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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Firebird" data-source="post: 9606776" data-attributes="member: 7015803">I'll go to bat for the thematic depth in Conan, which I think is often underappreciated but explains the continued appeal.One is Howard's framing civilization vs barbarism. While Howard's work does undoubtedly have racism in it, the depiction is more complicated than it might be because it isn't "us = civilized = good; them = barbaric = bad" the way that e.g., some Westerns might portray it. Instead he finds a kind of vitality and life-affirming force in the barbaric, with civilization leading to decadence and decay. It's reminiscent of themes Herbert explores in Dune (hardship forges strength, for the Sardaukar and the Fremen alike). Both of these are hearkening back to Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah, which presents this cycle as the universal historical cycle.You see this most pronounced in Howard in Beyond the Black River and Red Nails.Another is the kind of universal heroic archetype. What's really interesting in Conan is that he is always an outsider; he is presented as Conan the Cimmerian, but we never see other Cimmerians. This outsider status gives him a new perspective on conflicts and the ability to solve them in a way a local cannot. There are many other heroes of the same type--think Mad Max, think Westerns, think Samurai movies. This allows people to project all sorts of desires, hopes, fears, etc. on him (see, again Red Nails, or Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, where this happens again and again). There's this recurring idea of islands of civilization, with a messianic figure appearing from beyond the wastes who will lead us to the promised land, save us from ourselves (again, Paul Atreides...these are all the same character). Then, there is the life-affirming vibrancy and vitality, which Howard expresses very well through his prose, and is really all about constructing and finding meaning for oneself. It simply oozes existentialism. Take his famous statement in Queen of the Black Coast:"Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”This brings to mind, for me, first Nietzsche's treatment of  the collapse of meaning. There's an undercurrent of Conan feeling lost, adrift, unmoored, and responding to that by basically doubling down on physical pursuits, on adventure, on outrunning and outachieving this deep fear of the void that lies in his heart. (It's very easy to see the parallels to Howard's own life). Ultimately he is driven by the desire to do something, to affirm that life is for the living. I think this explains a lot of his appeal to certain readers. But I'd also put him in conversation with Dostoevsky, especially Ivan Karamazov or the narrator of Notes from the Underground, who suffers from precisely an inability to self-define in this way. There's also a lot to say with respect to Kierkegaard...really any of the existentialists. I've gone on long enough, but I hope that gives an overview of what I, at least, find there. </blockquote>

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