L]

A lot of kids ARE reading Conan. It's honestly surprising how many are, because most of RE Howard (and ER Borroughs, and HPL) are on Gutenburg. Got a cellphone? Grab an old book, free and legal. (I'm reading Airlords of the Han, currently.)

Plus, the Schwarzenegger movies, as disonnected from Howard as they are, are still out there, and last time I watched one, it was "free with ads" on youtube; it's now behind the paywall.

In the 2010's, I was teaching elementary; Conan, despite some NSFW/NSFS material, was being read by 2-3 6th graders a year in one school. Mostly on phones.

Also, keep in mind, there's been a continuous coverage of Conan with rulesets for RPGs for the last 20 years... Mongoose, Modiphius, a new one, and the GURPS Conan in PDF. If new blood wasn't finding it, they would not have spent the resources.

As far as modern S&S fiction? I've not read anything newer than about 1990 in the genre. Closest I've gotten is Narnia, Dresden Files, and Percy Jackson.

Your elementary school has REH on the shelves? That's a choice.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I honestly believe men and women just seek out different kinds of stories.

This is sexist nonsense. I (male) like cosy escapist fiction (especially after the relentless tide of grimdarkness we have had in recent years). My (female) partner enjoys gory hardcore crime thrillers. My late mother also enjoyed violent thrillers. People tell children what they think they should be reading based on their gender and this creates a bias.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I've not read anything newer than about 1990 in the genre. Closest I've gotten is Narnia, Dresden Files, and Percy Jackson.

Those are an odd three to lump together.

Narnia 1950
Dresden Files 2000
Percy Jackson 2005

(Although I believe Dionysus appears in at least two of those).

 

[Autumnal]

It’s complicated. Some genres very strongly appeal to one sex. Some appeal mostly to one sex. Some have evenly mixed readership. In some cases, publishers have a strong sense of their readership and market accordingly. In other cases, marketing is aiming at some basically imaginary audience. In all genres, readership changes over time - sex, ethnicity, age, social class, and everything else you can think of probably some you’d never think of on your own. Sometimes this has happened in the recent past, or is happening now. In others, it last happened in a big way decades ago.

And here’s the crucial point @Paul Farquhar is onto: some genres have very homogeneous audiences, and some don’t, and as nearly know, every significant active genre has a more heterogenous than many people realize. To get exclusive, or close to it, you’d need to look at some thing like the modern-day descendants of men’s adventure series like the Executioner, or some of the really specialized sub-sub-genres of heterosexual romance. (Gay and lesbian romance both have significant audiences of people of other orientations and sexes who find the emotional issues at stake most satisfying to them.) For just about anything else, expect that a bunch of readers are not like your first guess about them.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

men’s adventure series like the Executioner

The sort of stuff my mum liked (along with Ian Fleming, Bulldog Drummond etc).

 

[Autumnal]

Okay, Paul, your family are just troublemakers. . Seriously, I’m having a hard time thinking of anything to compare to romance categories like stories about virtuous young Hispanic women working as secretaries who find true love and can retire to be Christian home-makers. Didn’t make thst up, by the way. Men-oriented niches seem to leak more, thanks to troublemakers like your mother.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Okay, Paul, your family are just troublemakers. . Seriously, I’m having a hard time thinking of anything to compare to romance categories like stories about virtuous young Hispanic women working as secretaries who find true love and can retire to be Christian home-makers. Didn’t make thst up, by the way. Men-oriented niches seem to leak more, thanks to troublemakers like your mother.

I like me a bit of Jane Austen.

 

[Autumnal]

Me too. I think I read her readership is about 60/40, but I’d have to check.

 

[Clint_L]

I remember when the folks making D&D assumed that the game was basically just for boys. Turns out, they were wrong. And undoubtedly left a whole lot of money on the table before figuring that out.

REH stories were written and published assuming a particular readership, and it's one of the main reasons they haven't aged well.