A Brief Guide to Pre-Tolkien Fantasy | Part II

[@sagedamage109]

We are witnessing the rise of a new great KZbinr before our eyes

[@pygmalioninvenus6057]

lol

[@cm9241]

Maybe if he learns how to narrate normally.

[@ghostfifth]

The cadence... ​@@cm9241

[@matthewsuchomski2593]

perhaps, first he needs to talk more about the fiction he's discussing and less about the politically incorrect opinions of the authors of that fiction.

[@cm9241]

@matthewsuchomski2593 of course that's your complaint. You dweebs are the most predictable people.

[@oppio_fiorato]

Bro just -made a new channel -made a 2 hour video with more research than what the autors knew about themselfs -drops anotherone Love this sh*t

[@pygmalioninvenus6057]

lmao

[@mrfact03s]

stop overexagerating its his second vid, channel made long agon, drop new video over month later

[@pygmalioninvenus6057]

@@mrfact03s preach

[@comradestannis]

@@mrfact03s Stop under-appreciating, most channels don't do this

[@sheila19954]

​@@mrfact03ssomeone's jealous

[@Avaliareborn]

“And since there doesn’t seem to be a pre-existing index, I created my own” as a throwaway mention really just exemplifies how thorough the work from this channel is already. When he releases a video you just know it includes all the information and sources you need

[@czcrossman]

This guy is a straight up badass. These videos are wildly impressive by any standards, and when you consider that he’s brand new to KZbin & video making in general it’s nothing short of miraculous! Hope his channel blows up and people all over the world get to enjoy badass content like this :)

[@SoldadoCatolico]

20:19 while other writers were casual racists, Lovecraft was a *competitive* racist

[@DesignatedMember]

My favorite Lovecraft racism tidbit is that he was a big proponent of Margaret Murray's "Witch-Cult In Western Europe" theory, which posits (hold onto your armrests folks) that there was an indigenous race of pygme-like "mongoloid" humanoids living in Europe before the coming of the "Aryans" that provided the basis for most of the beliefs regarding witches and faries and gnomes and such. Because, as we all know, the Nordics could never have dreamt up anything as illogical as that out of whole cloth! There is a point were racism ceases to be objectionable and is just stupidly fascinating.😂

[@peterusmc20]

​@@DesignatedMember something brilliantly ironic in this. Lovecraft attributes people coming up with fairy stories as being a trait of lesser races. Goes on to idolise a number of those trying to revive that tradition for the modern age and being the godfather of what I think is one of the most equivalent genres to the classical mythological and fairy tales in cosmic horror and it's adjacents. In a world largely past the threats of lions and with knowledge of subjects like weather and plague, these genres invent new more abstract nightmares and challenges along many of the same lines. Of course trying to hold such racist and illogical beliefs tend to be contradicting and hypocritical across the board but this is a particularly exquisite nugget of it.

[@ignacywinski192]

@@DesignatedMemberon the other hand, Murray’s work is most famous from the idea that there was organised cult of female diety that exisited in rural communities and female convents. It became thoretical basis for Wicca, and, whem it comes to fantasy literature - Sapkowski is a proponent of this theory.

[@DesignatedMember]

@@ignacywinski192 Truly the universe is interconnected in the strangest and most peculiar of ways.

[@juliamavroidi8601]

My favorite Lovecraft story us The Picture in the House, where he's clearly trying to reflect on his own racism and you keep thinking the penny is gonna drop any second and it just never does.

[@anaranjado8635]

Independent factcheckers have concluded this overview not to be brief

[@Vexrede]

I could've gone on about Clark Ashton Smith for three more hours, but I think KZbin puts a limit on how many times you can say the word "necrophilia" in a single video

[@Lycaon1765]

​@@Vexrede that sounds hilarious and like grounds for his own, maybe somewhat shorter video xD

[@chungusdisciple9917]

@@Vexrede I would tune in for that

[@iiiiitsmagreta1240]

@@Vexrede .......I want context, but _fear_

[@herobrinesblog]

I became a Conan fan fairly recently, like, 3 years ago at best. But i have to say, with every one of Howards stories i read, i get the feeling that Howard might be the MOST influential author in action mainstream media overall. Heres why: -many adventure games (D&D, Dark Souls, etc) have ideas and concepts that were either directly taken from Howards stories or indirectly, like some booby-traps, mythical ancient lore, gritty settings, gritty protagonists, classes, ways of fighting, boss battles, etc -many movies, even before the conan ones, feel like full on conan adventures, and were likely also inspired by other pulp stories in their design, setting, etc -books, of course, as you explain -comics, holy shit, you find his ideas EVERYWHERE -lots and lots and lots of cartoons, like samurai jack and other works by the same creator (Primal is a great example) are filled with omages and call backs to his works or omages and call backs to works inspired by howards, etc. But note, i mean action mainstream, not fantasy, not smart or artsy pieces, i mean the more commercial (but often under apreciated) side of it

[@xibalbalon8668]

So many cartoons took from Conan I think, even if just superficially. He-man being the most obvious. Thundaar the Barbarian is another one but hearing about Clark Ashton Smith's work reminded me a shocking amount of Thundaar, at least in the premise of a distant savage future where technology is lost and has been replaced by magic.

[@gonzoengineering4894]

My favorite bit of D&D history is Gygax creating the Barbarian class as the hulking idiot brute archetype purely out of him hating how Conan solved so many problems with ingenuity rather than brute force.

[@herobrinesblog]

​@@gonzoengineering4894the irony, since most Conan fans now exactly prefer Cannon Conan, who is quite the puzzle solver

[@valerielusa8000]

​@@herobrinesblogand I think most dnd players also prefer being able to solve situations with wits rather than strength

[@wudly9195]

Yeah once you see how much of fiction has taken form Robert E Howard you cant unsee it. Its everywhere .

[@robertaylor9218]

I was surprised when you said “Lafayette” but when you followed it up my brain caught up. I was raised a scientologist, and only left the church as an adult. His writing was in fact very pulpy, and in hindsight battlefield earth strikes me as a scaled-up serialized pulp story. Loving the video, and the previous one in the series. Way to go.

[@awattleseed9155]

I commented this on part 1 as well but if you ever wanted to make a part 3 spotlighting fantasy that was left out of the first two parts, I have a couple of pre-LOTR recommendations. Firstly, I suggest checking out The Other Side (1908) by Austrian author Alfred Kubin. It is a surreal fantasy novel set in an imaginary land. I also recommend The Forest of a Thousand Daemons (1938) by D.O. Fagunwa, a Nigerian Fantasy novel.

[@fairyfoals]

Liked the added sapphic flagellation, was missing from the last video

[@iiiiitsmagreta1240]

...I think I'm going to like this video very much 😳 👉👈 🏳‍🌈

[@EphemeralTao]

From my own research, the explosion in sapphic flagellation scenes in pulp fiction was largely due to writers pandering to the predilections of a particular magazine editor, in order to give their work a higher likelihood of getting published.

[@gigangreg7837]

We are so back

[@bard5865]

So true

[@UFBMusic]

38:00 Spear and Fang are the names of the charcters from the show Primal, which is about a caveman and dinosaur who are forced to team up. It's well worth a watch if you haven't seen it.

[@albusvoltavern4500]

Always loved the stories from Edgar rice Burroughs. “Big strong man is strong” “fierce small woman captures their heart”. Just over and over, I love it.

[@jimminystew]

Great video essay. One writer I think was conspicuous by her absence was Leigh Brackett and her stories of Eric John Stark of Mars, especially since Burroughs and Moore's planetary romances were mentioned. Her work straddled the line between pulp S&S and the hardboiled tradition of writers like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler and helped pave the way for writers like Roger Zelazny and Glen Cook. She was also just a damned good fantasy writer and deserves to be better known.

[@juancholo7502]

To be fair, H.P. Lovecraft didn't like anybody that wasn't an upper class urban New Englander. His stories also have bigoted discriptions of Germans, Southeners & rural New Englanders.

[@theblazingredcomet1954]

I'm an Eldritch Horror fan, there's no need to do apologia for him lol

[@ryan.1990]

And Irish! 🤣 Gotta love him though (I'm Irish)

[@stephennootens916]

As I recall he pretty much didn't like anyone outside his own hometown.

[@EphemeralTao]

@@stephennootens916 If there's anyone who deserves the appellation "rabid xenophobe", it's definitely Lovecraft. He was a vocal admirer of a certain German political figure for much of his life.

[@bokrugthewaterserpent3012]

Well, we can't all be perfect. Some of us are destined to be born something other than an upper class New England Urbanite 😔

[@cuttleb0nes]

thank YOU for making these videos!!! I absolutely love fantasy, specifically stereotypical sword and sorcery stuff, and I had no idea what the history behind it was/how modern it is!! I really appreciate this research and compilation!!

[@BlakertonBarwick]

Its so unfortunate to me that Clark Ashton Smith is less remembered, compared to his contemporaries. When in my opinion, his stories are by far the most enjoyable to read of the big three, and far more creative. He seemed genuinely ahead of his time in his vision of fantasy worlds and some the creatures he invented for them to the point where reading his stories feels like reading Dungeon and Dragons fiction before DnD even existed. to the point where while he is unsung, I have to assume his works must have influenced those early founders and crafters of DnD as heavily as someone like Tolkien.

[@AdrianArmbruster]

6:20 - John Carter fits perfectly into a modern Japanese Isekai Light Novel formula to the point where it's kind of scary.

[@qaztim11]

Him and the author of alice in wonderland are the ones responsible for the 29 isekai shows that come out every 3 months.

[@cuttleb0nes]

while watching this video I found myself thinking *so* many times “isn’t this just isekai?????”

[@miguelthedrawtist]

I always find it fascinating when similar ideas and literary traditions develop independently of each other. Makes you wonder if there isn't some universal concepts that are just inherent to the human experience

[@df6534]

When me and a buddy watched that practically the first thing he said was "so his isekai cheat ability is that he can jump"

[@AmandaFessler]

Okay, but real question: can Kirito conquer Barsoom if he were transported in Carter's place?

[@MartinDaniel-m8g]

Idk that sword wielding octopus in the thumbnail made me remember the "octopus draws a gun in each tenticle and the cat says "Your one short buddy""

[@xibalbalon8668]

Reminds me of the walktapus from Runequest/Glorantha

[@BlakertonBarwick]

Amazing content, guide and resources. Would love to see you continue either talking on post-tolkien fantasy influences or book reviews for some of these pre-tolkien stories you think deserve some love and attention.

[@andromeda4220]

I'm glad here in Brazil Clark Ashton Smith has been recently brought to light!

[@Lampoluke]

Same here in Italy, they recently launched a compendium on Lovencaraftian horror, then a Lovecraft compendium, then not one but two CAS compendiums

[@lucasdesouzaborba2836]

I've translated two of his tales to Portuguese (and am working on a third one), though I don't know a lot about advertisement, so only a handful of people know about it. They're available for free on my LinkedIn account, though. Perhaps I should create a blog to post the tales I translate.

[@andromeda4220]

@@lucasdesouzaborba2836 If you can, post the link, I would like to read it

[@BCThunderthud]

I've never been a fantasy fan at all. I read Tolkien and a bit of Leiber and Moorcock as a kid and more recently Martin and reread all of Howard's Conan stories and all the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories. Still I watched all of both of your videos and found them very interesting and very well done. Congrats and thanks and I hope to hear more from you.

[@phillipmitchell2254]

In Brooks' defense, by the time the Shannara Series was 7+ novels it had shaken off its ruptured LOTR-flavored pupa and started taking on a lot more grimdark horror influence

[@mightyrobot42]

The Magic Goes Away is actually the third story in a trilogy, preceded by the short stories Not Long Before The End and What Good is a Glass Dagger, both of which also use "mana" as their form of magical energy.

[@barela99]

great work, your first vid came up on my recommended randomly and I was hooked listening to it at work, can't wait for this part 2

[@CM-ck4nl]

My god, Im a pulp fiction writer I never knew...

[@jimminystew]

Writers I hope to see covered in post-Tolkenian fantasy: Gene Wolfe - The Book of the New Sun Roger Zelazny - The Chronicles of Amber and Lord of Light Michael Moorcock - Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, Gloriana Patricia McKillip - The Riddlemaster series and standalones Avram Davidson - The Phoenix and the Mirror Tim Powers - The Drawing of the Dark, The Anubis Gates, The Stress of Her Regard Karl Edward Wagner - The Kane series Glen Cook - The Black Company series Charles Saunders - The Imaro series M John Harrison - The Viriconium series Michael Shea - Nifft the Lean and In Yana, the Touch of Undying John M Ford - The Dragon Waiting Darrell Schweitzer - The Mask of the Sorcerer Jack Vance - The Lyonesse series, Cugel's Saga, Rhialto etc Alan Garner - The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Owl Service, The Moon of Gomrath Robert Irwin - The Arabian Nightmare Michael Swanwick - The Iron Dragon's Daughter Ursula le Guin - Earthsea Joy Chant - Red Moon and Black Mountain Peter S Beagle - The Last Unicorn, A Fine and Private Place Robert Holdstock - Mythago Wood series Lloyd Alexander - Chronicles of Prydain Andre Norton - Witch World Fritz Leiber - later Lankhmar stories (Ill Met, Swords, Knight and Knave etc) Evangeline Walton - Mabinogion Tetralogy John James - Votan Plus all the regular ones sure to be brought up like Pratchett, Martin, Rowling etc.

[@ELYELYELroy]

lloyd alexanders chronicles of prydian would be a nice addition to your list. I read it when I was 8 after my father recommended it to me(he read it as a kid too) and it made me fall in love with fantasy.

[@jimminystew]

@@ELYELYELroy Noted and added. I honestly forgot about those. Another great series based on Welsh mythology is Evangeline Walton's Mabinogion, which I mistakenly thought was pre-Tolkien when three of the four books were actually published in the seventies.

[@chungusdisciple9917]

Hell yes, Clark Ashton Smith mentioned! Read the Zothique cycle for one of the earliest, best realized Dying Earth settings!

[@DesignatedMember]

Nay! Do not listen to this troublemaker! He is a blackguard offering not brotherly advice but a dagger in the back! Every *TRUE* Clark Ashton Smith afficianado knows that you should begin with The Coming of the White Worm -- and the frorely hell that dreadful abomination brings! (This is just a joke you should read all of them).

[@play_history]

1:48:25 Oh my god that summary has to be the origin point for Elric. It's basically the start of The Dreaming City. 2:04:18 I've never really agreed with the loose definition of "grimdark." The Broken Sword is a heroic tragedy, like Shakespeare. Grimdark is a pessimistic spitting at the world where good deeds are punished and good intentions meet bad ends. 2:14:02 The best practice for listing a living author is putting a "b." before the year of birth, i.e. (b. 1944) 2:15:32 I know this also seems like a nitpick but Wheel of Time is properly Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson if you're talking about the whole series. 2:17:05 This is really not accurate insofar as Arneson's side. It's complicated (like all popular origin stories) but Blackmoor can't really be called a rejection of the traditional wargame. 2:17:55 AD&D, probably just a misspeak. 2:21:03 Spell points were in use in D&D homebrews and were likely not inspired by Niven, though the term "mana" was as Jon Peterson's paper shows. 2:22:51 Rogue (1980) was not created by AI Design, that was the company who did the versions for Epyx. Glenn Wichman and Michael Toy are the co-authors of the original versions with Ken Arnold being a co-author for the more widely released version. 2:24:30 The Black Company is still ongoing, the first three books are just one sequence. Book of the New Sun goes up to 1987. 2:25:42 Mistborn again only counts if you take the first sequence and even then some of the supplement books extend the timeframe. Some of sections of these videos I feel are a bit inconsistent. You said you were going to be focusing on secondary-world fiction, but you made a lot of exceptions as to make that distinction a bit meaningless. Some of the books you provide personal opinions on and others you don't. It does make the collection of stories feel a bit uneven in importance to the history you're trying to tell. It's very useful to have this summary and I quite like some of your commentary! Big props on providing resources for others to explore further as they like.

[@EphemeralTao]

Regarding the definition of "grimdark", one of the better ones I've seen is a world where good simply does not exist, only various shades of evil. The word itself was originally coined from and for the world of tabletop wargame _Warhammer 40,000_ . Indeed, the word "grimdark" itself is derived from the game's tagline "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." It's a setting that takes the "various shades of evil" and pushes it to comically over-the-top levels for the purpose of satire.

[@skanaraki2161]

So excited for this. The first one was such a blast. Thank you for making these videos.

[@user-to9ge8ii9n]

Thought I'd have to wait much longer for part 2 -- eager to enjoy this!

[@EphemeralTao]

Just have to mention that Blavatsky's concept of "root races" was quite popular with a certain German political organization due to a shared belief in the supremacy of a certain ethnicity, and formed the foundation of their own racial philosophy.

[@lightlegion_]

Hey! I’m really enjoying what you’re posting!

[@LinguarumFautor]

Tokk me forever to finish this because i had to stop at read so heres a 2:30:47 comment for the algorithm. This is truly inspirational. I grew up reading Vance and learned about Dunsany in college. Lovecraft is a contentious subject in our household. Eddison i cant get into, but once I read some Conan rather than saw it I was all in. Elric is intense enough that it is best in smaller doses.

[@decocq2013]

I really enjoyed these videos. As a fantasy writer I love looking into the history of the genre. Keep going!

[@stillbuyvhs]

2:10:26 Ace Books published The Lord of the Rings without permission*, & was raked over the coals by fans. Ripping off LotR directly would have been a major career risk. *U.S. Copyright laws, at the time, required some specific disclosures, which the initial release of LotR may have lacked. When the U.S. entered the Berne Convention in the late 80's, these requirements went away. LotR's copyright is perfectly valid today. (I'm not a lawyer; this isn't legal advice, etc.)

[@Immopimmo]

Some great listening for me to paint to, thank you! 😊

[@aileenmorgan8276]

What're you painting? I've been listening to this while painting my model cars

[@Immopimmo]

@@aileenmorgan8276 just some character art. :)

[@frostdova]

amazing follow up, it left me wondering what else Robert E. Howard might have done if he hadn't gone at such a young age

[@calebschwartz7048]

“A brief guide” reminds me of Hermione from HP saying she did “a bit of light reading” 😂 but seriously I love this video

[@covenscribe]

If people spent less time complaining about the state of the fantasy genre they would have enough time to read more books and find a few to like.

[@stillbuyvhs]

Your production quality is fine. I'd say The Chronicles of Prydain is more Tolkien-esc than you let on, since both involve a hero defeating a dark lord. The implementation is different; Taran's quest isn't a single war, but a series of small wars, which lead to a final confrontation. And Lloyd Alexander has a different view on Elves than Tolkien; Alexander's elves seem like a blend of Tolkien's elves & dwarves. (Tho both versions predate both stories.)

[@richardlabrache7808]

Some of these are already on my list already but thanks to you I started The Night Land and have added even more to my list!

[@sdfitz65]

Amazing. Both this and part I are excellent and so comprehensive! You mentioned Moorcock and you included a cover of a Zelazney book, "the new wave" of the 60's and 70's... Two of my favorites. For matter, I wonder what's your take on the Dark Souls video games, since you mentioned Japanese fantasy. Anyway, looking forward to more of your excellent videos. Thank you!

[@ericraymond3734]

Pratt's reliance on only explaining the world of "Well of the Unicorn" through the actions and speeech of characters rather than infodumps is a technique he imported from Campbellian SF. You'll notice it in modern hard fantasy like Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn" books as well, which are also very influenced by Campbellian genre SF. The technique is called "indirect exposition" and usually thought to have been invented by Robert Heinlein, but I think there is strong indirect evidence that he learned it from Rudyard Kipling. It first appeared in Kipling's 1901 novel "Kim".

[@christianbensel]

Loved the Wingfeather Saga, thanks for all your hard work.

[@Loren344]

this is a great list, thank you for all the references + research! my one grievance is that there are a ton of great female early fantasy and pulp writers, and i would have loved to see more of them mentioned.

[@Journeyman107]

Despite Howard’s clear warning you can still find people on this very website who believe that Conan is meant to be a secret alternate history

[@thealmightyaku-4153]

Stumbled across such a channel just the other week. Was expecting a lore video. Weirded me out.

[@alexhunt6034]

Warlock blade is thirsty! Howling in its hunger, Hews it through the iron, Sings in cloven skullbones, Slakes itself in bloodstreams.

[@AkosKovacs.Author.Musician]

You missed a big part about Clark Ashton Smith. Quite a few of his work were outright humorous or ironic in nature. A Door To Saturn. The Voyage of King Euvoran for example.

[@dracospawncs]

I'm surprised he didn't mention Robert Asprin. The Myth Adventures series is really great comedic fantasy.

[@ThatSkiFreak]

the kull the conqueror lines go hard

[@maxwellgarner3445]

at 47:24 the maps of conan and middle earth share a striking if vague similarity to the proposed "doggerland" maps of ice age europe, probably by coincidence but perhaps this was speculated about by geologists of the time. Also i need to read more tarzan and conan

[@peterusmc20]

I'd expect this tends to be a legacy of a sort of western hemisphere centric view, a kind of diluted orientalism where the known world is just naturally the west coast of a larger continent stretching south and east into wilder lands. It's essentially just legacy British and European empire thinking seeping through into these authors as the natural order of things. Note world maps tend not to have such obvious traits when you except ones modelled directly on earth. I'd expect that it's the case of when authors who are mythologising European cultural history and coming up with a small slice of a larger world they are each doing the sub region they consider most emblematic of the story they are telling and the most obvious shape and location they come to is the western shore of this larger world. In terms of doggerland particularly I don't think there would be a particularly specific idea of what it looked like. Tolkien was explicitly setting middle earth as europe in a mythical past so it makes sense to bare resemblance to europes coastline in general. I think both maps are just the drawings of what the authors considered continental coast lines to look like and that happened to be based on European coastlines of which I don't think doggerland would differ much and obviously our idea of what doggerland would have looked like is based on the surrounding existing coastlines such as France, Spain, Netherlands and Denmark. As to why they don't have Britain or an equivalent separate I think just because that would require the world building of a somewhat separate culture and would hinder the travel of the characters. None of them show a region of far lower altitude as doggerland would have and if they were subscribing to the kind of atlantis style sinking land that was in vogue at the time these regions still tend not to have any sort of delineation from either the "britian" or the "mainland" on either side. They are just coasts and head lands with to my mind only a superficial similarity based on a similar belief structure of idolising a European mythos. Tldr: I'm not convinced that vaguely similar shapes which is also similar to many other European coasts is much reason to associate doggerland with these or ther fantasy maps. I consider it just a western European bias where east is exotic and south is wild and uncivilised and the great ocean to the west and noble strong warrior barbarians to the north.

[@maxwellgarner3445]

@peterusmc20 especially with euro writers, but even Americans tend to do the same, probably aping Europe in particular due to familiarity. America as a basis for a map, with a built up east, dreadful comparatively center plains and desert, and a promised land on the other side, doesn't show up much either. I think if China were more familiar to western writers, it would be a great basis for maps on geography alone, and interesting climate is another bonus. No word yet on fantasy Australia

[@peterusmc20]

@@maxwellgarner3445 I'd guess that's because an epic mythical history of the Americas is largely lost, doesn't comport with the stories they want to tell and doesn't represent the culture they themselves coming from. These American authors are still writing tales based on largely medieval European history and myth and hence that's the most generic, most intuitive template for when you make that setting. Something I'm not exempt from of course. I realised after starting a dnd campaign recently that the region my group started in purports heavily to Ireland, where I live with strong winds, being in the outer regions of a greater empire, having been largely deforested but with a history of wild ancient forest, now rolling hills and farmland with strong winds and rain. Without thinking I make my default "starting area" the most "normal" region of my world the one that's maybe the most similar to what I personally am used to. I think in a similar way these tales inspired by European myth end up in a blurred shuffled Europe without even intention.

[@koboldgeorge2140]

Geologist here. At the time that these authors were active, the closest thing to a geological consensus was an idea of that the continents Rose and sink. The idea that they float around was considered a bit absurd and was basically a fringe theory. However they still needed to explain how it was that species such as lemurs were able to cross oceans, and also how oceanic sediments were able to be deposited upon what is now dry land. If you want more context on this, look up Lemuria, a proposed and widely accepted paleo continent which was believed to have sunk beneath the ocean.

[@maxwellgarner3445]

@koboldgeorge2140 in The Secret Saturdays they have a pet or friend monster who is from Lemuria

[@Seer_Of_The_Woodlands]

Great video! this greatly expanded my understanding of the history of fantasy and its development!

[@tph2010]

Looking forward to great things from this channel.

[@VinnieMTG2024]

We need more pulp and less franchises!

[@peterusmc20]

Exactly how I like my orange juice.

[@tantanthespaceman1923]

THE DARK CRYSTAL (Oh dude, I'm still halfway through the previous video, but just in case) In adherence with your conclusion, another really cool and original pulp fiction styled fantasy is The Dark Crystal. It's a really cool watch, I recommend it!

[@bugfighter5949]

These people were making wargames about their fantasy worlds, truly nerds are eternal

[@kaabak]

I enjoyed the first one very much. Glad to see that the second one is out!

[@CompleteAnimation]

I don't really read that much, but I enjoyed hearing you give such a comprehensive history of a genre I love! I'm currently working on my own story, and I guess it does fall in to the classification of being a bog-standard fantasy story. But it's the story I want to tell, and so far, some people enjoy reading it! I wonder if a lot of the criticism for this style of fantasy comes from people who have read much, much more than I have.

[@stephennootens916]

As someone who is not a major fan of fantasy this was vary interesting video. I personally rarely read fantasy with exceptions being all but the last two Dark Tower books by Stephen King, the Harry Potter series, His Dark Material and a few Conan stories. I tried the big boy Lord Of The Rings back in my teens (a million years ago it feels) and just didn't get along with it. Loved the movies but the books just didn't work for me, so I normal stay away from fantasy.

[@cafohl7240]

Still working on my fantasy travel log from the first video, now I have to work on a pulp story too, darn

[@Richardiii2]

I love the question marks for the dates of the kingkiller chronicles

[@Zoe-tg4dl]

This is SO perfectly detailed! Thank you!

[@aileenmorgan8276]

Ohh I'm so hype just finished pt 1 yesterday!

[@firstnamelastname7401]

Omg yay I’m excited for part two!

[@joewesterland5697]

Never been onboard with a channel so quickly...

[@NathanRyan-v6s]

Please add a list of "Hidden Gems" I enjoyed your very down-to-earth documentary. Keep creating!!

[@skullknightyt]

Been looking forward to this. My typa content on YT. What I pay my internet for.

[@MrMeeeeToo]

Amazing video and the same goes for the first part. One minor comment, the Kobold image suggest anime Kobolds stemming from German fairy tale figures. While this is surely partly true, but Japanese fairy and folk tails are obviously a string influence as well. If not more so.

[@LiamsLyceum]

Leiber definitely had the style, big name in sci-fi and horror too, but his colorful background seems to have gave him the tone and wit he uses in his fantasy. He also reads somewhat like James Branch Cabell.

[@Araanor]

2 videos and already 4.62K subscribers. you really hit hard.

[@Strideo1]

Tale Foundry just released a video on Pulp Fiction Fantasy too. Definitely worth a watch.

[@markmohrfield4614]

16:15 “Nightghasts” Should be Nightgaunts

[@tantanthespaceman1923]

Hello, friend! this was incredible! Can you explore Sci-fi before StarWars and the like? Pulp sci-fi is the coolest thing ever! Thank you so much for the effort and energy you put into your videos! I'm subscribed !!!!

[@comradestannis]

"Conan's not that bad of a guy but is also an amoral anti-hero" is a problem with a lot of "bad guy stories" where you follow a "bad guy" but they're basically a good guy with darker aesthetics.

[@bikepilot]

This, along with your first video, is absolutely superlative: these are the most interesting and best researched videos I’ve seen all year. I’ve already been inspired to read some new (and old!) fantasy works. More please!

[@Dracoaurion]

Quite a lot of prophecy from the Pulp Fiction era that has come true.

[@Aranthappyrobot]

From everything I’ve heard about the guy, it seems Lovecraft was afraid of anyone who wasn’t a New England w.a.s.p. Apparently The Shadow over Innsmouth was inspired by Lovecraft discovering he had Welsh ancestry.

[@lonegoat81]

I grew up in Rhode island. wasps hated the irish, the irish hated the italians who hated the poles, etc. white racism is rife in New England.

[@Bryan-qz4np]

I've actually read most of these, with the exceptions of A. Merrit, Clark Ashton Smith, and the Harold Shea stories. I guess I know what my homework is!

[@peterusmc20]

These 2 videos have been a master class in youtube essay making that is not matched by the majority of more established channels. Near the end you criticise your own production value and id largely like to disagree. Your visuals are clear, informative consistent and dynamic. There are no obvious issues with audio or sync. These seemed polished and passionate. Even more so respect the almost academic paper level of both attention to detail and thoroughness and the references given to your sources. I hope that some day we can get more of this quality if there are other topics which equally inspire you, I and many others im sure look forward to that fated day.

[@goyya888]

Amazing work. Love it!

[@tuc5987]

Excellent!!! And good commentary on backgrounds, tropes, styles, very balanced, very scholarly. This is so so so good and something I've always wanted to know.

[@juniorjames7076]

I have been impatiently waiting for your PART 2!!! .......and I was not disappointed! Fantastic work! Thank you!!

[@e-artemas7295]

I really hope you do videos on other genres and authors

[@cjmatzen3941]

Absolutely incredible video! Great job!

[@garrick3727]

I had my Lovecraft bingo card ready for the racism discussion. I really appreciated how the video points out that many of the similar stories of the day not by Lovecraft were far more racist than his own stories. What bugs me about the racism accusation is not that I doubt it, it's the implication that Lovecraft was somehow the only racist or was somehow far more racist than other racists. It's clearly BS. The truth is that he was a racist who left letters behind, not destroyed by family members thinking of his legacy. Lovecraft's opinions were just those of the time, and he was very passive about it, unlike many other authors, politicians, lawyers and regular people who actively participated in racism and profiting from it. Lovecraft just had opinions that he expressed to his acquaintances in written form, unlike 99% of other racists of the time. I'm not suggesting it should be dismissed, only that at the time it was far less special than we make it out to be today, and to suggest he was somehow extreme is to deny that his opinions were shared by most people of the time.

[@CompleteAnimation]

I have to go to work in a few minutes, but I promise I'll watch this later when I have the time!

[@bradpotts1747]

this was pretty informative i dont know about these writers more than what iv gleaned from their writing on that note though, as far as black characters never being portrayed as fully human i may need to re read my conan stuff but i remember at least one story where hes teamed up with some black pirates to kick ass up and down a river. and being conan hes obviously shacked up with one of them.

[@DesignatedMember]

Sounds like Queen of the Black Coast. Though the woman in question is Semitic (and the black pirates in question worship her as a God). Its one one of those stories I bet Howard typed one-handed.

[@bradpotts1747]

@@DesignatedMember ah, that isnt the best look either is it. heheh does have that vibe doesnt it.

[@peterusmc20]

​@@DesignatedMemberdo you often write with both hands? Seems kinda awkward.

[@peterusmc20]

Hmm I was thinking with one pen but if you could use two that would speed up the process a lot.

[@kirbyinhalesjotaro4471]

The fact that at least one of the characters in this video are in Mortal Kombat is so funny

[@derg999]

God, I'd love to see your bookshelf. I'm a lifelong fantasy/scifi reader, I got into old school dnd over lockdown and I've been reading the appendix N and friends since, have been steadily (until recently) collecting A format ssf since I can remember, so don't tell anyone else about belantine adult fantasy books, they're expensive enough already.

[@Journeyman107]

Vril: The Coming Race is probably important somewhere in all of this, though arguably a bit more of a sci fi situation it’s influence on- well- history in general, is quite staggering and insane

[@ruththinkingoutside.707]

You just started and delivered an epic, well written and researched video on favorite subjects..!? Then you do it AGAIN in short order!? You’re awesome! That’s a LOT of work, it’s seen, and appreciated! Thank you for these! Can’t wait to see how your channel grows! ATB

[@cjr1382]

A series of video resuming some classical pulp stories would be an easy way to make content and would be great for people that like audio only videos for washing the bathroom or dishes or the dog or other things... just saying

[@TheRezro]

Yeh. Gunpowder invention was not as freak as people realize. In fact there were guns in medieval times, serving as base for the wizard trope. So a guy with fire stick throwing bombs.

[@Commentaur-TPMM]

This is awesome. This is like I paid extra money at the museum to see a dope ass presentation. Great work!

[@GeoffPlays]

Lets fuckin go! I was hoping ERBs Barsoom series would show up. I really enjoyed those books as a kid. I knew they were wack (I remember first reading the books and being like "whoa, that's fucked" a few times at the casual racism and misogyny), but it also made me fall in love with the straight up "weird" factor that old school fantasy has. I'm hoping you cover Zelazny's work at some point!

[@Tomastyr]

Great! I've been wating for this.

[@dragoninthewest1]

2:15:08 I believe it's pronounced Sha-nara. Or at least that's how the FX TV show pronounced it.

[@lordedmundblackadder9321]

part two hell yeah!!!!

[@konsumterra1]

fantastic work thankyou dnd nerds will love this - many tangents you could do a bit on all comic creators dipping into part one and two i guess historic adventure swashbuckling stuff was a big influence on all genre stuff like Dumas & Musketeers

[@czcrossman]

Fucking AMAZING video essay. Wow. Very good job man. I’m a huge fan of “Weird Tales” style stories, especially Lovecraft & Derleth & Bloch & CAS and all those guys…so this video was RIGHT up my alley! I appreciate all the hard work you put into this, I hope you’re happy with it :)