Re: A good weird/horror/sci-fi book to recommend
Posted by:
Dale Nelson (IP Logged)
Date: 26 November, 2019 09:34AM
I hope my comments clearly distinguish two things: (1) the character and meaning of the Conan stories as works of fiction, and (2) the character of Conan's world postulated as a real time and place.
So far I've been focusing on (1) -- or anyway have intended to do so. I've mean to say something about the character and meaning of the stories as works of fiction by Robert E. Howard. My main point has been that they are indeed works of fiction, intended to give readers a brief excitement. Howard's "formula" for doing that was to write from a kind of adolescent male viewpoint. (I haven't really gone into biographical speculations about Howard the man.)
Now I'll comment on (2) a little. Knygatin, your comment indirectly reminds me that, along with "The Hour of the Dragon," I haven't read Howard's "Hyborian Age" essay in many years. I thought about your comment that the age was a "very rough time."
From my memory of the stories, I'd say: it was and it wasn't. A fair bit of organized crime was common in the major, richest cities, but I don't have the sense that ordinary people lived terribly anxious lives. It was a rough time in the sense that it was a time, if not of long-lasting wars (as in the European "Thirty Years War"), of frequent raids, skirmishes, battles. I don't have the sense that "national" boundaries are thought of as having changed much in Conan's lifetime.
On the other hand.... I don't have the sense, from my memories of the stories, that Conan's time was a rough one in other senses. The climate was stable. Harvests do not seem to have failed. It doesn't appear to have been a time of famines or epidemics. The characters we meet are usually healthy, strong men and women. (Some of the women who have been living in palaces may not seem strong at first, but they are healthy and quickly adjust to more demanding conditions.) Civilization was advanced and settled enough that the value of currency evidently was stable, and trade between nations was well developed, though caravans of trade goods, and shipping, were always in danger of brigands and pirates. No one kingdom or dynasty seems to have dominated vast territories of subject people. Mental illness seems to have been almost unknown, although certain perversions were liable to develop among the most powerful; but nobody seems to have suffered from deep depression or paranoia; if people were afraid of things, these were usually real things that should be feared. I recall no alcoholism in the stories although occasional bout drinking occurred. In general people seem to have been occupied with work and vocation that they found interesting; I recall little or no suggestion that "alienation" was a problem. It doesn't seem to have been the case that people had to wear themselves out just to scratch a subsistence. People seem to have found life interesting, as suggested, for example, by their arts. Music and sculpture, at least, could be impressive, although oil painting wasn't practiced. The Hyborians may have feared "the gods," but in general they seem to have felt that "the gods" were not very hard to satisfy through whatever the local cults were. Human sacrifice was not characteristic of Hyborian societies; it was unusual enough to be regarded with abhorrence when it was known to occur; it was then seen either as evidence of a primitive, sub-civilized culture, or as evidence of chronic decadence. Religious wars were unknown.
So I'd say the Hyborian Age, or anyway Conan's time, was and wasn't rough.