Brian’s Comments (group member since Apr 14, 2020)

Brian’s comments from the Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" group.

Clint, not that I needed it but thanks for the reminder and recommendation to pick up REH Changed My Life. Will be buying!

Thundarr is close enough. Loved that show, haven’t watched it in a few decades and likely will leave it that way to preserve the wonderful memories of Saturday mornings.

Chapter 9 of Flame and Crimson, "The Cultural Impact of Sword-and-Sorcery," was a particularly fun chapter to write. What is your favorite cultural artifact of sword-and-sorcery, either in film, music, role-playing/computer games, or other medium?

I'll start: I'm going with Manowar :)

Thanks Clint! Glad to see that Wiley has made that open access. I think we have a tendency to forget that sword-and-sorcery was not just the creation of a handful of literary geniuses (REH, Leiber, Moorcock) and the confluence of their work, but also the result of a medium like Weird Tales that fostered a writing community, and new "tech" (the mass-market paperback) with the right marketing and branding. I recommend my essay as well as "The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales" for the details of this.

Reviving this thread a bit, for any folks reading Flame and Crimson, any favorite elements, or anything you'd critique or thought I left out?

Wondering too about your thoughts on whether my definition of S&S (Chapter 1) matches yours: Men (and occasionally women) of action, pitted against enemies wielding dark and dangerous magic, in pursuit of personal and/or mercenary aims. Story and page turning adventure privileged over in-depth characterization and world-building. Rooted in pulp adventure and weird horror, inspired by history. Short, a better fit in novellas and short stories. With outsider heroes.

And of course exceptions to these rules at every turn, but most S&S should at least contain some of these elements.

Hi Mary! Good observation. I would add that Conan as an outsider in these cultures was capable of sweeping in and affecting change, cutting through custom with his broadsword.

Clint, while it's unfortunately expensive and somewhat hard to find, I would recommend The Evolution of Modern Fantasy: From Antiquarianism to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, by Jamie Williamson: https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Mode.... It really does explain what "fantasy" is, and where it came from. It gives much credit to Lin Carter for his work codifying fantasy with the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, and unlike many academic texts on fantasy it treats with S&S, and treats it fairly. I do like Carter's Imaginary Worlds also. There are others, I will do some digging.

Many believe that REH was just writing entertainment when he set down the Conan stories, and he was, but his letters to HPL prove there was more to them than that. The nature of humanity is being debated in that exchange, and the outlook of human progress. Whether barbarism/atavistic impulses are inherent in man, and whether it is advisable to even try to stamp that element of our nature out. These arguments made their way into the Conan stories, and others.

I do hope readers go on to read some of the books that went into the research of Flame and Crimson, not the least A Means to Freedom. Those are an amazing window into the minds of two of the finest writers of fantasy/spec fic ever.

Great thread here; anytime you've got David C. Smith (Oron, Red Sonja, The Witch of the Indies, on and on) dropping in, its a place S&S fans want to be! David, I wonder if you still have any of those old issues of Amra or Castle of Frankenstein lying around? Great places to learn about the sacred genre.

I have read David's fine biography Robert E. Howard: A Literary Biography but not Todd Vick's Renegades and Rogues. Has anyone read that, or plan to? It's amazing to see the quantity of work still being done on REH these days, including the volume Robert E. Howard Changed My Life above. I didn't realize the latter had an essay contributed by the late, great Charles Saunders.

Joseph: Glad you are enjoying Flame and Crimson thus far. Also, I had a blast on that Goodman Games panel, even though at 2 hours and 20-odd minutes, with a beer or two, my bladder was nigh to bursting by the end.

Richard/Joy of Erudition, any movies in particular? For me, Conan the Barbarian (82 of course) had made its way to HBO, my dad agreed to let my brother and I watch--but only if we agreed to shut our eyes during the orgy scene, which he had previously seen and knew was coming. He fell asleep on the couch... oops :) So another hook was sunk into me.

Clint: I was painfully shy also, and missed out on a couple opportunities that led to regrets that last to this day. I wonder if S&S and its often disaffected, outsider heroes attract these types of readers? Maybe.

Dave: He-Man counts, 100%! D&D of course is another common gateway.

S.E.: Those Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks were great. Did you ever get a chance to read/play the Joe Dever Lone Wolf books?

Hi guys, this is Brian Murphy. Thank you for selecting Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery as part of the May-June group read. I'd love to get your feedback on the book and would be happy to answer any questions as you work through it, or respond to your thoughts. I'll plan on posting a few prompts here as discussion starters as well.

Flame and Crimson opens with a bit of backstory on how I came to find (and love) sword-and-sorcery. In my case it happened to be stumbling across a box of Savage Sword of Conan magazines at a used book store I would frequent as a kid. I still have all those old issues. It was an amazing find.

I'm curious as to how many were introduced to S&S through the comics. What was your entry point?