similiarities-inspiration...please help!!!

[brandon]

I have a question that is driving me bonkers! Unfortunately, probably only Stephen himself can answer this. Oh well... maybe there is a true scholar of his work that can help out. Anyway, here goes. I am a big reader of all fiction. Some of my all time favorites are the 1930's pulp stories of Robert E. Howard. To those unfamiliar with his work, Conan the Cimmerian is his most famous rogue. There is a Conan story called "Red Nails" where there is a character called Prince (or King...I forget) Olmec. Olmec seems to be the inspiration for the Tick-Tock Man. It is really striking how similiar these two really are. Olmec is a hulking man with a long, bushy beard, conjuring up the image of a viking, just as Ticky was referred to in the Waste Lands. He rules over a small tribe in a forgotten and decimated city and his domain is sealed off in an underground area. He is isolated because there is an enemy tribe his people are at war with. These enemies are in much the same boat as Olmec's people. This calls to mind the animosity between the pubes and grays in King's work. Though he is not nearly so sadistic and unstable as Ticky, Olmec is brutal and quick to treachery.... In other words, not a nice guy. These two also share the trait of obsession. Tick-tock with the computer knowledge,Olmec with domination and later with a woman. You can obviously read the obsessive thing as a manifestation of insanity in both instances. Has anyone else read both of these works? If so I would like to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

[wally wonder]

hi brandon. i haven't read the other one, made a note of it, thanks. working for a guy now, his garage is full of books like that. i'll look for it. i thought e.r.burroughs was the only one to write about a conan. or a mucker, for that matter. i might be wrong, probably am, but maybe the reason you see similarities between the two is because of human nature. not yours. the nature of the beast within us. it always comes down to two, seems like? plus it makes for good stories. anyway, thanks for the heads up on robert e howard. i find him in the garage i'll let you know. (the guy has them all alphabetized, bunch of ball caps hanging from the rafters, tools on one wall, and two walls full of books.)

[brandon]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention some other stuff. In both stories the heroes are driven into unwelcoming cities by circumstances beyond their control. Both heroes ( conan and roland) have to find and rescue weaker sidekicks. And lastly, when each respective hero take leave of their city, every citizen is dead or dying.

[wally wonder]

hi brandon. that guy i mentioned has at least one title by robert howard. "conan" is part of the title. how many books are there. he said i could take anything i wanted. (i want to take every book in there. do you think he'd mind?) back up the vehicle, start loading it all up? anyway, given time, i might be able to answer your question. i like that "unwelcoming cities" idea..."beyond their control". yeah, that sounds like something i'd enjoy. thank you!

[wally wonder]

yeah, so i picked two books out of his garage, conan the conqueror, a novel and conan the wanderer, a collection of four stories. alas, that "red nails" isn't among them. i'll make a point of looking for that one tomorrow. the two i grabbed were handy. started the first one. long-dead mummy raised to life, the idea being, that he will help some guys fight conan, who is now king of aquilonia. the game's afoot! guess that howard guy committed suicide?

[brandon]

Hey Bluey, thanks for the reply. Robert E. Howard was the creator of Conan, but many others have written Conan stories over the years. I'm pretty sure E.R. Burroughs wasn't one of them though. He wrote the Tarzan stories. Anyway, Howard wrote about 30 Conan tales, and his are far superior to those who came after. These short stories were compiled in a series of books and are chronological insofar as they follow Conan's career from a youngster to where he is older. These books were numbered as well as titled so the reader could follow along in order. For example #1 Conan #2 Conan the Cimmerian #3 Conan the Whatever and so on. "Red Nails" is in #7 Conan the Warrior. If you Don't want to go to the trouble of finding these books, I found alot of the stories online the other day. You will have to go to Project Gutenberg Australia and find Howard in the "H" section. There's tons of stuff by old authors there as well as at Project Gutenberg. If you go there, I also recommend the Conan story "The Frost Giant's Daughter". Ireally like that one, though it is atypical. Anyway feel free to contact me with your thoughts.

[wally wonder]

hi brandon reading conan the conqueror in the second chapter when conan is paralyzed by xaltotun(probably him, though we don’t know yet, for certain), pallantides hears “a low laugh that turned the general’s blood to ice.” and later, “it had not been conan who laughed.”

s’pose if you read enough sk, when a character laughs, it’s not always a good thing.

then there’s a battle a squire tells conan, who lay immobile in his tent, what happens the battle has some of the elements from wizard and glass, the opposing force suckers conan’s army, led by a general in conan’s suit of armor, into a defile, the cliffs fall on conan’t army and those not crushed believe he is dead and they flee.

every western movie ive seen has had canyons and seems like there’s always gunfire in canyons. gabbie hayes could shoot a man in a box canyon by calculated ricochet. in this instance, other stories, western movies, who could say? influences? all, none?

later w/conan captured, xaltotun speak w/conan, offering him the throne of aquilonia again. conan refuses to be a slave. one battle does not decide a war, he says. xaltotun asks, was it a mortal’s sword that felled conan. “it was a child of the dark, a waif of outer space, whose fingers were afire w/the frozen coldness of the black gulfs.”

several things here, the outer space thingy, reminiscent of It (among others), and the cold imagery. both present in sk’s stuff. i imagine cold imagery/metaphors are in the stories of others. some kind of archtype maybe? the outer space thingy…dunno…here, there, everywhere. hp lovecraft? Doesn’t his stuff have a lot of water imagery, spooks swimming around gobbling people? no mark spitz here, let me tell you.

there’s also some business w/crystal globes…still reading…pretty good story, though.

[Ranger_Strider]

At some point in 'Danse Macabre' our favorite writer points out that all the really good stories have already been told, and that is it up to us to elaborate on them. Hence that feeling of Deja Vu for the Constant Reader.

[wally wonder]

reading in Conan of Cimmeria, came across the word ka. italicized, even. in "the castle of terror," this story, first printed in 69, (?) years after howard's death by suicide, arranged or worked out by carter and de camp (i guess), conan tries to sleep. "it seemed that, although his body slept, his spirit waked and was watchful. to the immaterial eyes of his ka, as the stygians called it, the gloomy balcony was filled with a dim glow of blood-hued light from some unseen source."

next page, ka seems to equate w/spirit.

pretty good stories by howard, conan and his mighty thews. yum! course, the drawings on the covers always caught my eye, even before i first picked up a conan story. he looks like a nightmare. inside, there's some drawings and he looks like a rock star. go figure. ka.

[costanza]

Ka Ka.