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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Voranzovin" data-source="post: 9607988" data-attributes="member: 7020495">I don't see much evidence of this trope in recent fiction, cinematic or otherwise. It's not the same thing as conflict between city and small town values (both the city and the small town are civilized)--and frankly, I haven't seen that one too much recently either.I'm not claiming that the corrupting influence of civilization is the only feature of Conan, but that it is a pretty defining feature, and one of the primary things that you can get from Conan stories that you wouldn't get from other fiction. What I'm positing is that, in the huge marketplace of fictional ideas, if one of your defining traits doesn't resonate widly anymore in the 21st century, then you are unlikely to remain influential when there are so many other fictional ideas to choose from. Of course people will continue to read and make adaptations of Conan--it would take a very long time for such a singular character to completely vanish from culture--but the entire premise of this thread is that he's no longer familiar to a wide range of DnD players, and I think that's almost certainly true. He was once one of the fundamental texts of fantasy fiction, and now he isn't. So I'm speculating about why I think that is.On the contrary--I think we have already reached the point where there are no longer any frontiers, and we are rapidly approaching the point where no one will even be able to recall one. There's still the, you know, final frontier, but given how space hasn't turned out to be full of aliens after all I think it's unlikely to inspire the same kind of fiction!Of course the concepts forged in that particular environment won't go away, but they will be warped into whatever shape best serves the narratives that resonate with people in the future. As have concepts that arose from feudalism; hardly any fantasy, including LOTR with its divine right of kings, really tries to portray a feudal world. The exceptions, like Game of Thrones, are often deliberate deconstructions of more traditional fantasy tropes. It's the flavor of feudalism that we see in fantasy, without its substance. Just like Wolverine has something of the flavor of Conan, embedded in a worldview that is diametrically opposed the one REH was articulating.</blockquote>

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