The way I’d put
it is both Bennett and Howard’s fantasies take place in a physically desirable
universe of blood and honour, in which there is often wild fighting. I haven’t
read Lovecraft in centuries (literally) but doubt if his universe is physically
desirable. For all that Howard is dark, he is intoxicated by nature’s gaiety,
and Friend Island is that type of place.
"But
sudden the ground begun to shake under my feet, and the air was
full of a
queer, grinding, groaning sound, like the very earth was in
pain.
"I
turned around sharp. There sat Nelson, holding his bleeding toe in
both fists
and giving vent to such awful words as no decent sea-going
lady would
ever speak nor hear to!
"'Stop
it, stop it!' I shrieked at him, but 'twas too late.
"Island
or no island, Anita was a lady, too! She had a gentle heart,
but she knowed how to behave when she was insulted.
The physically
desirable – whether nature or woman – needs defending with blood and honour
from those sorceries that would threaten it. Heroic fantasy, the fighting
spirit of man and woman. Sorcery, in medieval parlance, is another term for
evil – outwith the church. Blood and honour are at the service of conscience
(religion) and the physically desirable in woman or nature (chivalry.)
That physical
reality is very hard for moderns to follow since, in effect, we are living in a
sorcerous world of “spells”. Meaning various lists, scripts, routines (of the
head) that take the place of reality.
I read a review of a history of Charlemagne that related round various secondary sources, court “annals”, monastery documents, chartered estates. What I tend to think is, in those far-off days, “script” was vastly less vital than fighting deeds in defence of conscience, as this picture suggests.
Casper Johanne
Nepomuk Scheuren, 1848
Primary source, Charlemagne
to Abbot Fulrad..
Let it be known to you that we have determined to hold our
general assembly1
this year in the eastern part of Saxony, on the River Bode, at the place which
is known as Strassfurt.2
Therefore, we enjoin that you come to this meeting-place, with all your men
well armed and equipped, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of July, that
is, seven days before the festival of St. John the Baptist.1
Come, therefore, so prepared with your men to the aforesaid place that you may
be able to go thence well equipped in any direction in which our command shall
direct; that is, with arms and accoutrements also, and other provisions for war
in the way of food and clothing. Each horseman will be expected to have a
shield, a lance, a sword, a dagger, a bow, and quivers with arrows; and in your
carts shall be implements of various kinds, that is, axes, planes, augers,
boards, spades, iron shovels, and other utensils which are necessary in an
army. In the wagons also should be supplies of food for three months, dating
from the time of the assembly, together with arms and clothing for six months.
And furthermore we command that you see to it that you proceed peacefully to
the aforesaid place, through whatever part of our realm your journey shall be
made; that is, that you presume to take nothing except fodder, wood, and water.
And let the followers of each one of your vassals march along with the carts
and horsemen, and let the leader always be with them until they reach the
aforesaid place, so that the absence of a lord may not give to his men an
opportunity to do evil.
Secondary
sources remind one a bit of Linear A at Knossos (Pictorial 8), closed to
color and gaiety. The rough hues of a Hyborian map are far preferable
C12
A world of
“spells” is closed to color and gaiety, which is simple the reality that Man
has four limbs and can be a natty dresser, like Charlemagne! This is the
classical world of drama that is the source material of European civilization–
physique and psyche.
Sorcery works
against that, because it is really the warrior ethos, blood and honour – how
many Greek tragedies have revenge and blood? Sorcery replaces blood and death
with the living death of a non-physical reality that cannot revive from decay.
If things are
left alone, they have a strength of laissez-faire revival, the cycle of
lifedeath, predator-prey. The dilapidated building is more “alive” that the
picket-fence perfection (Drama 3). Moderns cannot really follow that
idea, because they are not in physical reality.
This is the universe
of the head we live in. The result is physical boredom since the physique can’t
be denied and the compulsions of the (male) mind – monetary, numerical,
algorithmic – put them in thrall to their own physique. We of the ever-present
“spell” (of words, script) are ever more in thrall to our physique and ever
less exposed to free-flowing imagination, the dream of the universe.
Expression –as
Bruce Lee says –is neither routine nor flow, but both together. If routine is
articulate and flow is inarticulate, both are needed. The modern world makes
the assumption one can speak ABOUT words; actually that’s a contradiction in
terms. One can speak about non-verbal things: beauty, grace, color, gaiety. The
non-verbal is expression (body). Poetry is the way to put that into words.
Howard’s world
is thus much closer to the primary source of Charlemagne, standing poised and
mighty in Casper’s portrait, than any number of scholarly texts. In The
Heads of Cerberus, Viola’s beast-like desirability is made very obvious in
this fiery, fairly filmic description.
Despite his
desperate preoccupation, Drayton’s first sight of Viola Trenmore brought him
the same momentary flash of joy that comes with the sight of a bluebird in
springtime. She was like a bluebird, fluttering in from the sunshine. (page 41)
From bluebird to
flowers, as the lichenous ruins the vapours of Cerberus sent them to become
animated.
After all,
why should not a castle grow up like a flower – like a flower with a magic
scent? Down here on the plain the grass was filled with flowers and the air
with their fragrance. There was something peculiarly soothing and reassuring in
the very odor of them. (page
58)
This sequence
reminded me of the sorcerous temple of animated wood and sullen stone from
Noto’s “Red Lace” (Aspects 3 etc). In both, the revival is accompanied
by images of death. Noto has vats of
dying roc’s blood (one that restores Sonja’s sight), while Bennett has
They stood no
more than eight or nine yards from the road and could see very well what
Drayton had perceived. The horses were large, heavy brutes, of the type bred
centuries ago for battle.. But the men on their backs – why, those were not
men, not even the ghosts of men! They were mere empty suits of gleaming armor. (page 59)
Noto’s yarns can
have a tendency to remind one of freak shows
Red Sonja #4
When the three
intrepid wanderers of The Heads of Cerberus arrive in the Philadelphia
of 2118, lo and behold carnivalesque grotesquerie is their lot. For at the
intersection of Broad Street and Market, in the very bowels of City Hall, they
find not grey vastness, but
Above,
rounding to a level with the top of the fourth story, curved the golden hollow
of a shallow but glorious dome..From the center of the dome, swung at the end
of a twenty foot chain, depended a huge bell.. The color of it was a brilliant scarlet,
so that it hung like an enourmous exotic blossom. (page 76)
This is all too
reminiscent of Noto’s “Master of the Bells” from Red Sonja #5
They are brought
there as common prisoners, having no knowledge of the “numerical buttons” that
all citizens must wear and find themselves in a very “courtly” court vying for
attention in the championships. The bull-like Irishman, Trenmore, is put in for
Strongest at the behest of Loveliest, and will seemingly rule as her consort if
he wins, in place of her present mate, Cleverest.
What transpires is
that only the Superlatives have titles, everyone else being a number. That is
almost the opposite of our own system, where anything numerical is cleverest!
Bennett’s system of government, it should be noted, seems to place equal value
on head (Cleverest) and body (Strongest), as well as both together (Loveliest).
Even though, as
Cleverest says,
Now these
competitions – the Civic Service Examinations, as they are properly named – are
conducted on a perfectly fair basis. It is a system as democratic as it is
natural and logical. (page
102)
It’s clearly not
atall democratic. In fact, Bennett emphasises the “barbaric splendour” of the
City Hall décor, and the savagery of the law as well as the custom of contests
is made apparent.
This does rather
seem to make the point that democracy is purely a system of the head, and not
of the body, the physique, of the courtiers of old, preening and parading their
wares for ostentatious show.
A system of the
head has to be both physically and sexually lopsided, and makes the assumption
that “Cleverest” is good in itself. How about Strongest and Loveliest? Our
politicians may be clever, but tend to be either ugly or weak.
If our system is
a false logic (of perspective illusion, prev.) Bennet’s is a much more natural
logic of acrobatic human proportions that made Man the hunter, the wanderer,
master of the seas and builder of renown. Man the animal as opposed to the
immaterial electromagnetic impulse of the head or robot.