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Religion and pulp fiction
Jun. 1st, 2014 12:57 pmSo I was reading this criticism of the DeCamp and Carter take on Conan. Pretty justifiable. One of the big chunks which I can remember of REH, and where I was agreeing with the criticism, is that the later authors kind of introduce a good gods vs. evil gods structure, whereas Howard's take on it is that good gods are nowhere to be found and evil gods are simply really powerful alien entities.
I'd assume that both Howard and Lovecraft were very typical in 20s and 30s atheism; gods aren't part of a world of science and technology, and where Howard's cultural background included a lot of individualism, Lovecraft's personal background included a lot of existential pessimism. I'd also wonder whether Howard was writing pagan religions from the perspective of having read a batch of sort of existentialist anthropological takes on local non-Christian religions. And by contrast I'm now realizing that Tolkien's take on a good versus evil conflict actually really fits his faith as a devout yet modern Catholic. JRRT doesn't believe God is silent, but he believes God speaks in quieter, subtler ways - which in Middle Earth is about the Istari and rings and individual choice, rather than say, about Aslan showing up and saving the day. (Tolkien's fondness for Norse stuff - Gandalf is basically Odin, etc - makes him seem to me so overtly pagan, that I'm unaccustomed to thinking of him in any other religious context.)
Later attempts to revamp HPL and REH include good versus evil struggles. This can't be informed by Tolkien (his version of a good versus evil struggle is a different yet very religious thing). I'd wonder if any of the revising folks were especially devout themselves (I think Derleth was, and I don't know enough about Mormonism to say whether Sandy Petersen's insistence on Lovecraftian stuff without Derlethian deities is actually pretty LDS). Beyond that though I'd wonder whether inserting good deities into literally godless pulp fiction is part of the gestalt of the 50s and 60s (much easier to live through if you were the right demographic), a conscious choice to be more acceptable, or simply that the duality of good gods versus evil gods playing out a struggle in the mortal realm felt more dramatically appealing to the later authors.
I'd assume that both Howard and Lovecraft were very typical in 20s and 30s atheism; gods aren't part of a world of science and technology, and where Howard's cultural background included a lot of individualism, Lovecraft's personal background included a lot of existential pessimism. I'd also wonder whether Howard was writing pagan religions from the perspective of having read a batch of sort of existentialist anthropological takes on local non-Christian religions. And by contrast I'm now realizing that Tolkien's take on a good versus evil conflict actually really fits his faith as a devout yet modern Catholic. JRRT doesn't believe God is silent, but he believes God speaks in quieter, subtler ways - which in Middle Earth is about the Istari and rings and individual choice, rather than say, about Aslan showing up and saving the day. (Tolkien's fondness for Norse stuff - Gandalf is basically Odin, etc - makes him seem to me so overtly pagan, that I'm unaccustomed to thinking of him in any other religious context.)
Later attempts to revamp HPL and REH include good versus evil struggles. This can't be informed by Tolkien (his version of a good versus evil struggle is a different yet very religious thing). I'd wonder if any of the revising folks were especially devout themselves (I think Derleth was, and I don't know enough about Mormonism to say whether Sandy Petersen's insistence on Lovecraftian stuff without Derlethian deities is actually pretty LDS). Beyond that though I'd wonder whether inserting good deities into literally godless pulp fiction is part of the gestalt of the 50s and 60s (much easier to live through if you were the right demographic), a conscious choice to be more acceptable, or simply that the duality of good gods versus evil gods playing out a struggle in the mortal realm felt more dramatically appealing to the later authors.