> I don't really remember as I haven't reread it in a > long time. I do remember recently reading an essay by > de Camp where he talks about Howard saying the black > jailer or jailers conversed in a language that was > like the guttural tongue of an ape. De Camp went on > to explain how no African language is really anything > ape-like. And I believe he mentioned he did some > other rewriting in that sequence. I remember a post > (by you or Patrice, I think) that mentioned it was > rewritten in the ACE double also. > > I'm sure those that deny Howard's racism won't feel > the wording is anything truly offensive. > > Charles Saunders must have felt he was beating his > head against the wall after writing his essay, "Die > Black Dog!."
So where do you stand on Howard's depiction of the Hyborian Age Picts, the degenerated British Isles Picts, or his lack of sympathy for those once-surface races who have retreated underground against their will, to degenerated into subhuman or otherwise unpleasant forms? His wording can be extremely offensive, if one chooses to be offended--and not just on issues of race. The battle-scenes and gory descriptions of same are surely not politically correct by modern standards; his depiction of at least some of his female characters (even white ones), simpering and in constant need of succor or assistance, is not endearing by a modern feminist standpoint. I don't deny that his work was colored by mores and interpretations of race which were MAINSTREAM and PREVALENT in his day. This is not something that can be just lifted and dropped, without adjustment for context, into the present day. Saw Rush Hour II the other day, at my kids' insistence. One scene depicted Jakie Chan telling Chris Tucker that he was going to "bitch slap him back to Africa." Another scene depicted Tucker saying he would "bitch slap" Chan back to Shanghai (I think it was Shanghai). Yet another scene depicts these two guys on an airplane, where Tucker makes his enlightened observation as to getting to the bottom of any serious crime situation: "Look for the rich white man. There's always a rich white man in there somewhere." Tell it to bin Laden: shades of Fu Manchu, with a middle eastern twist! THESE movie quotes are racially-insensitive comments, aren't they? So are Chan, Tucker, and the writers of this film despicable racists? Have you seen Jet Li's "Once Upon A Time in China" films? Now THERE'S racism in entertainment/writing for you, particularly the first film. This labelling REH after his death is no different that most of de Camp's other B.S. assumptions, suppositions, and grandiose intuitive a-priori insights about Howard. It's basically the same thing, in fact. --Mike
