Post originally by Justin Bacon at 2004-07-10 18:21:28
Converted from Phorums BB System

camazotz wrote:
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Well, it's obvious you don't like Carter/Nyberg/de Camp and their contributions and rewrites.
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And, with the exception of Nyberg, that is true of anyone who is a fan of Howard's work. de Camp and Carter rewrote, expurgated, altered, and deliberately kept Howard's original work out of print. What type of contribution is that, exactly?

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Maybe Conan as a literary creation could have withstood the test of time and eventually seen reprint, and regular circulation, as other creations f the time have, but I do wonder if that could happen.
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Why on earth would you wonder if that could happen? Sure, you can whip out your personal forgotten favorites, but there are dozens of authors from the 1930s whose works continue to be recognized and published today without the need for pastiche sequels.

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In any case, your point about Tolkein and his purity by escaping pastiche works: you are actually quite wrong. Baring the fact that Tolkein's works have a very specific time, place and context (whereas Howard always pioneered the idea of the bar-tale yarn told by a grizzled veteran),
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I have no idea what the hell you're talking about. Not *one* of Howard's Conan stories is related as a "bar-tale yarn told by a grizzled veteran".

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people have been regurgitating Tolkein in such untold volumes of shameless pastiche since Terry Brooks right up to countless tomes on the shelves this very month, not to mention the unending variants portrayed through gaming.
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In other words, not a single pastiche sequel or prequel has been set in the universe of Middle Earth. And yet Tolkien's work survives and thrives.

Here's the bare and simple truth: L. Sprague de Camp kept Howard's Conan stories, in ANY form, out of print for nearly fifteen years because publishers weren't interested in publishign de Camp's pastiches and de Camp wouldn't allow Howard's original stories to be published without his pastiches.

How the hell did keeping Howard's stories OUT OF PRINT serve to keep them in circulation? Plug your brain in. You're spouting nonsense.

Justin Bacon
triad3204@aol.com