At 01:00 PM 1/2/01, you wrote:
>How about the Harry Potter books? The kids reading them are about the same
>age I was when I started reading REH. (Maybe 10 -12 as opposed to 13 - 15
>though.)
>
>I've never read them but it sounds like they might qualify as weird fiction.
>What about all those R. L. Stine "Goosebumps" stuff? Is this stuff
>Lovecraft for 10 year olds?
I haven't read a Harry Potter book all the way through, but I've looked
through the one which came out a few months ago. It's a children's book,
not an action/adventure book. To me the pulps are about mature conflict,
not necessarily action/adventure, but about conflict between a mature
character and some superhuman or superevil force.
>The Wandering Star published REH stuff seems to be defining REH as "classic
>boys adventure" fiction. Not a bad thing at all. Puts him in the same
>league as R. L. Stevenson. The Gianni illustrated "STOSK" book looks a
>whole lot like the Scribner's Wyeth illustrated "Treasure Island" book.
Maybe that's what the boys read decades ago, but when I look at a Howard
story I see a very sophisticated style of writing. It's tight, intense,
and motivating. It doesn't wallow in words. Look at The Hobbit, to take
one of my other favorite authors. That book may be short but the story
itself is considerably shorter. Tolkien washed the reader ashore with tons
of asides and explanations.
I think the classic pulp style just plunges the reader into the story and
moves ahead, and doesn't go on with all the patronizing explanations (and I
don't mean that to sound bad).
>Maybe the emphasis on REH as "the greatest pulp writer who ever lived" (as
>good as it sounds) is really too LIMITING. I think he would be better
>served by just saying he was a good writer deserving of a wider audience.
Perhaps. But speaking of him as a pulp writer does give his work a context
or framework of expectation which I feel is reasonable.
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