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2/11/2018 9:27 am  #41


Re: Robert E. Howard

BinaryTortuga wrote:

Nearing the end of my first foray into Howard's work with "The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian."  Fantastic stories and terrific prose!  I've read a fair amount of sword and sorcery in my life and I don't know why it took me so long to get around to reading the founding father's work.  I have to thank Jeff for creating this astonishing setting.  Buying and reading the AS&SH handbook is rewarding in it's own regard.  But actually assembling players and running a game will be a challenge when faced with adult reality.  If my dreams of roleplaying bliss come to naught, being inspired toward new reading horizons will make the price of admission worth it.
 

It makes me very happy to read posts like this. Thank you, sir. You just made my day!
 


HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
 

2/11/2018 3:57 pm  #42


Re: Robert E. Howard

R.E.H. is my favorite author. Much like Gygax and other favorite authors when I was young, Howard challenged me which lead me to read more; in Howard's case it was history so I could better grok the inspirations for the Hyborian Age. His stories have excellent pacing.  R.E.H. had a refreshing lack of pretense and prose that hits you like bullets to the head. Howard's characters and actions scenes are fantastical yet believable. 

There's something about Howard and his writing that strongly resonates with my working-class background. R.E.H. was manly and honorable but was also learned and creative. The best example I can think of is a letter R.E.H wrote to HP Lovecraft describing a fistfight that was the greatest experience of his life.  It wasn't showboating or humblebragging or being a tough guy.  It was an honest appraisal and acknowledgement of his nature. 
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It's such a damn shame how Howard's life ended. I can only imagine what he could have produced in his 50's or 60's.

 

2/13/2018 2:39 am  #43


Re: Robert E. Howard

Brock Savage wrote:

It's such a damn shame how Howard's life ended. I can only imagine what he could have produced in his 50's or 60's.

At this point my knowledge of Howard's life is not much more than Wikipedia-deep.  But yea, it's tragic that he died so young.  And it does seem he had the kind of talent that would have become more refined in later decades.  It is a damn shame that those with that kind of raw and powerful vision often have such troubled souls.  

Idk, the trajectory of societal change has the potential to drive us all a little mad.  It seems Howard was more troubled by it than most, living in a time and place where "civilization" was rolling in with incredible rapidity.  I can "grok" how maybe it did make him feel at odds with his times, and perhaps like a stranger in a strange land.

 

2/13/2018 2:11 pm  #44


Re: Robert E. Howard

In one of his letters, Howard said that the way the elderly clung to the pitiful dregs of life seemed horrible to him. I don't think he ever wanted to end up that way. Of course, thirty is pretty far short of "elderly", but maybe he honestly felt his best days were behind him.

In any event, it was the world's loss.


Michael Sipe 1979-2018
Rest in peace, brother.
 

2/13/2018 9:03 pm  #45


Re: Robert E. Howard

Personally I think his writing was improving as he aged and had he lived into middle age we would have seen some amazing stuff. But I also doubt he would have lived that long even if the suicide hadn't taken place. With WW2 right around the corner he would have volunteered for the most dangerous assignment possible and probably would not have survived the war.

 

11/30/2018 10:28 pm  #46


Re: Robert E. Howard

I've read Howard extensively.  The posters on this thread have mentioned a lot of good stories, but there's one character that is missing . . .

Try to find a copy of A Gent from Bear Creek and it's sequels and read about Breckenridge Elkins.  If you don't actually laugh out loud and gasp for breath there is something missing in your makeup.

How can one man write the Conan and Solomon Kane stories and the Elkins stories, both done very well?  What a talent!

Bowser

 

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