Misplaced Pages

#810189

165-422: Although he held a degree in psychiatry, he became disillusioned with the medical profession, a disenchantment evident in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into Whose Hands". He described his personal philosophy as nihilistic , anarchistic and absurdist , and claimed, not entirely seriously, to be related to "an opera composer named " Richard ". Wagner also admired the cinema of Sam Peckinpah , stating "I worship

330-428: A self causes suffering. Nonetheless, his critics called him a nihilist who teaches the annihilation and extermination of an existing being. The Buddha's response was that he only teaches the cessation of suffering. When an individual has given up craving and the conceit of 'I am' their mind is liberated, they no longer come into any state of ' being ' and are no longer born again. The Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta records

495-415: A "Conan yarn without sex interest." In another novel twist, Conan and the other protagonists have, at best, a pyrrhic victory ; this was rare for pulp magazines. This was followed by another experimental Conan story, " The Black Stranger ", with a similar setting. The story was, however, rejected by Weird Tales , which was rare for later Conan stories. Howard's next piece, " The Man-Eaters of Zamboula ",

660-497: A 'decentralization' of authorship, the accumulation of positive knowledge, historical progress, and certain ideals and practices of humanism and the Enlightenment . Jacques Derrida , whose deconstruction is perhaps most commonly labeled nihilistic, did not himself make the nihilistic move that others have claimed. Derridean deconstructionists argue that this approach rather frees texts, individuals or organizations from

825-509: A Conan novel that later became Drums of Tombalku . The third attempt at writing the novel was more successful, resulting in Howard's only Conan novel The Hour of the Dragon , which was probably started on or around March 17, 1934. This novel combines elements of two previous Conan stories, "Black Colossus" and "The Scarlet Citadel", with Arthurian myth and provides an overview of Conan and

990-567: A Ph.D in neurobiology. As noted above, Wagner ultimately disliked the medical profession, which he abandoned upon establishing himself as a writer. Wagner was productive as both a writer and editor/anthologist; see below. His friends included the writer Manly Wade Wellman , two of whose collections he published with the Carcosa publishing imprint. Wagner died in his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on October 14, 1994, essentially due to

1155-461: A bimonthly publication and pulps such as Fight Stories , Action Stories , and Strange Tales all folded. Howard was further hit when his savings were wiped out in 1931 when the Farmer's National Bank failed , and again, after transferring to another bank, when that one failed as well. Early 1932 saw Howard taking one of his frequent trips around Texas. He traveled through the southern part of

1320-546: A boxer called Kid Allison. Howard wrote ten stories for this series but Sport Story only published three of them. With solid markets now all buying up his stories regularly, Howard quit taking college classes, and indeed would never again work a regular job. At twenty-three years of age, from the middle of nowhere in Texas, he had become a full-time writer; he was making good money and his father began bragging about his success, not to mention buying multiple copies of his work in

1485-438: A boxing-related ghost story published in the magazine Ghost Stories . In July of the same year, Argosy finally published one of Howard's stories, "Crowd-Horror", which was also a boxing story. Neither developed into ongoing series, however. After several minor successes and false starts, he struck gold again with a new series based on one of his favorite passions: boxing. July 1929 saw the debut of Sailor Steve Costigan in

1650-408: A collection of six previously published Kane tales followed (Warner Books, 1978). The publisher also reissued all previous Kane books including a new edition of Darkness Weaves , which reinstated the author's preferred text. The Book of Kane was the last published volume of Kane material (1985) until Night Shade Books' omnibus editions of novels and shorter tales. A proposed fourth Kane novel, In

1815-472: A coma from which she was not expected to wake, he walked out to his car parked outside his kitchen window and shot himself in the head while sitting in the driver's seat. He died eight hours later. Howard was born January 22, 1906, in Peaster, Texas , the only son of a traveling country physician, Dr. Isaac Mordecai Howard, and his wife, Hester Jane Ervin Howard. His early life was spent wandering through

SECTION 10

#1732772902811

1980-511: A conversation between the Buddha and an individual named Vaccha that further elaborates on this. In the sutta, Vaccha asks the Buddha to confirm one of the following, with respect to the existence of the Buddha after death: To all four questions, the Buddha answers that the terms "reappears somewhere else," "does not reappear," "both does and does not reappear," and "neither does nor does not reappear," do not apply. When Vaccha expresses puzzlement,

2145-407: A conversation with his teacher Ajahn Chah , comments that he is "Determined above all things to fully realize Nirvana in this lifetime...deeply weary of the human condition and...[is] determined not to be born again." To this, Ajahn Chah replies: "What about the rest of us, Sumedho? Don't you care about those who'll be left behind?" Ajahn Amaro comments that Ajahn Chah could detect that his student had

2310-555: A couple's romance and created a new one with a supernatural element; the story was re-titled " The Phoenix on the Sword ", an element from this new subplot. Howard immediately went on to write two more Conan stories. The first of these was " The Frost-Giant's Daughter ", an inversion of the Greek myth surrounding Apollo and Daphne, set much earlier in Conan's life. The last of the initial trio

2475-485: A denial of truth, but as a denial of our ability to know truth. That is to say, it makes an epistemological claim, compared to nihilism's ontological claim. Lyotard argues that, rather than relying on an objective truth or method to prove their claims, philosophers legitimize their truths by reference to a story about the world that can not be separated from the age and system the stories belong to—referred to by Lyotard as meta-narratives . He then goes on to define

2640-412: A disproportion between what we want to value (or need) and how the world appears to operate." When we find out that the world does not possess the objective value or meaning that we want it to have or have long since believed it to have, we find ourselves in a crisis. Nietzsche asserts that with the decline of Christianity and the rise of physiological decadence , nihilism is in fact characteristic of

2805-499: A doctor and instead decided to write full-time. During 1973, Warner Paperback library published Death Angel's Shadow , which collected the three original Kane tales (one novella, one novelette, and one short story). He also began selling his stories and poems regularly to the growing small press magazine market. Several of his tales were published in Gary Hoppenstand's Midnight Sunn , a magazine initially devoted to Kane and

2970-658: A house in the town with a cash down payment and made extensive renovations. That same year, sitting in a library in New Orleans while his father took medical courses at a nearby college, Howard discovered a book concerned with the scant fact and abundant legends surrounding an indigenous culture in ancient Scotland called the Picts . In 1920, the Vestal Well within the limits of Cross Plains struck oil and Cross Plains became an oil boomtown. Thousands of people arrived in

3135-546: A job writing oil news for the local newspaper Cross Plains Review at $ 5 per column. It was not until July 1925 that Howard received payment for his first printed story. Howard lost his job at the newspaper in the same year and spent one month working in a post office before quitting over the low wages. His next job, at the Cross Plains Natural Gas Company, did not last long due to his refusal to be subservient to his boss. He did manual labor for

3300-512: A letter dated March 10, 1932, Farnsworth Wright rejected "The Frost-Giant's Daughter" but noted that "The Phoenix on the Sword" had "points of real excellence" and suggested changes. "The God in the Bowl" would also be rejected and so a potential fourth Conan story concerning Conan as a thief was abandoned at the synopsis stage. Instead of abandoning the entire Conan concept, as had happened with previous failed characters, Howard rewrote "The Phoenix on

3465-410: A literary course but was not allowed to take one. The reason for this is undocumented, however biographer Mark Finn suggests that his father refused to pay for such a non-vocational education. In the week of Thanksgiving that year, and after years of rejection slips and near acceptances, he finally sold a short caveman tale titled "Spear and Fang", which netted him the sum of $ 16 and introduced him to

SECTION 20

#1732772902811

3630-404: A morality that is strong or healthy, meaning that the person in question is aware that he constructs it himself, from weak morality, where the interpretation is projected on to something external. Nietzsche discusses Christianity, one of the major topics in his work, at length in the context of the problem of nihilism in his notebooks, in a chapter entitled "European Nihilism." Here he states that

3795-513: A natural talent for prose writing and the encouragement of teachers, created in Howard an interest in becoming a professional writer. From the age of nine he began writing stories, mostly tales of historical fiction centering on Vikings , Arabs , battles , and bloodshed. One by one he discovered the authors who would influence his later work: Jack London and his stories of reincarnation and past lives, most notably The Star Rover (1915); Rudyard Kipling 's tales of subcontinent adventures;

3960-415: A negation of religious principles. Nihilism has, however, been widely ascribed to both religious and irreligious viewpoints. In popular use, the term commonly refers to forms of existential nihilism , according to which life is without intrinsic value , meaning , or purpose. Other prominent positions within nihilism include the rejection of all normative and ethical views ( § Moral nihilism ),

4125-520: A new style of tale that ultimately became known as " sword and sorcery ". Featuring Kull , a barbarian precursor to later Howard heroes such as Conan , the tale hit Weird Tales in August 1929 and received fanfare from readers. Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright bought the story for $ 100, the most Howard had earned for a story at this time, and several more Kull stories followed. However, all but two were rejected, convincing Howard not to continue

4290-509: A nihilistic aversion to life rather than true detachment. The term nihilism was first introduced to philosophy by Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi (1743–1819), who used the term to characterize rationalism , and in particular Spinoza's determinism and the Aufklärung , in order to carry out a reductio ad absurdum according to which all rationalism (philosophy as criticism) reduces to nihilism—and thus it should be avoided and replaced with

4455-422: A restrictive truth, and that deconstruction opens up the possibility of other ways of being. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak , for example, uses deconstruction to create an ethics of opening up Western scholarship to the voice of the subaltern and to philosophies outside of the canon of western texts. Derrida himself built a philosophy based upon a 'responsibility to the other'. Deconstruction can thus be seen not as

4620-700: A result of this apprenticeship, his stories increasingly took on the aura of "prose-poems" filled with hypnotic, dreamy imagery and a power lacking in most other pulp efforts of the time. Further story sales to Weird Tales were sporadic but encouraging, and soon Howard was a regular in the magazine. His first cover story was for " Wolfshead ", a werewolf story published when he was only twenty. On reading "Wolfshead" in Weird Tales Howard became dismayed with his writing. He quit his stenographer's job to work at Robertson's Drug Store, where he rose to become head soda jerk on $ 80 per week. However, he resented

4785-415: A return to some type of faith and revelation . Bret W. Davis writes, for example: The first philosophical development of the idea of nihilism is generally ascribed to Friedrich Jacobi, who in a famous letter criticized Fichte 's idealism as falling into nihilism. According to Jacobi, Fichte's absolutization of the ego (the 'absolute I' that posits the 'not-I') is an inflation of subjectivity that denies

4950-540: A self-created regimen of exercise, including cutting down oak trees and chopping them into firewood every day, lifting weights, punching a bag and springing exercises, eventually building himself from a skinny teenager into a more muscled, burly form. Howard spent his late teens working odd jobs around Cross Plains, all of which he hated. In 1924, Howard returned to Brownwood to take a stenography course at Howard Payne College , this time boarding with his friend Lindsey Tyson instead of his mother. Howard would have preferred

5115-529: A series in print beyond just two stories, with seven Kane stories printed from 1928 to 1932. As the magazine published the Solomon Kane tale before Kull, this can be considered the first published example of sword and sorcery. 1929 was the year Howard broke out into other pulp markets, rather than just Weird Tales . The first story he sold to another magazine was "The Apparition in the Prize Ring",

Karl Edward Wagner - Misplaced Pages Continue

5280-599: A surveyor for a time before beginning a job as a stenographer for an oil company. In conjunction with his friend Tevis Clyde Smith , he dabbled heavily in verse, writing hundreds of poems and getting dozens published in Weird Tales and assorted poetry journals. With poor sales, and many publishers recoiling from his subject matter, Howard ultimately judged poetry writing a luxury he could not afford, and after 1930 he wrote little verse, instead dedicating his time to short stories and higher-paying markets. Nevertheless, as

5445-502: A variety of Texas cowtowns and boomtowns: Dark Valley (1906), Seminole (1908), Bronte (1909), Poteet (1910), Oran (1912), Wichita Falls (1913), Bagwell (1913), Cross Cut (1915), and Burkett (1917). During Howard's youth his parents' relationship began to break down. The Howard family had problems with money, which might have been exacerbated by Isaac Howard investing in get-rich-quick schemes. Hester Howard, meanwhile, came to believe that she had married below herself. Soon

5610-407: A variety of series characters. Soon he was submitting stories to magazines such as Adventure and Argosy . Rejections piled up, and with no mentors or instructions of any kind to aid him, Howard became a writing autodidact , methodically studying the markets and tailoring his stories and style to each. In the fall of 1922, when Howard was sixteen, he temporarily moved to a boarding house in

5775-491: A vigorous correspondence that would last for the rest of Howard's life. By virtue of this, Howard quickly became a member of the "Lovecraft Circle", a group of writers and friends all linked via the immense correspondence of H. P. Lovecraft (who wrote over 100,000 letters in his lifetime ), who made it a point to introduce his many like-minded friends to one another and encourage them to share stories, utilize each other's invented fictional trappings, and help each other succeed in

5940-459: A writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success until he was 23. Thereafter, until his death by suicide at age 30, Howard's writings were published in a wide selection of magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he became proficient in several subgenres. His greatest success occurred after his death. Although a Conan novel was nearly published in 1934, Howard's stories were never collected during his lifetime. The main outlet for his stories

6105-530: Is G. K. Chesterton 's The Ballad of the White Horse and Chesterton's concept that "it is the chief value of legend to mix up the centuries while preserving the sentiment." By March, Howard had recycled an unpublished Kull story called " By This Axe I Rule! " into his first Conan story. The central plot remains that of a barbarian having become king of a civilized country and a conspiracy to assassinate him. However, he removed an entire subplot concerning

6270-445: Is overcome that a culture can have a true foundation upon which to thrive. He wished to hasten its coming only so that he could also hasten its ultimate departure. He states that there is at least the possibility of another type of nihilist in the wake of Christianity's self-dissolution, one that does not stop after the destruction of all value and meaning and succumb to the following nothingness. This alternate, 'active' nihilism on

6435-443: Is Howard's earliest surviving boxing story known to exist; it is told in the first person, uses elements of a traditional tall-tale and is a fictionalized account of Howard (as "Steve") and his friend Lindsey Tyson (as "Spike") training for a fight. This story and the elements it uses would also be important in Howard's literary future. In May 1927, after having to return home due to contracting measles and then being forced to retake

6600-450: Is abstraction conquering individuality. Kierkegaard, an advocate of a philosophy of life , generally argued against levelling and its nihilistic consequences, although he believed it would be "genuinely educative to live in the age of levelling [because] people will be forced to face the judgement of [levelling] alone." George Cotkin asserts Kierkegaard was against "the standardization and levelling of belief, both spiritual and political, in

6765-487: Is always by someone of some thing: it is always bound by perspective, and it is never mere fact. Rather, there are interpretations through which we understand the world and give it meaning. Interpreting is something we can not go without; in fact, it is a condition of subjectivity. One way of interpreting the world is through morality, as one of the fundamental ways that people make sense of the world, especially in regard to their own thoughts and actions. Nietzsche distinguishes

Karl Edward Wagner - Misplaced Pages Continue

6930-503: Is an immortal, cursed to wander the Earth until he is destroyed by the violence that he himself has created. He sells his loyalty as a fighter to the highest bidder. He is a well-read and intelligent man who has traveled the world for centuries and is able to discuss music, poetry, politics, and many other subjects. He is also amoral and a born killer. The Kane stories are often classified as tales of sword and sorcery (although Wagner disliked

7095-404: Is different—in some sense diametrically opposed—to the usual definition (as outlined in the rest of this article). Nihilism is one of the main topics of Deleuze's early book Nietzsche and Philosophy (1962). There, Deleuze repeatedly interprets Nietzsche's nihilism as "the enterprise of denying life and depreciating existence". Nihilism thus defined is therefore not the denial of higher values, or

7260-416: Is finished, today it is the precession of the neutral, of forms of the neutral and of indifference ... all that remains, is the fascination for desertlike and indifferent forms, for the very operation of the system that annihilates us. Now, fascination (in contrast to seduction, which was attached to appearances, and to dialectical reason, which was attached to meaning) is a nihilistic passion par excellence, it

7425-464: Is indeed the correct term for this stance, and some question whether Nietzsche takes the problems nihilism poses seriously enough. Martin Heidegger 's interpretation of Nietzsche influenced many postmodern thinkers who investigated the problem of nihilism as put forward by Nietzsche. Only recently has Heidegger's influence on Nietzschean nihilism research faded. As early as the 1930s, Heidegger

7590-438: Is its undoing: in its drive towards truth, Christianity eventually finds itself to be a construct, which leads to its own dissolution. It is therefore that Nietzsche states that we have outgrown Christianity "not because we lived too far from it, rather because we lived too close." As such, the self-dissolution of Christianity constitutes yet another form of nihilism. Because Christianity was an interpretation that posited itself as

7755-436: Is like the stillness of death, where one can hear one's own heartbeat, a stillness like death, into which nothing can penetrate, in which everything sinks, powerless. One person can head a rebellion, but one person cannot head this levelling process, for that would make him a leader and he would avoid being levelled. Each individual can in his little circle participate in this levelling, but it is an abstract process, and levelling

7920-559: Is meaningless, that knowledge is impossible, or that some other highly regarded concepts are in fact meaningless or pointless. The term was popularized by Ivan Turgenev and more specifically by his character Bazarov in the novel Fathers and Sons . Scholars of nihilism may regard it as merely a label that has been applied to various separate philosophies, or as a distinct historical concept arising out of nominalism , skepticism , and philosophical pessimism , as well as possibly out of Christianity itself. Contemporary understanding of

8085-477: Is no God, everything is permitted' , or ' après moi, le déluge ' , provides a principle whose sincerity they try to live out to the end. They search for and experiment with ways for the self to justify itself after God has disappeared." Nihilism is often associated with the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , who provided a detailed diagnosis of nihilism as a widespread phenomenon of Western culture. Though

8250-511: Is not a thing you can find, but rather a state where you experience the reality of non-grasping. In the Alagaddupama Sutta , the Buddha describes how some individuals feared his teaching because they believe that their self would be destroyed if they followed it. He describes this as an anxiety caused by the false belief in an unchanging, everlasting self . All things are subject to change and taking any impermanent phenomena to be

8415-528: Is privileged over the other to speak to ultimate truth. Postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard wrote briefly of nihilism from the postmodern viewpoint in Simulacra and Simulation . He stuck mainly to topics of interpretations of the real world over the simulations of which the real world is composed. The uses of meaning were an important subject in Baudrillard's discussion of nihilism: The apocalypse

SECTION 50

#1732772902811

8580-560: Is sometimes used in association with anomie to explain the general mood of despair at a perceived pointlessness of existence or arbitrariness of human principles and social institutions . Nihilism has also been described as conspicuous in or constitutive of certain historical periods . For example, Jean Baudrillard and others have characterized postmodernity as a nihilistic epoch or mode of thought. Likewise, some theologians and religious figures have stated that postmodernity and many aspects of modernity represent nihilism by

8745-412: Is that philosophy, and more specifically metaphysics , has forgotten to discriminate between investigating the notion of a being ( seiende ) and Being ( Sein ). According to Heidegger, the history of Western thought can be seen as the history of metaphysics. Moreover, because metaphysics has forgotten to ask about the notion of Being (what Heidegger calls Seinsvergessenheit ), it is a history about

8910-782: Is the Latin root word nihil , meaning 'nothing', which is similarly found in the related terms annihilate , meaning 'to bring to nothing', and nihility , meaning ' nothingness '. The term nihilism emerged in several places in Europe during the 18th century, notably in the German form Nihilismus , though was also in use during the Middle Ages to denote certain forms of heresy . The concept itself first took shape within Russian and German philosophy , which respectively represented

9075-524: Is the passion proper to the mode of disappearance. We are fascinated by all forms of disappearance, of our disappearance. Melancholic and fascinated, such is our general situation in an era of involuntary transparency. From the 19th century, nihilism has encompassed a range of positions within various fields of philosophy. Each of these, as the Encyclopædia Britannica states, "denied the existence of genuine moral truths or values, rejected

9240-423: Is what Nietzsche calls passive nihilism , which he recognizes in the pessimistic philosophy of Schopenhauer . Schopenhauer's doctrine, which Nietzsche also refers to as Western Buddhism , advocates separating oneself from will and desires in order to reduce suffering. Nietzsche characterizes this attitude as a "will to nothingness ", whereby life turns away from itself, as there is nothing of value to be found in

9405-557: The rabble or common masses. Later interpretations of nihilism were heavily influenced by works of anti-nihilistic literature , such as those of Fyodor Dostoevsky , which arose in response to Russian nihilism. "In contrast to the corrupted nihilists [of the real world], who tried to numb their nihilistic sensitivity and forget themselves through self-indulgence, Dostoevsky's figures voluntarily leap into nihilism and try to be themselves within its boundaries.", writes contemporary scholar Nishitani . "The nihility expressed in 'if there

9570-399: The Middle Ages and the early Renaissance , tales that rival even his best Conan stories for their historical sweep and splendor. In addition to series characters such as Turlogh Dubh O'Brien and Cormac Fitzgeoffrey , Howard sold a variety of tales depicting various times and periods from the fall of Rome to the fifteenth century. The magazine eventually ceased publication in 1934 due to

9735-988: The World Fantasy Award for his horror novella "Beyond Any Measure" and the British Fantasy Award during 1984 for "Neither Brute Nor Human". With his friends Jim Groce and David Drake , who were concerned that Arkham House would cease publication after the death of its founder, August Derleth , Wagner formed the Carcosa publishing house in North Carolina during 1973 to preserve the work of their favorite pulp magazine horror writers in hardcovers. Carcosa Press published four substantial volumes of horror tales: Murgunstrumm and Others by Hugh B. Cave , Far Lands, Other Days by E. Hoffmann Price , Worse Things Waiting and Lonely Vigils , both by Manly Wade Wellman . All books were edited by Wagner and illustrated profusely. A fifth collection

9900-405: The interpretation, Nietzsche states that this dissolution leads beyond skepticism to a distrust of all meaning. Stanley Rosen identifies Nietzsche's concept of nihilism with a situation of meaninglessness, in which "everything is permitted." According to him, the loss of higher metaphysical values that exist in contrast to the base reality of the world, or merely human ideas, gives rise to

10065-458: The postmodern condition as characterized by a rejection both of these meta-narratives and of the process of legitimation by meta-narratives. This concept of the instability of truth and meaning leads in the direction of nihilism, though Lyotard stops short of embracing the latter. In lieu of meta-narratives we have created new language-games in order to legitimize our claims which rely on changing relationships and mutable truths, none of which

SECTION 60

#1732772902811

10230-569: The progressives and traditionalists that came before them, as well as its manifestation in the view that negation and value-destruction were most necessary to the present conditions. The movement very soon adopted the name, despite the novel's initial harsh reception among both the conservatives and younger generation. Though philosophically both nihilistic and skeptical, Russian nihilism did not unilaterally negate ethics and knowledge as may be assumed, nor did it espouse meaninglessness unequivocally. Even so, contemporary scholarship has challenged

10395-471: The "Niederdorf" or "Niederdörfli"—in the Café Voltaire. The Dadaists claimed that Dada was not an art movement, but an anti-art movement, sometimes using found objects in a manner similar to found poetry . Robert E. Howard Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American writer who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He created the character Conan

10560-559: The 1960s, a Nietzschean 'renaissance' began, culminating in the work of Mazzino Montinari and Giorgio Colli . They began work on a new and complete edition of Nietzsche's collected works, making Nietzsche more accessible for scholarly research. Vattimo explains that with this new edition of Colli and Montinari, a critical reception of Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche began to take shape. Like other contemporary French and Italian philosophers, Vattimo does not want, or only partially wants, to rely on Heidegger for understanding Nietzsche. On

10725-529: The Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. Howard was born and raised in Texas . He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains , with some time spent in nearby Brownwood . A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing , eventually taking up amateur boxing, and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding . From the age of nine, he longed to become

10890-523: The Border ". This was the first Conan tale to have an explicit ( Robert W. Chambers -influenced) American setting, although American themes had appeared earlier, and the only one in which Conan himself does not appear. His next story was based on his unfinished material and became " Beyond the Black River ", which not only used the different American-frontier setting but was also, in Howard's own words,

11055-424: The Buddha and Nirvana by stating that a "Person who has attained the goal [nirvana] is thus indescribable because [they have] abandoned all things by which [they] could be described." The Suttas themselves describe the liberated mind as 'untraceable' or as 'consciousness without feature', making no distinction between the mind of a liberated being that is alive and the mind of one that is no longer alive. Despite

11220-409: The Buddha asks Vaccha a counter question to the effect of: if a fire were to go out and someone were to ask you whether the fire went north, south, east or west, how would you reply? Vaccha replies that the question does not apply and that an extinguished fire can only be classified as 'out'. Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu elaborates on the classification problem around the words 'reappear,' etc. with respect to

11385-476: The Buddha was alive, some of which were viewed by him to be morally nihilistic. In the "Doctrine of Nihilism" in the Apannaka Sutta , the Buddha describes moral nihilists as holding the following views: The Buddha further states that those who hold these views will fail to see the virtue in good mental, verbal, and bodily conduct and the corresponding dangers in misconduct, and will therefore tend towards

11550-467: The Buddha's explanations to the contrary, Buddhist practitioners may, at times, still approach Buddhism in a nihilistic manner. Ajahn Amaro illustrates this by retelling the story of a Buddhist monk, Ajahn Sumedho , who in his early years took a nihilistic approach to Nirvana. A distinct feature of Nirvana in Buddhism is that an individual attaining it is no longer subject to rebirth. Ajahn Sumedho, during

11715-528: The Christian moral doctrine provides people with intrinsic value , belief in God (which justifies the evil in the world) and a basis for objective knowledge . In this sense, in constructing a world where objective knowledge is possible, Christianity is an antidote against a primal form of nihilism, against the despair of meaninglessness. However, it is exactly the element of truthfulness in Christian doctrine that

11880-512: The Cimmerian, Wagner set about creating his own fantasy character while still attending medical school. The result was initially published as a 1970 paperback original with a lurid cover by West Coast pornography publisher Powell Publications. The novel's text was altered by an unknown copy editor to conform with the cover art. After publishing a pseudonymous pornographic novel with a small New York company, Wagner relinquished his chance to become

12045-541: The Depression, leaving several of Howard's stories aimed at this market unsold. In August 1930 Howard wrote a letter to Weird Tales praising a recent reprint of H. P. Lovecraft 's " The Rats in the Walls " and discussing some of the obscure Gaelic references used within. Editor Farnsworth Wright forwarded the letter to Lovecraft, who responded warmly to Howard, and soon the two Weird Tales veterans were engaged in

12210-518: The Depression. Also in this period, Howard wrote the first of the James Allison stories, "Marchers of Valhalla". Allison is a disabled Texan who begins to recall his past lives, the first of which is in the later part of Howard's new Hyborian age. In a letter to Clark Ashton Smith in October 1933, he wrote that its sequel "The Garden of Fear" was "dealing with one of my various conceptions of

12375-507: The Headland ", " The Children of the Night " and " The Fire of Asshurbanipal "). He also corresponded with other "Weird Tale" writers such as Clark Ashton Smith , August Derleth , and E. Hoffmann Price . The correspondence between Howard and Lovecraft contained a lengthy discussion on a frequent element in Howard's fiction, barbarism versus civilization. Howard held that civilization

12540-502: The History of Being (1944–46), Heidegger tries to understand Nietzsche's nihilism as trying to achieve a victory through the devaluation of the, until then, highest values. The principle of this devaluation is, according to Heidegger, the will to power . The will to power is also the principle of every earlier valuation of values. How does this devaluation occur and why is this nihilistic? One of Heidegger's main critiques on philosophy

12705-475: The Hyborian age for the new British audience. Howard sent his final draft to Denis Archer on May 20, 1934. He had worked exclusively on the novel for two months, writing approximately 5,000 words per day, seven days a week. Although he told acquaintances that he had little hope for this novel, he had put a lot of effort into it. However, the publisher went into receivership in late 1934, before it could print

12870-548: The Hyborian and post-Hyborian world." In May 1933, a British publisher, Denis Archer, contacted Howard about publishing a book in the United Kingdom. Howard submitted a batch of his best available stories, including "The Tower of the Elephant" and " The Scarlet Citadel ", on June 15. In January 1934 the publisher rejected the collection but suggested a novel instead. Though the publisher was "exceedingly interested" in

13035-451: The Night , which was originally scheduled to be published by Zebra books during 1978 and Ace Books during 1980. [Refer to David Drake's Newsletter #105 in which he states 'Queen of the Night' was never written.] Wagner created his own mystical and immortal pre-historical anti-hero, Kane , whose name and background are based on traditional conceptions of the biblical Cain . A powerful, left-handed warrior-sorcerer with red hair and blue eyes,

13200-676: The Picts in their struggle against the invading Romans , and introduced readers to Howard's king of the Picts, Bran Mak Morn . Howard followed up this tale with the now-classic revenge nightmare " Worms of the Earth " and several other tales, creating horrific adventures tinged with a Cthulhu -esque gloss and notable for their use of metaphor and symbolism. With the onset of the Great Depression , many pulp markets reduced their schedules or went out of business entirely. Howard saw market after market falter and vanish. Weird Tales became

13365-455: The Russian nihilist movement can be traced back to 1855 and perhaps earlier, where it was principally a philosophy of extreme moral and epistemological skepticism . However, it was not until 1862 that the name nihilism was first popularized, when Ivan Turgenev used the term in his celebrated novel Fathers and Sons to describe the disillusionment of the younger generation towards both

13530-458: The Sword" based on Wright's feedback and including material from his essay. Both this revision and the next Conan story, " The Tower of the Elephant ", sold with no problems. Howard had written nine Conan stories before the first saw print. Conan first appeared to the public in Weird Tales in December 1932 and was such a hit that Howard was eventually able to place seventeen Conan stories in

13695-617: The Wake of the Night , was never completed, although an excerpt was published as part of a World Fantasy Convention souvenir book of 1981; this also appears in the collection Midnight Sun (2003). In 2004, it was reported that movie producer Lauren Moews had "acquired Death Angel's Shadow , and will produce a film based upon "Reflections for the Winter of My Soul," the first of three short stories comprising Death Angel's Shadow . The other two short stories, "Cold Light" and "Mirage," are waiting in

13860-681: The White Wolf ). Wagner wrote several unproduced screenplays and treatments including a film script for Conan III for movie producer Dino De Laurentiis and a TV script based on Robert E. Howard's "The Horror on the Mound" (for Tales from the Darkside ). Wagner provided the foreword to "Fat Face", a Cthulhu Mythos tale by Michael Shea published as a standalone book by Axolotl Press, 1987. Several Wagner works were adapted for audio cassette readings, including: "The River of Night's Dreaming"

14025-458: The absolute transcendence of God. A related but oppositional concept is fideism , which sees reason as hostile and inferior to faith. Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) posited an early form of nihilism, which he referred to as leveling . He saw leveling as the process of suppressing individuality to a point where an individual's uniqueness becomes non-existent and nothing meaningful in one's existence can be affirmed: Levelling at its maximum

14190-412: The character of Conan . Later, in 1935, Howard claimed in a letter to Clark Ashton Smith that Conan "simply grew up in my mind a few years ago when I was stopping in a little border town on the lower Rio Grande." However, the character actually took nine months to develop. Howard had originally used the name "Conan" for a Gael reaver in a past-life-themed story he completed in October 1931, which

14355-546: The character was described by Wagner as one "who could master any situation intellectually, or rip heads off if push came to shove". Kane is an immortal, somewhat like the Wandering Jew (or more specifically, Charles Maturin 's Melmoth the Wanderer , a novel which Wagner cites as a major influence in his essay "The Once and Future Kane"). Kane's character also includes elements of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane . He

14520-461: The citizenry by so-called 'civilized' leaders. Howard initially deferred to Lovecraft but gradually asserted his own views, even coming to deride Lovecraft's opinions. In 1930, with his interest in Solomon Kane dwindling and his Kull stories not catching on, Howard applied his new sword-and-sorcery and horror experience to one of his first loves: the Picts . His story "Kings of the Night" depicted King Kull conjured into pre-Christian Britain to aid

14685-489: The classic mythological tales collected by Thomas Bulfinch . Howard was considered by friends to be eidetic , and astounded them with his ability to memorize lengthy reams of poetry with ease after one or two readings. In 1919, when Howard was thirteen, Dr. Howard moved his family to the Central Texas hamlet of Cross Plains , and there the family would stay for the rest of Howard's life. Howard's father bought

14850-625: The combination of a traditional tall tale and slapstick comedy. Stories sold to Fight Stories provided Howard with a market just as stable as Weird Tales . Due to his success in Fight Stories , Howard was contacted by the publisher Street & Smith in February 1931 with a request to move the Steve Costigan stories to their own pulp Sport Story Magazine . Howard refused but created a new, similar series just for them based on

15015-786: The complete Kane stories (novels and shorts) in two hardcover volumes. In 2020, a documentary on Wagner, The Last Wolf was released on Vimeo . Some of Wagner's work is set in Robert E. Howard 's universe (featuring Conan the Barbarian and Bran Mak Morn ); he also edited three volumes of Howard's original Conan tales, important to purists for being the first to restore the texts to their originally published forms. His three volumes of Echoes of Valor also featured restored versions of pulp-era fantasy stories by authors such as Fritz Leiber , C. L. Moore , Henry Kuttner , and Nictzin Dyalhis . Wagner wrote an unpublished Bran Mak Morn novel, Queen of

15180-528: The consequences of longterm alcoholism . It was reported in a late 1994 issue of the Newsletter of the Horror Writers of America that Wagner's causes of death were heart failure and liver failure . Exorcisms and Ecstasies , a posthumous volume of uncollected stories, miscellany, and tributes was published by small press publisher Fedogan & Bremer in 1997. Night Shade Books has published

15345-623: The course, Howard passed his exams. While waiting for the official graduation in August, he returned to writing, including a re-write of "The Shadow Kingdom". He rewrote it again in August and submitted it to Weird Tales in September. This story was an experiment with the entire concept of the "weird tale" horror fiction as defined by practitioners such as Edgar Allan Poe , A. Merritt , and H. P. Lovecraft , mixing elements of fantasy, horror and mythology with historical romance , action and swordplay into thematic vehicles never before seen,

15510-425: The denial of meaning, but rather the depreciation of life in the name of such higher values or meaning. Deleuze therefore (with, he claims, Nietzsche) says that Christianity and Platonism , and with them the whole of metaphysics, are intrinsically Nihilist. Postmodern and poststructuralist thought has questioned the very grounds on which Western cultures have based their 'truths': absolute knowledge and meaning,

15675-461: The destruction of Being. That is why Heidegger calls metaphysics nihilistic. This makes Nietzsche's metaphysics not a victory over nihilism, but a perfection of it. Heidegger, in his interpretation of Nietzsche, has been inspired by Ernst Jünger . Many references to Jünger can be found in Heidegger's lectures on Nietzsche. For example, in a letter to the rector of Freiburg University of November 4, 1945, Heidegger, inspired by Jünger, tries to explain

15840-421: The drug store and, in September, returned to Brownwood to complete his bookkeeping course. It was during this August that he began working on the story that would become " The Shadow Kingdom ", one of the most important works of his career. While at college, Howard wrote for their newspaper, The Yellow Jacket . One of the short stories printed in this newspaper was a comedy called "Cupid vs. Pollux". This story

16005-546: The equating of Russian nihilism with mere skepticism, instead identifying it as a fundamentally Promethean movement. As passionate advocates of negation, the nihilists sought to liberate the Promethean might of the Russian people which they saw embodied in a class of prototypal individuals, or new types in their own words. These individuals, according to Pisarev, in freeing themselves from all authority become exempt from moral authority as well, and are distinguished above

16170-479: The era, for which it was often wrongly characterized as a form of political terrorism . Russian nihilism centered on the dissolution of existing values and ideals, incorporating theories of hard determinism , atheism , materialism , positivism , and rational egoism , while rejecting metaphysics , sentimentalism , and aestheticism . Leading philosophers of this school of thought included Nikolay Chernyshevsky and Dmitry Pisarev . The intellectual origins of

16335-485: The film The Wild Bunch ". Wagner was the fourth and youngest child of Aubrey J. Wagner and Dorothea Huber. His father was an official of the Tennessee Valley Authority . Wagner earned a history degree from Kenyon College in 1967, and a psychiatry M.D. from University of North Carolina School of Medicine . Wagner completed his residency and practiced for several years, and also studied toward

16500-516: The final version. " Rogues in the House " is the only Conan story to be completed in a single draft. These stories sold easily and they include the first and second Conan stories to feature on the cover of Weird Tales , " Black Colossus " and " Xuthal of the Dusk ". Howard's motivation for quick and easy sales at this time was influenced by the collapse of some other markets, such as Fight Stories , in

16665-491: The genre of sword and sorcery grew up around Howard's masterwork, with dozens of practitioners evoking Howard's creation to one degree or another. In spring 1933, Howard started to place work with Otis Adelbert Kline , a former pulp writer, as his agent. Kline encouraged him to try writing in other genres in order to expand into different markets. Kline's agency was successful in finding outlets for more of Howard's stories and even placed works that had been rejected when Howard

16830-500: The graphic medium in Dark Phantasms 1, Summer 1976. During 1993 Wagner co-wrote the graphic novel Tell Me Dark with John Ney Reiber and Kent Williams, contributing original characters and situations. It was published by DC Comics in both hardcover and trade paperback. At the time of his death, he had just finished compiling Exorcisms and Ecstasies , and had started working on two novels, The Fourth Seal and Tell Me, Dark ,

16995-412: The heroic fantasy anthology Echoes of Valor for Tor Books during the late 1980s and early 1990s, and published a steady sequence of short stories (most of which were apparently written some years earlier), his most productive time was finished. In the story "The Gothic Touch", Kane teams up with the albino warrior-sorcerer Elric in a tribute anthology honoring the fiction of Michael Moorcock ( Tales of

17160-555: The idea stems largely from the Nietzschean 'crisis of nihilism', from which derive the two central concepts: the destruction of higher values and the opposition to the affirmation of life . Definitions by philosophers such as Crosby (1998) and Deleuze (1962) focus on extreme critiques of nihilism like those asserted by Nietzsche. Earlier forms of nihilism, however, may be more selective in negating specific hegemonies of social, moral, political and aesthetic thought. The term

17325-531: The idea that all human ideas are therefore valueless. Rejecting idealism thus results in nihilism, because only similarly transcendent ideals live up to the previous standards that the nihilist still implicitly holds. The inability for Christianity to serve as a source of valuating the world is reflected in Nietzsche's famous aphorism of the madman in The Gay Science . The death of God, in particular

17490-519: The job itself and worked such long hours every day of the week that he became ill. He relaxed by visiting the Neeb Ice House, to which he was introduced by an oil field worker befriended at the drug store, to drink and began to take part in boxing matches. These matches became an important part of his life; the combination of boxing and writing provided an outlet for his frustrations and anger. In August 1926, Howard quit his exhausting job at

17655-476: The latter based on the graphic novel he disowned. Nihilism In philosophy , nihilism ( / ˈ n aɪ ( h ) ɪ l ɪ z əm , ˈ n iː -/ ; from Latin nihil  'nothing') is any viewpoint, or a family of views, that rejects generally accepted or fundamental aspects of human existence, namely knowledge , morality , or meaning . There have been different nihilist positions, including that human values are baseless, that life

17820-500: The latter. The culmination of the path that the Buddha taught was nirvana , "a place of nothingness ... nonpossession and... non-attachment ...[which is] the total end of death and decay." Ajahn Amaro , an ordained Buddhist monk of more than 40 years, observes that in English nothingness can sound like nihilism. However, the word could be emphasized in a different way, so that it becomes no-thingness , indicating that nirvana

17985-517: The levelling process are stronger for it, and that it represents a step in the right direction towards "becoming a true self." As we must overcome levelling, Hubert Dreyfus and Jane Rubin argue that Kierkegaard's interest, "in an increasingly nihilistic age, is in how we can recover the sense that our lives are meaningful." From the period 1860–1917, Russian nihilism was both a nascent form of nihilist philosophy and broad cultural movement which overlapped with certain revolutionary tendencies of

18150-527: The magazine between 1933 and 1936. Howard then took a short break from Conan after his initial burst of stories, returning to the character in mid-1933. These stories, his "middle period", are routine and considered the weakest of the series. Stories, such as " Iron Shadows in the Moon ", were often simply Conan rescuing a damsel in distress from a monster in some ruins. While earlier Conan stories had three or four drafts, some in this period had only two including

18315-529: The middle of 1880 ( KSA 9.127-128). This was the time of a then popular scientific work that reconstructed the so-called "Russian nihilism" on the basis of Russian newspaper reports on nihilistic incidents (N. Karlowitsch: Die Entwicklung des Nihilismus. Berlin 1880). This collection of material, published in three editions, was not only known to a broad German readership, but its influence on Nietzsche can also be proven. Karen L. Carr describes Nietzsche's characterization of nihilism as "a condition of tension, as

18480-594: The modern age, though he implies that the rise of nihilism is still incomplete and that it has yet to be overcome. Though the problem of nihilism becomes especially explicit in Nietzsche's notebooks (published posthumously), it is mentioned repeatedly in his published works and is closely connected to many of the problems mentioned there. Nietzsche characterized nihilism as emptying the world and especially human existence of meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. This observation stems in part from Nietzsche's perspectivism , or his notion that "knowledge"

18645-665: The modern trends of value-destruction expressed in the ' death of God ', as well as what he saw as the life-denying morality of Christianity . Under Nietzsche's profound influence, the term was then further treated within French philosophy and continental philosophy more broadly, while the influence of nihilism in Russia arguably continued well into the Soviet era . Religious scholars such as Altizer have stated that nihilism must necessarily be understood in relation to religion, and that

18810-646: The nearby city of Brownwood to complete his senior year of high school, accompanied by his mother. It was in Brownwood that he first met friends his own age who shared his interest not only for sports and history but also writing and poetry. The two most important of these, Tevis Clyde Smith and Truett Vinson, shared his Bohemian and literary outlook on life, and together they wrote amateur papers and magazines, exchanged long letters filled with poetry and existential thoughts on life and philosophy, and encouraged each other's writing endeavors. Through Vinson, Howard

18975-420: The new school of epic fantasy writers. This was followed by publication of the first Kane novel, Bloodstone , during 1975. Warner Books commissioned a cover painting by Frank Frazetta (who had helped revive the Conan franchise, and who would paint a number of future covers for the series) and Wagner's writing career improved. After a novel featuring Howard's Pictish hero Bran Mak Morn , Wagner's next Kane book

19140-481: The nineteenth century," and that Kierkegaard "opposed tendencies in mass culture to reduce the individual to a cipher of conformity and deference to the dominant opinion." In his day, tabloids (like the Danish magazine Corsaren ) and apostate Christianity were instruments of levelling and contributed to the "reflective apathetic age" of 19th-century Europe. Kierkegaard argues that individuals who can overcome

19305-434: The notion appears frequently throughout Nietzsche's work, he uses the term in a variety of ways, with different meanings and connotations. With regard to Nietzsche's development of thought, it has been noted in research that although he dealt with "nihilistic" themes from 1869 onwards ("pessimism, with nirvana and with nothingness and non-being" ), a conceptual use of nihilism occurred for the first time in handwritten notes in

19470-568: The notion of " God is dead " as the "reality of the Will to Power." Heidegger also praises Jünger for defending Nietzsche against a too biological or anthropological reading during the Nazi era . Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche influenced a number of important postmodernist thinkers. Gianni Vattimo points at a back-and-forth movement in European thought, between Nietzsche and Heidegger. During

19635-400: The novel. The story was briefly held as part of the company's assets before being returned to Howard. It was later printed in Weird Tales as a serial over five months, beginning with the December 1935 issue. Howard may have begun losing interest in Conan in late 1934, with a growing desire to write westerns. He began to write, although never finished, a Conan story called " Wolves Beyond

19800-456: The omnipresence of evil and enemies in the world, and taught him the value of physical strength and violence. As the son of the local doctor, Howard had frequent exposure to the effects of injury and violence, due to accidents on farms and oil fields combined with the massive increase in crime that came with the oil boom . Firsthand tales of gunfights, lynchings , feuds , and Indian raids developed his distinctly Texan, hardboiled outlook on

19965-402: The other hand destroys to level the field for constructing something new. This form of nihilism is characterized by Nietzsche as "a sign of strength," a willful destruction of the old values to wipe the slate clean and lay down one's own beliefs and interpretations, contrary to the passive nihilism that resigns itself with the decomposition of the old values. This willful destruction of values and

20130-538: The other hand, Vattimo judges Heidegger's intentions authentic enough to keep pursuing them. Philosophers who Vattimo exemplifies as a part of this back and forth movement are French philosophers Deleuze , Foucault and Derrida . Italian philosophers of this same movement are Cacciari , Severino and himself. Jürgen Habermas , Jean-François Lyotard and Richard Rorty are also philosophers who are influenced by Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche. Gilles Deleuze 's interpretation of Nietzsche's concept of nihilism

20295-419: The overcoming of the condition of nihilism by the constructing of new meaning, this active nihilism, could be related to what Nietzsche elsewhere calls a free spirit or the Übermensch from Thus Spoke Zarathustra and The Antichrist , the model of the strong individual who posits his own values and lives his life as if it were his own work of art. It may be questioned, though, whether "active nihilism"

20460-460: The pages of Fight Stories . A tough-as-nails, two-fisted mariner with a head of rocks and occasionally a heart of gold, Costigan began boxing his way through a variety of exotic seaports and adventure locales, becoming so popular in Fight Stories that the same editors began using additional Costigan episodes in their sister magazine Action Stories . The series saw a return to Howard's use of humor and ( unreliable ) first-person narration, with

20625-659: The pair were actively fighting. Hester did not want Isaac to have anything to do with their son. She had a particularly strong influence on her son's intellectual growth. She had spent her early years helping a variety of sick relatives, contracting tuberculosis in the process. She instilled in her son a deep love of poetry and literature, recited verse daily and supported him unceasingly in his efforts to write. Other experiences would later seep into his prose. Although he loved reading and learning, he found school to be confining and began to hate having anyone in authority over him. Experiences watching and confronting bullies revealed

20790-405: The pathos of 'in vain' is the nihilists' pathos – at the same time, as pathos, an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists. Nietzsche's relation to the problem of nihilism is a complex one. He approaches the problem of nihilism as deeply personal, stating that this predicament of the modern world is a problem that has "become conscious" in him. According to Nietzsche, it is only when nihilism

20955-629: The people who came with it. He was already poorly disposed towards oil booms as they were the cause of the constant traveling in his early years but this was aggravated by what he perceived to be the effect oil booms had on towns. "I'll say one thing about an oil boom; it will teach a kid that Life's a pretty rotten thing as quick as anything I can think of." —Robert E. Howard in a letter to Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright, Summer 1931. At fifteen Howard first sampled pulp magazines , especially Adventure and its star authors Talbot Mundy and Harold Lamb . The next few years saw him creating

21120-553: The period surrounding the French Revolution , the term was also a pejorative for certain value-destructive trends of modernity , namely the negation of Christianity and European tradition in general. Nihilism first entered philosophical study within a discourse surrounding Kantian and post-Kantian philosophies, notably appearing in the writings of Swiss esotericist Jacob Hermann Obereit in 1787 and German philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi in 1799. As early as 1824,

21285-426: The possibility of knowledge or communication, and asserted the ultimate meaninglessness or purposelessness of life or of the universe". The term Dada was first used by Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara in 1916. The movement, which lasted from approximately 1916 to 1923, arose during World War I, an event that influenced the artists. The Dada Movement began in the old town of Zürich, Switzerland —known as

21450-786: The posthumous Exorcisms and Ecstasies (1997). They range from the very literate and allusive (such as "The River of Night's Dreaming", which refers to Richard O'Brien 's The Rocky Horror Show and the myth of Carcosa used in the work of Ambrose Bierce and Robert W. Chambers ), to the pulpy and parodic (such as "Plan Ten from Inner Space", a crazed homage to Ed Wood 's magnum opus Plan 9 from Outer Space ). His later stories, such as "But You'll Never Follow Me" and "Silted In", were described by Ramsey Campbell as tormented and deeply personal; some deal explicitly with drug addiction (e.g. "More Sinned Against") and sexual subjects, including psychological repression (e.g. "Brushed Away") and transsexualism (e.g. "Lacunae"). During 1983 Wagner won

21615-488: The present time, negation is the most useful of all". Despite Turgenev's own anti-nihilistic leanings, many of his readers likewise took up the name of nihilist , thus ascribing the Russian nihilist movement its name. Nihilism was further discussed by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche , who used the term to describe the Western world 's disintegration of traditional morality. For Nietzsche, nihilism applied to both

21780-673: The pulp field. In time this circle of correspondents has developed a legendary patina about it rivaling similar literary conclaves such as The Inklings , the Bloomsbury Group , and the Beats . Howard was given the affectionate nickname "Two-Gun Bob" by virtue of his long explications to Lovecraft about the history of his beloved Southwest , and during the ensuing years he contributed several notable elements to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos of horror stories (beginning with " The Black Stone ", his Mythos stories also included " The Cairn on

21945-649: The pulps. Howard's " Celtic phase" began in 1930, during which he became fascinated by Celtic themes and his own Irish ancestry. He shared this enthusiasm with Harold Preece , a friend made in Austin in the summer of 1927; Howard's letters to both Preece and Clyde Smith contain much Irish-related material and discussion. Howard taught himself a little Gaelic , examined the Irish parts of his family history and began writing about Irish characters. Turlogh Dubh O'Brien and Cormac Mac Art were created at this time, although he

22110-563: The readers of a struggling pulp called Weird Tales . Now that his career in fiction had begun, Howard dropped out of Howard Payne College at the end of the semester and returned to Cross Plains. Shortly afterwards, he received notice that another story, "The Hyena", had been accepted by Weird Tales . During the same period, Howard made his first attempt to write a novel, a loosely autobiographical book modeled on Jack London 's Martin Eden and titled Post Oaks & Sand Roughs . The book

22275-453: The rejection of all social and political institutions ( § Political nihilism ), the stance that no knowledge can or does exist ( § Epistemological nihilism ), and a number of metaphysical positions, which assert that non-abstract objects do not exist ( § Metaphysical nihilism ), that composite objects do not exist ( § Mereological nihilism ), or even that life itself does not exist. The etymological origin of nihilism

22440-607: The research necessary for a purely historical setting was too time-consuming for him to engage in on a regular basis and still earn a living. The Hyborian Age, with its varied settings similar to real places and eras of history, allowed him to write fantastical historical fiction without such problems. He may have been inspired in the creation of his setting by Thomas Bulfinch 's 1913 edition of his Bulfinch's Mythology called The Outline of Mythology , which contained stories from history and legend, including many that were direct influences on Howard's work. Another potential inspiration

22605-407: The series. In March 1928, Howard salvaged and re-submitted to Weird Tales a story rejected by the more popular pulp Argosy , and the result was " Red Shadows ", the first of many stories featuring the vengeful Puritan swashbuckler Solomon Kane . Appearing in the August 1928 issue of Weird Tales , the character was a big hit with readers and this was the first of Howard's characters to sustain

22770-501: The state with his main occupation being, in his own words, "the wholesale consumption of tortillas, enchiladas and cheap Spanish wine." In Fredericksburg , while overlooking sullen hills through a misty rain, he conceived of the fantasy land of Cimmeria , a bitter hard northern region home to fearsome barbarians. In February, while in Mission , he wrote the poem Cimmeria . It was also during this trip that Howard first conceived of

22935-406: The statement that "we killed him", is similar to the self -dissolution of Christian doctrine: due to the advances of the sciences, which for Nietzsche show that man is the product of evolution , that Earth has no special place among the stars and that history is not progressive , the Christian notion of God can no longer serve as a basis for a morality. One such reaction to the loss of meaning

23100-451: The stories, the rejection letter explained that there was a "prejudice that is very strong over here just now against collections of short stories." The suggested novel, however, could be published by Pawling and Ness Ltd in a first edition of 5,000 copies for lending libraries. In late 1933 Howard returned to Conan, starting again slightly awkwardly with " The Devil in Iron ". However, this

23265-570: The study of core elements of its character requires fundamentally theological consideration. The concept of nihilism was discussed by the Buddha (563 BC to 483 BC), as recorded in the Theravada and Mahayana Tripiṭaka . The Tripiṭaka , originally written in Pali , refers to nihilism as natthikavāda and the nihilist view as micchādiṭṭhi . Various sutras within it describe a multiplicity of views held by different sects of ascetics while

23430-420: The term began to take on a social connotation with German journalist Joseph von Görres attributing it to a negation of existing social and political institutions. The Russian form of the word, nigilizm ( Russian : нигилизм ), entered publication in 1829 when Nikolai Nadezhdin used it synonymously with skepticism . In Russian journalism the word continued to have significant social connotations. From

23595-518: The term), which some critics have compared favorably to those of Robert E. Howard and Michael Moorcock . In his story "The Gothic Touch", Kane actually encounters Moorcock's albino anti-hero Elric . The character Kane is considered one of the most memorable and original anti-heroes of heroic fantasy . Inspired by the sword and sorcery adventures of Fritz Leiber 's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and Robert E. Howard's mighty-thewed barbarian Conan

23760-480: The third following a few days later. With these three completed he created an essay called " The Hyborian Age " in order to flesh out his setting in more detail. There were four drafts of this essay, starting with a two-page outline and finishing as an 8,000-word essay. Howard supplemented this with two sketched maps and an additional short piece entitled "Notes on Various Peoples of the Hyborian Age." In

23925-477: The time of Jacobi, the term almost fell completely out of use throughout Europe until it was revived by Russian author Ivan Turgenev , who brought the word into popular use with his 1862 novel Fathers and Sons , leading many scholars to believe he coined the term. The nihilist characters of the novel define themselves as those who "deny everything ", who do "not take any principle on faith, whatever reverence that principle may be enshrined in", and who regard "at

24090-417: The town looking for oil wealth. New businesses sprang up from scratch and the crime rate increased to match. Cross Plains' population quickly grew from 1,500 to 10,000, it suffered overcrowding, the traffic ruined its unpaved roads and vice crime exploded but it also used its new wealth on civic improvements, including a new school, an ice manufacturing plant, and new hotels. Howard hated the boom and despised

24255-480: The two major currents of discourse on nihilism prior to the 20th century. The term likely entered English from either the German Nihilismus , Late Latin nihilismus , or French nihilisme . Early examples of the term's use are found in German publications. In 1733, German writer Friedrich Leberecht Goetz used it as a literary term in combination with noism ( German : Neinismus ). In

24420-495: The wings to be developed into a possible KANE franchise for Tonic Films". Lauren Moews' Tonic Films Acquires Rights to Karl Edward Wagner's Tome Death Angel's Shadow As of 2020 the film had not entered production. Besides the Kane books, Wagner wrote contemporary horror stories (some of which, like "At First Just Ghostly", also feature Kane). These were collected in the books In a Lonely Place (1983), Why Not You and I? (1987) and

24585-434: The world. Sports, especially boxing , became a passionate preoccupation. At the time, boxing was the most popular sport in the country, with a cultural influence far in excess of what it is today. James J. Jeffries , Jack Johnson , Bob Fitzsimmons , and later Jack Dempsey were the names that inspired during those years, and he grew up a lover of all contests of violent, masculine struggle. Voracious reading, along with

24750-513: The world. This mowing away of all value in the world is characteristic of the nihilist, although in this, the nihilist appears inconsistent: this "will to nothingness" is still a form of valuation or willing. He describes this as "an inconsistency on the part of the nihilists": A nihilist is a man who judges of the world as it is that it ought not to be, and of the world as it ought to be that it does not exist. According to this view, our existence (action, suffering, willing, feeling) has no meaning:

24915-574: Was Weird Tales , where Howard created Conan the Barbarian. With Conan and his other heroes, Howard helped fashion the genre now known as sword and sorcery, spawning many imitators and giving him a large influence in the fantasy field. Howard remains a highly read author, with his best works still reprinted, and is one of the best-selling fantasy writers of all time. Howard's suicide and the circumstances surrounding it have led to speculation about his mental health . His mother had been ill with tuberculosis her entire life, and upon learning she had entered

25080-418: Was Dark Crusade (1976). A Kane story published elsewhere, "Two Suns Setting", won the 1977 British Fantasy Award and was also a World Fantasy Award nominee. Wagner published other Kane stories in magazines such as Chacal , Whispers and Escape! during 1977. Gerald W. Page, then editor of DAW Books Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Stories , began to reprint Kane tales in the anthology series Night Winds ;

25245-400: Was " The God in the Bowl ", which went through three drafts and has a slower pace than most Conan stories. This one is a murder mystery filled with corrupt officials and serves as Conan's introduction into civilization, while showing that he is a more decent person than the civilized characters. Before the end of the month, he sent the first two stories to Weird Tales in the same package, with

25410-532: Was adapted for the TV series The Hunger during 1998. Sticks provided the inspiration for the lattice type structures used in the television series True Detective . Wagner was involved with several comics ventures. His Kane story "In the Lair of Yslsl" (which was later incorporated into the Kane novel Dark Crusade ) was adapted by Bill Whitcomb and Steve Vance, and illustrated by Vance, Wes Smith, and Bill Black for

25575-466: Was followed with the beginning of the latter group of Conan stories that "carry the most intellectual punch," starting with " The People of the Black Circle ". Howard probably began to work on the novel in February 1934, starting to write Almuric (a non-Conan, sword and planet science fiction novel) but abandoned it half way. This was followed by another abortive attempt at a novel, this time

25740-539: Was giving lectures on Nietzsche's thought. Given the importance of Nietzsche's contribution to the topic of nihilism, Heidegger's influential interpretation of Nietzsche is important for the historical development of the term nihilism . Heidegger's method of researching and teaching Nietzsche is explicitly his own. He does not specifically try to present Nietzsche as Nietzsche. He rather tries to incorporate Nietzsche's thoughts into his own philosophical system of Being, Time and Dasein . In his Nihilism as Determined by

25905-432: Was inherently corrupt and fragile. This attitude is summed up in his famous line from " Beyond the Black River ": "Barbarism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." Lovecraft held the opposite viewpoint, that civilization was the peak of human achievement and the only way forward. Howard countered by listing many historic abuses of

26070-536: Was introduced to The Tattler , the newspaper of the Brownwood High School. It was in this publication that Howard's stories were first printed. The December 1922 issue featured two stories, "'Golden Hope Christmas" and "West is West", which won gold and silver prizes respectively. Howard graduated from high school in May 1923 and moved back to Cross Plains. On his return to his home town he engaged in

26235-409: Was more formulaic and was accepted by the magazine with no problems. Howard only wrote one more Conan story, "Red Nails", which was influenced both by his personal experiences at the time and an extrapolation of his views on civilization. The character of Conan had a wide and enduring influence among other Weird Tales writers, including C. L. Moore and Fritz Leiber , and over the ensuing decades

26400-469: Was not able to sell the latter's stories. When Farnsworth Wright started a new pulp in 1930 called Oriental Stories , Howard was overjoyed—here was a venue where he could run riot through favorite themes of history and battle and exotic mysticism. During the four years of the magazine's existence, he crafted some of his very best tales, gloomy vignettes of war and rapine in the Middle and Far East during

26565-468: Was otherwise of middling quality and was never published in the author's lifetime, but it is of interest to Howard scholars for the personal information it contains. Howard's alter ego in this novel is Steve Costigan, a name he would use more than once in the future. The novel was finished in 1928, but not published until long after his death. Weird Tales paid on publication, meaning that Howard had no money of his own at this time. To remedy this, he took

26730-543: Was planned, Death Stalks the Night , by Hugh B. Cave ; Lee Brown Coye was working on illustrating it when he died, causing Carcosa to abandon the project. The book was eventually published by Fedogan & Bremer . Wagner later acted as the literary agent for Manly Wade Wellman's estate. Wagner collaborated with Drake on Killer , a science fiction horror novel set during the reign of the Roman emperor Domitian . The illustrator of Murgunstrumm and Worse Things Waiting

26895-470: Was published in the magazine Strange Tales in June 1932. Although the character swears by the god "Crom", that is his only link to the more famous successor character. Going back home he developed the idea, fleshing out a new invented world—his Hyborian Age —and populating it with all manner of countries, peoples, monsters, and magic . Howard loved history and enjoyed writing historical stories. However,

27060-501: Was the annual anthology series The Year's Best Horror Stories ( DAW Books ), which he edited for fourteen years from volume VIII (1980) until volume XXII (1994). The series was canceled after Wagner's death. However, while the original editions were paperback originals, Underwood-Miller preserved the series in a set of three limited-edition hardcovers. Wagner was a frequent visitor to London to attend fantasy and horror conventions. Though he continued to edit, producing three volumes of

27225-508: Was the noted Weird Tales artist Lee Brown Coye . Coye's macabre designs, incorporating mysterious lattices of twigs, were the inspiration for Wagner's British Fantasy Award -winning story " Sticks ". The story was later included in a revised edition of Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. A connoisseur of rare horror stories, Wagner perspicaciously edited many horror and fantasy anthologies ; perhaps his greatest achievement of this topic

#810189