Status Updates From J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. H...

“the power of a work of art set in a fantasy world is that it allows the reader or viewer to escape the history, the assumptions, ‘the way things are.’ this can lead to questioning ‘the way things are.’ this is the true escapism that fantasy worlds can provide.”

“howard felt that one of the worst aspects of civilization was that it was used to justify ‘looting, butchering and plundering by claiming that these things were done in the interests of art, progress and culture’ (letters 3: 376).”

“[howard] also abhorred modern war. he saw the war of his times not as barbaric but as the offspring of a rotting civilization.”

“the conan of the stories is not a brute... he is interested in the spiritual and intellectual discourse of civilized men, but not impressed by it.”

“howard uses sorcery to represent advanced learning and other forms of culture used to prop up the elite and keep the ordinary people down.”

“howard makes the hyborian age more than a bare set for conan to stride through. he creates a setting for his ideas and feelings to be expressed without the restraint of historical or contemporary reality.”