Can the genre ever move on from Robert E. Howard's Conan? How can writers possibly innovate within this narrow fantasy subgenre? Is the sword and sorcery barbarian facing his last stand?
As society becomes more (and more) industrial/mechanical, more people will crave simpler times. We are products of nature, and as such, we are Luddites at heart. The fact that the youth are now referring to the Unabomber as 'Uncle Ted' says a great deal...
There’s a similar back-to-basics yearning in the notion of liminal spaces, I think. It’s horrifying to be trapped in an infinite maze of rooms, but also nice to get a bit of peace and quiet. :D
Catching up with some of your writing, Alec, and I just wanted to say that this is one of the most entertaining and engaging articles I've read on Substack - or anywhere else for that matter! The only trouble is it's sent me down a rabbit hole of other fascinating stuff on your site. Well, it's a wonderful labyrinth to get lost in! Looking forward to future articles...
Hahaha! That is so kind of you to say, T.K.! :D There's plenty there, so dig in. Hoping to offer audio versions some time next year, so people can listen on the go. Best of luck with your own projects!
Just read your Black Beth one. AMAZING. What an insight into making a character your own. I was (am) a huge 2000AD fan so I'd love to try my hand at Rogue Trooper etc! Keep up the great work
Thanks again, T.K. So kind. Really hope these help. I've been flinging these things into the void for a few years now. Really great to hear folks are getting something out of my ramblings. :D
The reason Robert E. Howard's Conan resonates is because it came directly from the writer's soul. Read his letters and you will see this clearly. This is why 99% of Conan stories written by someone else (even capable writers) just ring hollow. I think S & S as a genre can prosper if the writers take the same approach as Howard without aping him.
Sheesh. Thought this’d be a nice quick read over breakfast. Now I’ve got a dozen different articles and rabbit holes into which I’ll disappear all week! Thanks!
PS As per your thesis here, I’d venture there’s ways of escaping the S&S pitfalls via RPGs although their lack of novel or fiction support since their high water mark in the early 90s mutes that potential.
Haha! Glad to be of service, Steven. :D And yeah, I didn't even go into where S&S can go with RPGs, whose narratives are not only boundless, but also unique to the personalities of the players.
A lot of the “gatekeeper complaints” are an answer to an attitude that older stories or IP are not merely old-hat or full of now-overdone tropes, but so problematic that they should be buried (it gets even more toxic when it’s tied to demographics, such as treating a work as trash because a straight white male wrote it.) You see it with classic IP in particular; many new installments are deliberately made to upset older fans and “fix” an IP the new owners consider “broken.”
**That said,** I agree with your post. Genres do need to change to stay fresh; we can’t be writing the same thing all day every day. I do not oppose publications that seek to evolve beyond the foundations established by Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber; rather, I don’t think that older work and classic authors should be treated as problematic poison, even if you’re not fond of them and believe them to fall short. You did well to make a case for the older work, and I do believe that there is room for everyone since it’s not like Sword & Sorcery is tied to any one publication.
Absolutely, there's room for everyone! If you want experimental genre-blending there's that, if you want old school there's that too. Nothing needs to be denigrated because if you don't like it no-one's nailing you to a chair and forcing you to read it Clockwork Orange-style. As in every single genre out there - from horror to detective stories to romance and everything else, there's plenty of troublesome stuff in sword and sorcery's history, but there's also been amazing writers who've provided counters to those excesses - and been better remembered. Thanks for reading, Rawle!
I really enjoyed this article. As an aspiring S&S writer it was encouraging and interesting to see that the genre still has legs, so to speak, and can still offer a variation on loincloth clad barbarians smacking each other with great axes. I guess I should crack on with writing my damn story next.
I think the key to understanding Sword & Sorcery above all else is that there must be that innate sense of "FUN." Dangerous word, that! Lol. People balk at the power fantasy, but that really is part of the appeal. You're taken to another world, a more ancient time, and are afforded the luxury of exploring those more primeval instincts and ideas without the intellectual pretensions and overdosing self-awareness of modern writing.
Personally, I view gatekeeper concerns with diversity as the result of mainstream entertainment coupling explicitly implemented diversity with poorly articulated political messaging. Not allegory or subtle metaphor, but blunt-force, surface-level, boilerplate commentary that often sucks the life (and the fun) out of the genres it touches. It doesn't matter what is being said after a certain point, because any overt commentary of this nature tends to clash horribly with the stories it is foisted upon.
In Sword & Sorcery, writers should give up all their pretensions and allow themselves the luxury of intuition. After all, these are heroes who act on intuition, on gut feelings melded with cunning and raw physical prowess. Regardless of their race or gender or what have you, any deeper value in this genre should not be constructed, but should arrive of its own accord, if it even arrives at all. The story should accomplish everything it sets out to do on the surface before it goes beyond it, as that is the secret to Howard's genius. He delivers crowd-pleasing pulp entertainment, but further reads become enriching experiences as you savor the touches of worldbuilding and character throughout.
If you can write for the pulps, you can write for Sword & Sorcery. And once you can learn to write for the pulps, to write for the adventuresome spirit and savagery of the genre, then it's time to explore further. To quote the evergreen Martin Scorsese: "Study the old masters, enrich your palette, expand the canvas."
Indeed, one of the pleasures of sword and sorcery is its unselfconsciousness. REH, for example, wrote utterly without fear and with total conviction. Thanks for the re-stack, Jacob.
I never much cared for Conan, the character. I read the stories for the world in which Conan lived...dire ancient sorcerous places, strange artifacts, high strangeness, hot broads, and a world that was full to the brim with fascinating potential. I viewed Conan as rather like Shardik; he's this force of nature that shows up and wrecks things.
Many of RE Howard's tales (perhaps later cooked up by Lin Carter and L. Sprague DeCamp) don't fully center on the Cimmerian murder hobo...they follow other characters into plots in which Shardikonan blunders in and clobbers That Which Needed Clobberin'. I found those tales to be better, more interesting. Political intrigues make for good plots when set in a time and culture where in political rivals will kill each other rather than pretend to be opposed and cooperate closely behind closed doors. Just consider the Gunpowder Plot...killing someone by packing his basement with blackpowder is just an awesome what to put the whack on your enemy(ies).
I never quite agreed with Moorcock's venom for Tolkien (same with Philip Pullman). Always felt like Tolkien was always taking the rap for his lazy imitators. Weird to think now, but 20 years ago the (British) literary establishment DESPISED Tolkien and every last kind of fantasy. Authors like Angela Carter were always referred to as magic realism or (my favourite) 'metaphysical fabulism'. :D I remember watching a South Bank Show with Pullman and him saying he was appalled halfway through writing Northern Lights to realise that he was writing a fantasy novel. :D Things have changed a great deal since then.
Agreed, but hatred with a purpose. I may not agree with Moorcock, but to whatever extent he channeled his animosity for Tolkien into his own writing, at least he put it to good use. Also, you have to admit, "Epic Pooh" is a hilarious title.
The story I'd love to see made into a movie, or explanded on, is Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley's "Black As The Pit, From Pole To Pole" (1977). Kind of a precursor to Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the way it weaves together concepts and characters from different writers. Starring the Frankenstein monster (The Creature) recast as a Conan-like figure and adventuring inside the Hollow Earth.
John Cleves Symmes published his Hollow Earth theory the same year (1818) that Mary Shelly published Frankenstein.
The story includes dinosaurs, Moby Dick, and Lovecraftian nightmares.
This is an excellent and thought provoking piece. I’ve dabbled in the idea of Sword and Sorcery, but only made small attempts at writing in the Genre and only recently began to consume it (ie, listening to the Conan collection audiobooks). I will admit one thought experiment I dabbled in boils down to “Conan but in a Humanity F*** Yeah Sci-fi story”. I need to return to that and workshop it and some other S&S experiments.
The biggest thing I can think of (at least right now) that can push Sword and Sorcery forward is new writers who have consumed lots of media outside and inside the genre. It will also help to have stories written from a perspective of frustration with the world around them to an extent, but who are also willing to try things and just write.
Another well written & thought provoking piece Alec, thank you. You're right about the gatekeepers, so tiresome. When that new Masters of The Universe series by Kevin Smith landed, the fall out from that was embarrassing. Personally, had I written it, I would 100% have made Teela and Evil Lynn more prominent characters because they had so much potential that was largely ignored in the originals. But the middle aged men who whinged and whined because there wasn't enough of the buff blond dude in the bondage harness for their liking was... telling!
Anyway, looking forward to Hawk The Slayer and fingers crossed for more Black Beth, too.
Cheers, dude. I think with people feeling possessive over the the things they love it's best to try and understand where they're coming from, or why that anger is there. It's weird, cos - if I'm honest - I feel that pain/anger myself to a degree. I mean, I was into this stuff when it WASN'T cool, dammit! :D It's just that the online world can radicalise people to such an insane degree and send them off in crazy directions. Plus, it pays to be a drama-farmer these days. Literally! These YouTube outrage merchants who have no evidence for anything they're saying and getting paid for it? Crazy.
Sadly those outrage farmers seem to create enough doubt in the minds of would-be filmgoers, that they can make a film like Furiosa flop. I know a lot of, even toxic, fandom comes from a place of love but just GROW UP!
It did evolve. Lightsabers and Jedi, anyone? Bueller. Bueller. Bueller. Has anyone seen Bueller?
As society becomes more (and more) industrial/mechanical, more people will crave simpler times. We are products of nature, and as such, we are Luddites at heart. The fact that the youth are now referring to the Unabomber as 'Uncle Ted' says a great deal...
There’s a similar back-to-basics yearning in the notion of liminal spaces, I think. It’s horrifying to be trapped in an infinite maze of rooms, but also nice to get a bit of peace and quiet. :D
Catching up with some of your writing, Alec, and I just wanted to say that this is one of the most entertaining and engaging articles I've read on Substack - or anywhere else for that matter! The only trouble is it's sent me down a rabbit hole of other fascinating stuff on your site. Well, it's a wonderful labyrinth to get lost in! Looking forward to future articles...
Hahaha! That is so kind of you to say, T.K.! :D There's plenty there, so dig in. Hoping to offer audio versions some time next year, so people can listen on the go. Best of luck with your own projects!
Just read your Black Beth one. AMAZING. What an insight into making a character your own. I was (am) a huge 2000AD fan so I'd love to try my hand at Rogue Trooper etc! Keep up the great work
Thanks again, T.K. So kind. Really hope these help. I've been flinging these things into the void for a few years now. Really great to hear folks are getting something out of my ramblings. :D
The reason Robert E. Howard's Conan resonates is because it came directly from the writer's soul. Read his letters and you will see this clearly. This is why 99% of Conan stories written by someone else (even capable writers) just ring hollow. I think S & S as a genre can prosper if the writers take the same approach as Howard without aping him.
Absolutely! It's all about bringing something unique and fresh to what's already there. Thanks for reading, Niko!
Sheesh. Thought this’d be a nice quick read over breakfast. Now I’ve got a dozen different articles and rabbit holes into which I’ll disappear all week! Thanks!
PS As per your thesis here, I’d venture there’s ways of escaping the S&S pitfalls via RPGs although their lack of novel or fiction support since their high water mark in the early 90s mutes that potential.
Haha! Glad to be of service, Steven. :D And yeah, I didn't even go into where S&S can go with RPGs, whose narratives are not only boundless, but also unique to the personalities of the players.
A lot of the “gatekeeper complaints” are an answer to an attitude that older stories or IP are not merely old-hat or full of now-overdone tropes, but so problematic that they should be buried (it gets even more toxic when it’s tied to demographics, such as treating a work as trash because a straight white male wrote it.) You see it with classic IP in particular; many new installments are deliberately made to upset older fans and “fix” an IP the new owners consider “broken.”
**That said,** I agree with your post. Genres do need to change to stay fresh; we can’t be writing the same thing all day every day. I do not oppose publications that seek to evolve beyond the foundations established by Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber; rather, I don’t think that older work and classic authors should be treated as problematic poison, even if you’re not fond of them and believe them to fall short. You did well to make a case for the older work, and I do believe that there is room for everyone since it’s not like Sword & Sorcery is tied to any one publication.
Absolutely, there's room for everyone! If you want experimental genre-blending there's that, if you want old school there's that too. Nothing needs to be denigrated because if you don't like it no-one's nailing you to a chair and forcing you to read it Clockwork Orange-style. As in every single genre out there - from horror to detective stories to romance and everything else, there's plenty of troublesome stuff in sword and sorcery's history, but there's also been amazing writers who've provided counters to those excesses - and been better remembered. Thanks for reading, Rawle!
And thanks for being willing to talk, Alex.
Sure thing!
I really enjoyed this article. As an aspiring S&S writer it was encouraging and interesting to see that the genre still has legs, so to speak, and can still offer a variation on loincloth clad barbarians smacking each other with great axes. I guess I should crack on with writing my damn story next.
Thanks so much, Charlotte. The genre does indeed have legs. Great big muscular ones!! Now get on and write that story. Wishing ye all the best!
I think the key to understanding Sword & Sorcery above all else is that there must be that innate sense of "FUN." Dangerous word, that! Lol. People balk at the power fantasy, but that really is part of the appeal. You're taken to another world, a more ancient time, and are afforded the luxury of exploring those more primeval instincts and ideas without the intellectual pretensions and overdosing self-awareness of modern writing.
Personally, I view gatekeeper concerns with diversity as the result of mainstream entertainment coupling explicitly implemented diversity with poorly articulated political messaging. Not allegory or subtle metaphor, but blunt-force, surface-level, boilerplate commentary that often sucks the life (and the fun) out of the genres it touches. It doesn't matter what is being said after a certain point, because any overt commentary of this nature tends to clash horribly with the stories it is foisted upon.
In Sword & Sorcery, writers should give up all their pretensions and allow themselves the luxury of intuition. After all, these are heroes who act on intuition, on gut feelings melded with cunning and raw physical prowess. Regardless of their race or gender or what have you, any deeper value in this genre should not be constructed, but should arrive of its own accord, if it even arrives at all. The story should accomplish everything it sets out to do on the surface before it goes beyond it, as that is the secret to Howard's genius. He delivers crowd-pleasing pulp entertainment, but further reads become enriching experiences as you savor the touches of worldbuilding and character throughout.
If you can write for the pulps, you can write for Sword & Sorcery. And once you can learn to write for the pulps, to write for the adventuresome spirit and savagery of the genre, then it's time to explore further. To quote the evergreen Martin Scorsese: "Study the old masters, enrich your palette, expand the canvas."
Indeed, one of the pleasures of sword and sorcery is its unselfconsciousness. REH, for example, wrote utterly without fear and with total conviction. Thanks for the re-stack, Jacob.
I never much cared for Conan, the character. I read the stories for the world in which Conan lived...dire ancient sorcerous places, strange artifacts, high strangeness, hot broads, and a world that was full to the brim with fascinating potential. I viewed Conan as rather like Shardik; he's this force of nature that shows up and wrecks things.
Many of RE Howard's tales (perhaps later cooked up by Lin Carter and L. Sprague DeCamp) don't fully center on the Cimmerian murder hobo...they follow other characters into plots in which Shardikonan blunders in and clobbers That Which Needed Clobberin'. I found those tales to be better, more interesting. Political intrigues make for good plots when set in a time and culture where in political rivals will kill each other rather than pretend to be opposed and cooperate closely behind closed doors. Just consider the Gunpowder Plot...killing someone by packing his basement with blackpowder is just an awesome what to put the whack on your enemy(ies).
Shardik's a really interesting comparison! Gotta get round to reading Adams's Watership Down. The original movie is one of my all-time faves!
Adding in Moorcock’s disdain for Tolkien for good measure.
I never quite agreed with Moorcock's venom for Tolkien (same with Philip Pullman). Always felt like Tolkien was always taking the rap for his lazy imitators. Weird to think now, but 20 years ago the (British) literary establishment DESPISED Tolkien and every last kind of fantasy. Authors like Angela Carter were always referred to as magic realism or (my favourite) 'metaphysical fabulism'. :D I remember watching a South Bank Show with Pullman and him saying he was appalled halfway through writing Northern Lights to realise that he was writing a fantasy novel. :D Things have changed a great deal since then.
Agreed, but hatred with a purpose. I may not agree with Moorcock, but to whatever extent he channeled his animosity for Tolkien into his own writing, at least he put it to good use. Also, you have to admit, "Epic Pooh" is a hilarious title.
Great title and a terrific essay! :)
The story I'd love to see made into a movie, or explanded on, is Howard Waldrop and Steven Utley's "Black As The Pit, From Pole To Pole" (1977). Kind of a precursor to Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in the way it weaves together concepts and characters from different writers. Starring the Frankenstein monster (The Creature) recast as a Conan-like figure and adventuring inside the Hollow Earth.
John Cleves Symmes published his Hollow Earth theory the same year (1818) that Mary Shelly published Frankenstein.
The story includes dinosaurs, Moby Dick, and Lovecraftian nightmares.
Oh my God! That sounds bloody amazing! Thanks, Barry!
The title, by the way, comes from William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus:
Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.
This is an excellent and thought provoking piece. I’ve dabbled in the idea of Sword and Sorcery, but only made small attempts at writing in the Genre and only recently began to consume it (ie, listening to the Conan collection audiobooks). I will admit one thought experiment I dabbled in boils down to “Conan but in a Humanity F*** Yeah Sci-fi story”. I need to return to that and workshop it and some other S&S experiments.
The biggest thing I can think of (at least right now) that can push Sword and Sorcery forward is new writers who have consumed lots of media outside and inside the genre. It will also help to have stories written from a perspective of frustration with the world around them to an extent, but who are also willing to try things and just write.
Thanks so much, Perry. Totally agree that reading (and thinking) widely is key. Best of luck with your own experiments, mate!
Also relevant, and perhaps more focused on the core issue.
https://jdanielsawyer.substack.com/p/enter-the-dream
Another one for my save-pile. :D Thanks, Randall!
Related, relevant, and well-researched.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-141288735
Read this one! Terrific piece!
I know quite a few of those grognards. I'll be posting a link to this in our game group Discord.
Another well written & thought provoking piece Alec, thank you. You're right about the gatekeepers, so tiresome. When that new Masters of The Universe series by Kevin Smith landed, the fall out from that was embarrassing. Personally, had I written it, I would 100% have made Teela and Evil Lynn more prominent characters because they had so much potential that was largely ignored in the originals. But the middle aged men who whinged and whined because there wasn't enough of the buff blond dude in the bondage harness for their liking was... telling!
Anyway, looking forward to Hawk The Slayer and fingers crossed for more Black Beth, too.
Cheers, dude. I think with people feeling possessive over the the things they love it's best to try and understand where they're coming from, or why that anger is there. It's weird, cos - if I'm honest - I feel that pain/anger myself to a degree. I mean, I was into this stuff when it WASN'T cool, dammit! :D It's just that the online world can radicalise people to such an insane degree and send them off in crazy directions. Plus, it pays to be a drama-farmer these days. Literally! These YouTube outrage merchants who have no evidence for anything they're saying and getting paid for it? Crazy.
Sadly those outrage farmers seem to create enough doubt in the minds of would-be filmgoers, that they can make a film like Furiosa flop. I know a lot of, even toxic, fandom comes from a place of love but just GROW UP!
Or make something yourself! A game character is way less ambitious than even a short story, but it can still be very satisfying.
https://johnnyofgreensborosoldschooldd.obsidianportal.com/characters/cosmos-the-barbarian