Platypus Wrote:
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> Sawfish Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I've always had a tough time with Howard's
> > works--everything seems contrived to set up
> "good
> > guy/bad guy" divide. And while he very much
> likes
> > to adopt a sort of Nietzchean worldview for his
> > "good guys", making them closer to a
> conventional
> > bad guy (are Howard's main characters
> > anti-heroes?), it's really like making Dirty
> Harry
> > the good guy--he's supposed to be a product of
> the
> > kind of world in which he lives.
>
> There are no good guys in this story. Bran is a
> Faustian figure who makes a deal with the devil.
> Nothing he does is justified, and no good comes of
> anything he does. His only redeeming quality is
> that he is human enough to begin to regret the
> devil's trap he has walked into.
>
> > He then goes to some length to make the
> characters
> > stand out in some physical way. There can be no
> > physically inconspicuous characters, it seems
> > like. Howard seems to relish this.
>
> Okay. But I do not see how Bran's physical
> prowess, or Sulla's, detracts from the story.
>
> > Then the expository seems very clumsy and
> forced.
> > In this case he starts with a bad guy
> cheerfully
> > ordering a crucifixion.
>
> It's unapologetically lurid, but I don't see
> anything clumsy about it.
>
> The crucifixion is part of the setup, creating the
> motivation for Bran's drive for vengeance. It
> foreshadows the denouement, and Bran's horror at
> the form his own vengeance his taken. Sulla is no
> saint, but he is basically executing a murderer;
> and this angers Bran primarily because of Bran's
> pride.
>
> Did you finish the story? It is hard to tell from
> your comments.
I read it and it demonstrates that enjoyment of literature is highly subjective. I still don't care for the way Howard tells a story.
But again, it's subjective.
I may have mentioned this on ED before, but here's a story that has a lot of thematic similarities to some of the Howard stories. I like this one much better than any Howard story I've read, but could not easily tell you why. I'm going to leave out a little spoiler.
The Barrow Troll - 1975 David Drake
[
baencd.freedoors.org]
Not long. If you read it, let me know what o think of it.
--Sawfish
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"The food at the new restaurant is awful, but at least the portions are large."
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