tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448613549782052868.post4957905095328557212..comments2024-01-23T16:31:22.429-08:00Comments on The Nintendo Project: An 8-Bit Psychochronography: Junk Creatures Out of Rags and Bones (Commando and Conan)Elizabeth Sandiferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18337209180846868581noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448613549782052868.post-45976216550720832112011-02-14T07:07:40.264-08:002011-02-14T07:07:40.264-08:00I think you do Howard, and Sword and Sorcery as a ...I think you do Howard, and Sword and Sorcery as a genre, a bit of a disservice. From the point of view of today's fantasy scene it does look like Sword and Sorcery was a dead end, and that Howard's ultramasculine, ultrareal hero whose battle is with the users of magic (which would I suppose mean those who wish to exploit the gaps in our knowledge for their own dangerous ends) has been subsumed as just a trope within the Tolkein model, but I don't necessarily think that the battle was immediately lost.<br /><br />For a start, the fact that the trope survives at all - pretty much every book David Gemmell wrote is clearly traceable to Howard and Conan, while plenty of more Tolkeinesque stories have a Conan-lite character - is proof that something stuck. However, I think the thing that really killed off Sword and Sorcery as a major form (or as a possible major form) in the way you describe was that it was so perfectly answered, or rather completed, by Michael Moorecock when he wrote the Elric stories. It's as if, after that, no one serious decided it was worth looking at again in any great depth, so it was left to stagnate in form and become a cultural relic.<br /><br />(As an aside, it also can't have helped that, while Tolkein coded his racism in the fantasy elements of his stories, Howard's was always baldly explicit - thus dating his work to quite a damaging extent very quickly.)<br /><br />As always, though, yours is a really interesting and thought-through take on the subject.Amsel von Spreckelsenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17195871826293788306noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448613549782052868.post-25345277495571096232010-10-12T21:47:24.772-07:002010-10-12T21:47:24.772-07:00I have read just about everything Robert E. Howard...I have read just about everything Robert E. Howard has ever written (everything I could get my hands on anyway). I love his writing style. Masculine escapism at its best. I fell in love with the Conan series (both Howard's and other author's contributions) about the time the NES was released. Coincidence? I think so.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10146263779983724703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448613549782052868.post-43602131059948327372010-10-12T07:49:58.137-07:002010-10-12T07:49:58.137-07:00The Noahide laws may provide prohibitions, but tha...The Noahide laws may provide prohibitions, but that is not the whole of religion. Any search for teleology will find them exceedingly unsatisfying.Elizabeth Sandiferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18337209180846868581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448613549782052868.post-41738853819726196132010-10-11T21:24:03.531-07:002010-10-11T21:24:03.531-07:00What does Judaism prescribe for the non-Jew? The q...<i>What does Judaism prescribe for the non-Jew? The question is tricky</i><br /><br />I disagree that it is tricky. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Laws_of_NoahUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17292850487101924738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448613549782052868.post-58989780278796400202010-10-11T10:37:04.258-07:002010-10-11T10:37:04.258-07:00A sufficient number of walls of text constitutes, ...A sufficient number of walls of text constitutes, in time, a city.Elizabeth Sandiferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18337209180846868581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448613549782052868.post-29925892697153612682010-10-11T10:31:18.647-07:002010-10-11T10:31:18.647-07:00wall of text, but one interestin wall i gotta reck...wall of text, but one interestin wall i gotta reckonmomohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01372032797921736391noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448613549782052868.post-71100129408985017322010-10-10T22:04:49.804-07:002010-10-10T22:04:49.804-07:00Speaking of Arnie, do you remember the Total Recal...Speaking of Arnie, do you remember the Total Recall game? This was the one that had dwarves hiding in trash cans that fly across the screen when you punch them.Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08827731848618933239noreply@blogger.com