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What does /lit/ make of Robert E Howard's original Conan the Barbarian stories?
I was a fan of them when I was around 14 and just recently got around to rereading them. Maybe university lit classes have poisoned me on my outlook, but they seem to be a pretty standard male power fantasy. More than that, Conan has no flaws. He's very strong, yet also fast as a panther. He's savage and ferocious, yet also intelligent, cultured, even erudite. Irresistible to women, he doesn't even have to charm them, they're charmed by his very appearance and nature.
He's never embarrassed or inconvenienced by situations outside of his control. He never really encounters any situation he can't escape from or hack away.
I know at the end of the day they're just power fantasies for teenagers, but is there any value or analysis I'm missing in it? I really want to like Conan.
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Why do you want to like it then?
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>>9981698
>cultured, even erudite
Only at the latter stages of life, when he's king.
Also he does have flaws, he can be a prick at times, and is often working for the villain of the story. He then battles them when they refuse to pay him. His morals are more often than not about money.
If there is any themes it's thought that the stories are about civilization vs barbarism. But I think it's really about city folk vs rural people like those he lived with in Texas.
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>>9981698
I always thought this type of analysis was really shallow. What's a flaw? Doesn't the meaning of that vary from person to person? Some people think being an asshole is a flaw while another person might say it's admirable.
Conan struggles in his books right? He's put in dangerous situations. What's the problem than?
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>>9981698
Conan stories are amazing for what they are. Try Bran MacMorn (probably spelled that wrong) if you want a Howard character that is a bit more down to Earth.
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>>9981698
And what's wrong with having a male archetype that's a superhero?
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>>9981698
It's just entertainment. Imagine being a 15 year old kid in the 1930s and reading The Tower Of The Elephant on a Saturday morning. Sword fights, thefts, women, monsters, and an action man protag. His strong suit was writing action scenes and he is still a good working reference for how to do violence in genre books.
If you want something more sophisticated and literary then look at the fantasies Clark Ashton Smith was writing for the same magazines as REH.
Or there is Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and Gray Mouser who cover similar ground as Conan but with more camaraderie and humor - Leiber being an overall better writer than Howard IMO.
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Nothing wrong with power fantasies for teenagers. Except you can't stay a teenager forever.
Most of lit tries, tho.
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>>9981698
The prose is a joy to read. The adventures are appropriately fantastic. I think if less words were devoted to jacking off on how great Conan is it would be a near perfect set of adventure stories.
I think it's just fine to appreciate the Conan stories as works of craftsmanship.
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Toxic masculinity.
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