tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post997128294694219107..comments2024-02-23T03:28:33.435-05:00Comments on Culture Industry: bran mak morn & the race of the pictsMark Scrogginshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01431113440875342809noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-17200119300101176252012-08-21T00:52:39.678-04:002012-08-21T00:52:39.678-04:00Thanks for commenting, and much to the point. Of c...Thanks for commenting, and much to the point. Of course, being "pulp trash" doesn't preclude something from having cultural significance: Sheridan LeFanu, for instance, who's probably also in Penguin (with ER Burroughs and Lovecraft); take it as an semi-ironical category description of something I love reading, which I distinguish from other things I love reading that I'd call "high culture" or whatnot.<br /><br />You're dead right about the Carthaginians, of course. But my point about REH's "barbarians" being at some remove based on Native Americans is not a *literal* one -- I mean that there's an affinity between the *mythology* of American westward expansion, the way Indians are portrayed in pulps and magazines & popular fictions, and his conception of the "barbarian" (with of course a healthy dose of Rousseau's "noble savage").<br /><br />I will be able to give my own definitive call on KEW's Bran v. REH's when I've reread Legion from the Shadows; it's been 30+ years, after all, so give my aging memory a break.<br /><br />It's good to hear from someone who's so deeply invested in the REH world; it's all a fuzzy memory to me, and I'm seeing things this time around I didn't when I was in junior high. But I'm still convinced he's a Herderian -- and who wasn't? Certainly unrealistic to expect Howard, living in an era when Frazer was still respected as an anthropologist, to somehow anticipate theories of culture as nuanced as Raymond Williams's, much less Benedict Anderson's.Mark Scrogginshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01431113440875342809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-41204286618402358502012-08-20T18:48:29.050-04:002012-08-20T18:48:29.050-04:00Howard's notion of the conquering Roman army, ...<i>Howard's notion of the conquering Roman army, commanded by "hawk-faced" Italians and consisting mostly of Italians and Teutonic recruits, facing down monoracial enemies, is clearly modeled on an early 20th-century American mythology of the Wild West, in which white cowboys and bluecoated soldiers battle it out with monoracial Native Americans.</i><br /><br />Once again, there were *millions* of Native Americans, so naturally there'd be hundreds of distinct tribes and even some variation in ethnic groups. The Picts lived in Scotland, a country that could fit into Maryland, one of the smallest states. <br /><br /><i>What's even more interesting to me is the extent to which Howard, in a strikingly Herderesque move, pretty much equates race with culture. That is, to be a Viking may be to wear a horned helmet, to fight behind a shield wall, to carry a particular sword or axe, but it's always to be big and blonde or red-haired. (Similarly, in Conan's Hyborian Age the Stygians are all dark-skinned, the Kushites are black, the Cimmerians are pale but dark-haired...)</i><br /><br />Firstly, the reason Howard's Hyborian Age is heterogenous according to nation is because it's explicitly set before the mass cultural mixing and drift which gave rise to modern civilizations. Regarding the equation of race with culture: well, "The Hyborian Age" contradicts that, as there are several instances of races being absorbed or even superceding other ethnoi, but retaining the culture of the conquered nation. The Vanir conquered the Stygians, but Stygian culture remained when they became Egypt: the Aesir conquered Nemedia, but retained the old name, as did the Hyborians who conquered Hyperborea. Evidently culture is a bit more malleable and not intrinsic to race.<br /><br />Secondly, there are plenty of examples of Vikings in Howard's stories which defy the bulky blond/red-haired phenotype: look at "The Grey God Passes," where Brodir is correctly given black hair and a dark countenance.<br /><br />What's happening here is that Howard is speaking not necessarily of "race," but of ethnicity. Howard makes a racial distinction between the black Kushites and the black Islanders just as surely as he considers the Gaels distinct from the Britons and other Celts, or the Danes from the Norwegians.<br /><br /><i>Reading thru all the Bran stories, we learn almost nothing about the Picts' social organization, their folkways, their clothing, their traditions; even the distinguishing feature that gave them their Latin name – "pictus," painted – their tattooing or painting themselves with woad – is pretty much elided. Instead, we learn that they're olive-skinned, small of stature, and gnarled, almost apish. The racial degeneration of the Picts, in Howard's account, trumps anything else that might define their culture; because for Howard, race equals culture.</i><br /><br />Howard's Picts are dying. How can you expect a group to retain its culture, traditions, organization and whatnot when they're on the verge of extinction? Those elements that are not described are not merely omitted, they're actually <b>lost</b>.Taranaichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02176999342965850175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-1959481402251691102012-08-20T18:48:02.729-04:002012-08-20T18:48:02.729-04:00I always like people looking a bit deeper into How...I always like people looking a bit deeper into Howard's work, but I would be remiss if I didn't comment on a few things.<br /><br /><i>This is all pulp trash, of course</i><br /><br />Pulp trash which is considered of such cultural significance it's been inducted into Penguin Classics, that is.<br /><br /><i>Karl Edward Wagner's Legion from the Shadows, I seem to recall, is actually far superior to Howard's own Bran stories.</i><br /><br />I'll have to respectfully disagree with that assessment: much as I admire Wagner's work, like his take on Conan, his Bran Mak Morn tale is but a pale imitation of Howard at his best. It certainly can't compare with "Worms of the Earth", one of the finest examples of Sword-and-Sorcery there is.<br /><br /><i>Bran is a typical Howard hero.</i><br /><br />I suppose he's typical if you forget the heavy, oppressive sense of hopelessness permeating all his stories, the almost complete lack of humour present in even Solomon Kane, and the fact that he, more than any other barbarian hero, is willing to make a veritable deal with the devil for the sake of vengeance...<br /><br /><i>What's this got to do with my toy soldiers, or my fascination with ancient history? Well, when I was studying Roman history, I whizzed thru those various chronicles of Rome's struggles with other cultures – the Carthaginians, the Gauls, the Goths, the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, etc. – thinking of them largely in Howardian terms: ie, that a given foreign nation must have not merely a given culture, but a given racial identity as well. It never occurred to me – frankly because I haven't even thought of such issues for decades – until I spent some time recently with a big Osprey compilation, Rome and Her Enemies, that most of the armies Rome fought were every bit as multicultural and multiracial as the contemporary US Army. Take the Carthaginians, for instance – there's a core in Hannibal's army of "Carthaginians" – read Semites – but up to 80% of his army consisted of Celts, Iberians, Numidians, and other allied and mercenary groups.</i><br /><br />There's a hell of a big difference between the Picts and the polynational Carthaginian empire. Of COURSE the Carthaginians were bolstered by Iberians, Numidians, Celtiberians and whatnot, they were a massive sprawling civilization. The Picts are just one tribe in one corner of one large island: you really think they'd have a diverse ethnic heritage?<br /><br />When Howard had larger groups fighting, they certainly weren't an ethnically homogenous horde.Taranaichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02176999342965850175noreply@blogger.com