Mark Finn on Robert E. Howard

Mark Finn, Howard scholar and author of the latest REH biography "Blood and Thunder", sits down and talks a bit about his impressions of Bob at Howard Days, 2007.

[@Xzone256]

This is the first genuinely accurate depiction of Howard and his representation I've ever heard. Thank you for sharing.

[@jamesmccool503]

"What is he doing with his life." Changing the world of fiction literature.

[@MichaelSmith-jw8qw]

good book, so glad people are discovering REH

[@stornkolson]

great interview. i spent a bit of time in texas. el paso, odessa, lubbock, and many other areas too. Conan stories are great, and damn shame he cut out so early

[@roberthoward3697]

Wonderful view, and talk on Mr. Howard and Cross Plains by Mr. Finn, thank you for the interview and post!

[@jags1008]

It must be said that Robert E howard is the one of the best fiction writers in history. My personal favorite compared to all others. Historically speaking I think Lord Dunsany is before howard in that feild. 1910 he wrote the first sword & sorcery story

[@robertbutts9835]

I would not go that far you had also the likes of John Steinbeck and Hemingway and Faulkner. But he was up there I loved his work

[@noiceman]

@@robertbutts9835 I've read Steinbeck, Hemingway and Faulkner. Howard is leagues better than all three.

[@popecorkyxxiv]

So what if he was a little unbalanced? Many of histories greatest thinkers and artists were more than slightly unhinged.

[@RodCornholio]

Finn definitely knows his stuff. Any non-conformist who has lived in rural areas can identify with what Howard went through. What an amazing man.

[@TYAiyou]

ハワード・E・ワーズディンさんの書いた本を読ませていただきました。 モガディシュの戦いの真実や訓練などの事が書いてあり、とても興味深かったです。

[@rtt1961]

great interview

[@HIGHSTAROUTLAW]

there are parts of history where there were massive men in swords and loin clothes. its even in the bible

[@demongo2007]

What’s your point.

[@challengemusictv]

@@demongo2007 if you listened to the video you’d know the context of the above comment

[@HIMMBelljuvo]

I think his self-deletion had a lot to do with his fear of aging. It's documented that he has a fear of aging

[@sequitur2256]

Where's the story originate from REH channeling his dreams for writing his amazing and wonderful stories?? Sounds like something in 'Believe It or Not' that no one on KZbin is talking about....thank you

[@warriorphotog36]

In one of his letters Howard makes the statement that he felt like Conan was looming over his shoulder, telling the stories to him as he typed them out. That's a writer's way of describing the creative process. John Milius, the director of the 1980's Conan the Barbarian, in interviews interprets that statement as Howard actually believing that Conan was a real person and was using him as a conduit to tell his stories. This plays into Milius's opinion that Robert was off his rocker. He says a lot of other nutty things about Howard that weren't true as well.

[@robertbutts9835]

There so many great writers , and sadly his life ended early . I love books I read almost everything he wrote . Can he be in the same list as Hemingway or Steinbeck ?

[@wunone67]

I truly enjoy Hemingway and Steinbeck but neither of them has impressed me or stirred me as much as REH. Howard stands alone in death as he did in life.

[@jelkel25]

I think getting caught up in lewdness arguments is pointless when talking about Conan. It's fantasy yes, but it has a tint of a potential reality to it and there isn't going to be a Christian based morality to said era which I'm sure was part of the appeal of writing and reading it.

[@clubberchopsbobbadon869]

Check out the new fantasy book by Leo. It is called Kandor The Warrior and I could not put it down.

[@NathanielWinkelmann]

This was very fascinating, but I am not sure how Frazetta was any more erotic or lewd than Margaret Brundage's original covers.

[@lionhartd138]

And what of the conspiracy theory that he was murdered for telling thinly veiled secrets disguised as fiction? ( Cimmeria - Sumeria... ) Him and Lovecraft are both included in this controversey.

[@CountBeetle]

Poppy cock

[@brodotheblingbearer7970]

It's not a controversy because no one with more than one brain cell would take something like that seriously.

[@MrStrangermoon]

conan is actualy realistic. any one belave god cant deny demons bcouse gods says he create demons. ı wondering hows robert history relation espcaily muslims and middle east. kinda suprsing conan is not europian type. why he chose kimmarian setting. its kinda related to his bible read ?.

[@badweetabix]

I have to disagree with the assertion that Texas in Howard's lifetime was so devoid of authors that people didn't know what to make of them. Apparently, Mr. Finn does not know that there were several well known authors from Texas from 1903 to 1930's such as Andy Adams, Joseph Altsheler, and Edward Anderson.This idea that the only book in their homes was the Bible is absurd. People before TV read much more than today's generation. They may not own many books, but they also visit libraries unlike today's generation who do not even know what those are.

[@thefinnishbolshevik2404]

of course he is generalizing

[@Hadoken.]

The job of a cover is to sell the book. As such is must be attractive, at least as an illustration if not as a piece of art in general. To do this though, it must sell the high points of the character's actions, his world, his look. A portrait of a hero in deep thought while in the bathroom doesn't sell books on one hand, and on the other is mostly the story's job. Let alone that the stories of Conan are more rich in their descriptions of the world, the action, violence and plot, with a small dab of the sexual tease added, than delving into the character's psyche. When REH does it, he does it laconically and to the point, his is no crybaby 200+ page emotional drivel like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. There's many a time REH describes someone being brained with a beefbone, Frazetta on the other hand painted no heads flying, no guts spurting, no limbs cut in ANY of his paintings, not just the 8 Conan pieces. Not only does this guy's unabashed and false description of Frazetta's work, along with an accusation of sorts, show that he doesn't appreciate the arts' dynamic and power that ties in 100% with Conan's world, but also makes one wonder which Conan stories this guy read! In many stories Conan dons nothing but a loincloth and unless this guy is a chubby chaser and imagines scantly clad ugly chicks with unibrows, the females Conan shows interest in are always hot. So, if anything, the art of Frazetta follows and fits the texts perfectly and with much more mystique than REH cared to use (because what works for a painting may not work for a story), and adds the otherworldly, the historical yet different, as well as the balance between civilized and uncivilized, sorcery and cults, new civilizations built over dark crumbling ones, in a way that nobody caught before or since. Pretending that the Conan stories do not have violence or that it's a bad idea to not carry those most intense scenes to a cover is ridiculous. I understand the man's want to expose REH as the great writer he was and try to wash away some of the crazy-guy stigma, but being overzealous doesn't help. The reason Conan's been reduced to what he's saying is because Conan (as a comic property) became famous at a time when ALL comics were hastily put together to just show the hero/heroine fight the baddie, period. The Arnold movie has much in there showing the characters melancholies, his views, his form of "chivalry" as well as his superstitions, and Arnold barely has 10 lines! Still, it's very easy to distill something with such intense imagery to violence and bloodshed, that's the stigma a critic who doesn't like fantasy will give to such an idea and that's the tag anyone not into fantasy will take on. It took the gazillions spent on Lord of the Rings to lift some of the stigma off of fantasy, and even then all that's been made has helped to only put it back on, so what would one expect of books, art, comics and films done mostly at a time when fantasy was the art world's pariah? Is it a pity? Yes. But, if anything, a GOOD, DEEPER and well rounded movie of Conan, based not just on REH's work, but the Milius flick and Frazetta's work would be beneficial, going any other way produced Conan of the Rings.

[@thomasdavison7184]

Man you have got to be from Texas because you are spot on.