An
REH Purist's Manifesto
by
Rusty Burke
1. We believe that ONLY the words actually written by Robert
E. Howard have "official" or "canonical"
status with regard to the life and adventures of Conan, or of any
other character created by REH.
Note that, while most of us have little interest in pastiches,
we do not deny anyone the right to produce them. In fact, the
"purist" position would actually result in more and
better pastiches. How? By opening up the entire Conan
"saga" to any writer to produce his or her own
interpretations of episodes from Conan's career. Working from
hints in Howard's work, any number of writers could give us their
own versions of Conan's rise to kingship, say, or any other of his
adventures not actually chronicled by REH. Currently, the
artificial "biography" of Conan originally created by P.
Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark, but later considerably amended
and expanded by L. Sprague de Camp, effectively prevents any such
situation. Those who control the Conan "property" insist
that writers must follow de Camp's outline of Conan's career, and
one and only one version of any given episode or period is
allowed. This actually stifles, rather than encourages,
creativity. De Camp has suggested that lack of rigid controls
could result in such abominations as a gay Conan. My response is:
so what? I'm sure that those who plead that Conan should be
"consumer friendly" and that we should give the readers
what they want, no matter what it is they want, would have to
agree that there is nothing inherently wrong with gay people
having their own Conan.
The Conan stories should be treated as the Sherlock Holmes
stories are treated by their aficionados: only the actual works
of the creator of the series (in our case, REH) should be
accounted "canonical": all else is pastiche. There are
many Sherlock Holmes pastiches out there, some of them based on
the same hints from Doyle. I myself own several versions of the
"giant rat of Sumatra" tale, for instance. But
Sherlockians all agree that the original tales of Dr. Watson as
told to Conan Doyle are the only truly canonical works.
This leads to my second point:
2. Only the actual words written by Robert E. Howard himself
have any business in the "official" saga. Pastiches
should be sold separately.
In this I would include those stories "edited" (i.e.,
rewritten) by de Camp: the Howard versions of "The
Frost-Giant's Daughter," "The Black Stranger," and
"The God in the Bowl" belong in the Howard volumes, and
the non-Conan tales which de Camp turned into Conan stories should
not be included. Fragments should be left as fragments in
the Howard volumes. Again, pastiche to your heart's content, but
do not attempt to sell your work as REH's.
Our basic "purist" premise:
ROBERT E. HOWARD, ENTIRELY ALONE, WITHOUT ASSISTANCE FROM
ANY OTHER PERSON, CREATED THE CHARACTER CONAN OF CIMMERIA. NO
OTHER PERSON OR PERSONS SHOULD BE INTRUDING THEIR WORK INTO THE
VOLUMES OF HOWARD'S CONAN STORIES.
In essence, we believe that the work of any creative artist --
writer, painter, illustrator, musician, what-have-you -- is a
unique expression of an artistic point of view. It should not be
appropriated or altered by others without the artist's consent. No
other writer has Robert E. Howard's unique point of view, and no
other writer knows what Howard would have done with his character
had he lived. Upon his death, his canon, the expression of his
artistic vision, became fixed. Tampering with it now is
desecration.
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