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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 5254100" data-attributes="member: 21169">Good points regarding the Hobbit, which is a lot closer to Gygaxian D&D than the Lord of the Rings, and also the Frost Giant's Daughter - reading your quotes it does look a lot like an enchantment.However I must still disagree with you regarding the level of cynicism to be found in Conan versus Tolkien's works as a whole. There is no sexual desire in Tolkien, just romantic love, and mostly no women at all. The women Conan meets are not princesses but dancing girls (which could be read as code for prostitutes), typically wearing very few clothes. Their nubile bodies are lovingly detailed by the author (indeed, Conan's sexy thews get plenty of description too). Apart from sex, money is Conan's major motivation. The treasure hoard is the plot driving macguffin in most of the stories. While this is also true of the Hobbit, it isn't the case with the rest of Tolkien's oeuvre. Conan wants treasure, or a kingdom, Frodo just wants a quiet life in the Shire.In Tolkien there are may noble and spiritually enlightened beings - Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel and the other elves. There is a heaven, to the west, across the sea. In Conan, beings from other worlds are demons or Cthulhoid horrors. There are no angels. There is no heaven, but there is a hell. Seldom are there even wise old men, Conan himself is probably the noblest character, and, as previously mentioned, his gods are sex and cash and political power. And Crom ofc, who is a neutral, uncaring force, at best.The world of Conan is one of thieves, pirates and mercenaries, of dancing girls and swarthy, sadistic high priests. Of primitive savages worshipping grotesque Lovecraftian idols, of former great races now degenerate. Of treasure hoards to be won and soon spent.Middle-Earth is a world of great evil, but also great good, with men somewhere in between. There is Mordor but there is also the Shire and Galadriel's forest and Gondor and the land beyond the sea. It's a world not of thieves and cuthroats but of elven gifts, pipe-smoking camaraderie, and a stout-hearted working class lad who'd do anything for his beloved gaffer.Above all in Tolkien there is a longing for the past. A sense of lost nobility. Of lost goodness, as well as greatness. Although in Conan there is fallen Atlantis and other great civilizations long gone, one gets only a sense of the loss of the latter.Finally I would ask - do you think this is pandering to any base instincts?<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a3/250px-Conan_red_nails.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /></blockquote>

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