The following message was bounced today. I'm just reposting it.
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2001 08:16:46 -0700 (PDT)
From: richard tseng <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Weird Tales of late
To: robert e howard fans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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i recently read an article in a Weird Tales issue, i
am referring to the new imitation of the pulps of the
20s and read an intro to Robert E Howard. the article
called him a "post-adolescent" who "never grew up" and
left an impression in my mind that howard was mentally
unstable and a complete loner. the implications being
written by one of de Camp's cronies who claimed to be
a teacher working with the development of children and
had connections with the University of Pensylvania.
the article also left me angry at the fact that they
dismissed Mr. Burke's essay on howard as being
insubstantial and unusable. when, a month or so
later, Mr. Burke made a perfectly capable and
understandable reply to the obvious challenge issued
by said magazine, making helpful suggestions on books
that could be reccomended in place of the lesser works
mentioned for further reading and defending the e-mail
rings after they were attacked by the magazine as
"yahoos... who stalked the poor man (de Camp) at
conventions" and also pointing out the fact that de
Camp and his friend's psycho-analysing were amateur
and since neither of them held the proper degree,
should be considered void. all perfectly reasonable
arguments yet the response (which adressed Mr. Burke
as "Rusty") was even more snide and ridiculous. the
gist of which was made completely to counter all of
Mr. Burke's statements with the source mainly built on
opinion or de Camp!
I am wondering how the rest of my friends here feel on
the matter as i feel it is ridiculous, not only have
the Weird Tales imposters made de Camp appear the
patron saint of conan and howard, rescuing them from
obscurity, but they have also marred the reputations
of both Robert E. Howard and Rusty Burke in order to
do so. we all know that if it had not been for
Sprague's meddlings conan would not seem the brainless
skull-basher he appears to be today and that if he had
not been there, then perhaps Glenn Lord would have
brought Mr. Howard to unequalled heights.
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