If the profane serpent
exists in an illusory reality – the mirror of electromagnetism into which the
future is collapsing – the opposite to that reality is the almost morbid
infatuation with fertility that has been called decadence.
In order to
justify my use of the word decadent with respect to Howard, one has to
acknowledge that a contrary view is often stated.
Blood and
passion make the Conan stories so powerful in impact. Blood and passion and the
triumph of barbarism over the decadence of civilization. (Robert Weinberg, Annotated Guide,
page 117)
I can see what
Weinberg means, but have to ask whether decadence is an opportunity for vital
springs to upsurge once again? Civilization must decline if it is to have an
influx of strength. The alternative is the dead-hand of tyranny that makes a
bad thing worse still.
‘This is the
price a nation must pay for decaying: the strong young people come in and take
possession, one way or another.. the people are fat-bellied – but still they
murmur and curse and spit on my shadow. What do they want?’
The Pict
grinned savagely and with bitter mirth. ‘Another Borna! A red-handed tyrant!’ (Kull and Brule in Swords of the Purple
Kingdom, King Kull page 141)
In the modern
scene, tyranny takes the form of the sterilization of culture; the abandonment
of the fertile zest in the gardens and ancient quarters of color.
The morbid
fascination with scenes of blood and passion are almost a definition of
the French-tinged decadent movement of the mid 19th century which
influenced both the pre-Raphaelites and the symbolists.
There is at the
same time a turning back to medievalism, and a disgust at material corruption,
particularly as seen in Burne-Jones’ fantasms
The Beguiling
of Merlin
The weird
eroticism of this is not far from Brundage’s Weird Tales covers! The original
decadent art movement is opposed to nature – biologically and morally,
conventional sexuality. You wonder, though, is this had something to do with
the established mainstream (Anglo) domination of the Darwinian view, which imagines
what Richard Dawkins later called a “blind watchmaker” at work?
The decadent
repugnance for materialism might have extended to what were seen as the “facts”
of nature – the improvement of species by natural selection as opposed to the
passion of irrational love.
What I have been
saying for awhile is that the symmetries of nature – and the sublime symmetries
of the erotic and feminine – symbolise a fertility that is physically pure.
Symmetry is
strong and simple, and is not selected for, it just is. A figure has a back and
a front, a left and a right. The swaying, serpentine lines of the feminine
figure are manifestations of primal symmetry.
What I’m saying
is that decadent art has not been corrupted by the modernist infatuation with “facts”
that supplant a priori reality. If the “facts” of Darwin contain no
primal symmetry, then they are equally a fiction or fairy tale.
Symmetry is an
aspect of fertility, or the cyclical shape of things.
HB127
Darwinism is
simply a convenient way of making things non-fertile – occupying a sterile
system or illusion. Therefore, the idea that we live inside an illusory system –
of mirrors or electromagnetism – run by acolytes of sorcerers, has some
traction.
The illusory
system becomes ever more mirror-bound as time goes by, owing to electronic
advances and algorithms. The general tendency is that straight-line perspective
replaces any archaic notions of cosmic symmetry, such as sun and moon.
Where these
symmetries exist, the sense of decadence is often palpable (see BWS Artemis
and Apollo). It means a closeness to the fertile wellspring of life and
death. In the case of sun and moon, an almost incestuous closeness.
Myths are born
of these cyclical situations. Decadent art is not just pre-Darwin but even more
likely pre-Galileo. Nowadays we are beset by spokespeople like Greta Thunberg
who are convinced by facts within this illusory sphere of mirrors.
It is a very
convincing system, since by following these facts one enters more and more into
the illusory, electromagnetic reality of acolytes (see HB131). The
system is immaterial and we, as humans, become ever-more bound by algorithms
and mirrors. Whereas “they” say the facts need to be followed to become more
green and carbon-neutral, the system is not as green as you might think.
It is really a
form of sterility (that enables rubbish-removal) and not a physical
manifestation of fertility. Not only that, but the sterility – the mirror of
illusion – harbors the profane serpent. The shiny, slimy insidious forms that
corrupt natural rhythms and physique.
In order to
retain our human psyche, we have to reject the immaterial and grasp the physical
in all its morbid and fertile – decadence. Things decay and they then revive in
the great wheel of destiny.
So, whether
Howard is or is not, his situations and settings rely on what you could call “the
cracks in pavings” syndrome, whereby the ruinous and archaic are really held to
be morally virtuous (by not being completely sterile and sorcerous). In such
settings the warrior and the sorcerer are really on equal terms. An ancient
evil, like Acheron, has lost some of its bite, if you like.
Modern settings
have none of this decadent strength, and their sterility enables the acolytes’
illusions to confound us, so that we no longer recognize the reality of fertile
situations on symmetrical planet Earth.
“40 acres and a
mule” is quite a good mantra to carry to these political, logical, numerical
and monetary occasions that – like Biden and Trump – are so alike. “They” want
us to think there are differnces, while the illusion gets ever-more overpoweringly
ditto. The physical reality is Spanish Harlem, Indians, cowboys, Detroit (Drama3
as opposed to any monetary engineering they foist on society in the name of Red
or Blue concerns.