Hither Came Conan

[@janestim79]

Clicked on this so fast! Crom and Mitra! I need a cuppa and some biscuits for this one.

[@glennsawyer6379]

You've been covering so much good stuff lately and this is no exception. Like a lot of our age and background I suspect, I started with the Sphere L.Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter paperbacks and in my case I think I got them from my local village library in Rainford, near St.Helens or from a really cool little second hand book stall in Ormskirk indoor market. I really miss those sort of stalls and the prices the books seemed to go for then. I can remember the gaudy covers and lots of books called "conan the......" or "conan and....." or even "conan of..." and I didn't actually get to read much of Howards own creation until later. The 1982 movie and TSRs Conan RPG were big factors in my understanding and exploration of Hyborea in the mid 80s and, like yourself, I look back on Conan the Destroyer with a lot more affection now than I probably did then. I started reading HP Lovecraft possibly a bit earlier and again, the Chaosium RPG was my intro along with the Granada anthologies. At the time I genuinely didn't get the world view of either Howard or Lovecraft but did begin to see it as I read more and found out about their letter writing habits. Im from quite a conservative family background with my dad having been a bobbie and the family tending to a fairly right wing mindset which I remember becoming aware of during the miners strike and Thatchers residence in number 10. I'd only really find my own (much much lefter) political viewpoint later in my teens and when at University but by then I'd read up more on Lovecraft and later Howard and was going through that inner argument about separating the writing from the writer I think. I still struggle at times with it a little if I'm honest but I as times gone by I've been able to see that their writing is fantastic, ground breaking and hugely influential whilst being able to say more comfortably that their world views and their ideas on "others" were appalling. I can still read and enjoy the books but am mindful of the sh*te they believed when it came to race, culture and so on. Its very timely to hear when you put together this episode, it being the day after the riots that ran across England, after the horrible events in Southport to the shocking response that followed and wad copied from Liverpool near me to Hull near you. Its repellent but we live in a time when the Farage's and Tommy Ten names of the UK can prompt, lie and steer people to appalling acts but then is it so surprising when rags like the Sun and the Mail build their daily hate with endless banner headlines about "others". I just hope the sentencing of so many so quickly has an impact and that the overall response from people in the UK is to oppose the hate mongers and dividers. Your comments about the issues of divisiveness and the ongoing influence in the media and society of the far right were spot on, some of the best and most honest explanations I've listened to lately, Thank you for tackling what is a seriously heavy subject but one that does need talking through....As a lighter aside, Hull FC played Saints on the Saturday that there were riots and I saw a local news reporter interview an elderly couple of Hull fans who'd come from the match and asked them their opinions of what was going on about the riots and the lady replied "we just didn't play well enough" (or words to that effect) before the reporter told her he meant what did she think about the rioting and she appeared to have not known about them. Hopefully they (the riots, not the Hull fans!) can become history and we can learn and move forward. As ever, thanks for the podcast and content, all the best, Glenn

[@abhilashmaddali7158]

The Berkeley editions edited by Karl Edward Wagner, the cover art is done by Ken Kelly (not Frazetta).

[@jannneumann5766]

"Blood and souls for my Lord Elon Musk!" The Mabden had slain vadhagh women and children in Dublin, Paris, Madrid and once again in old Manchester. Corum learned to hate. The prophesies of the seer Moorcock were coming true. Yet Corum lived, and he lived in interesting times.

[@jannneumann5766]

I went out a Chinese girl for a while. If you think Howard said some bad things about black people, well I doubt he had anything on a 30 year old Chinese woman studying post graduate English and experiencing West London for the first time. I had to tell her not to say such things out loud in public. Did Howard live in a mixed area, or have other exposure to African American people through the media? We are just seeing a young writer's ignorance I think.

[@breakfastintheruinspodcast]

Oh no doubt. And these attitudes certainly aren't unique to Anglo-Saxons. And your point reinforces that these things weren't just of their time. They've not gone away even WITH a supposedly more enlightened environment in terms of open and easy access to information across the world.