Date Posted:18:48:49 10/01/01 Mon Author: Omega Subject: Just another example of Howard's influence In reply to:
Omega
's message, "Re: Elric of Melnibone" on 18:29:52 10/01/01 Mon
From an interview with Moorcock found on amazon.com.uk:
"We didn't go far. We went to The White Swan across the road from the office. Ted was already there with another professional journalist who wrote the odd SF story, Peter Phillips, then working for the Daily Herald. I mentioned that I had written the beginning of a Conan story for an American magazine which had gone bust and Ted said he wouldn't mind running something like that, to see how it went down with the readers. After a bit of confusion I wound up introducing a character who was as much at odds with Robert E Howards' brawny Conan as he was with Professor Tolkien's happy hobbits."
Although Elric certainly became a major deviation from Howard's hero, nonetheless, Moorcock was thinking along the lines of writing a Conan story when he came up with Elric. I think as you said, Howard's creation of the genre was in itself one of the major influences, but I think there lies something beyond it (I have seen another interview, I think, which discussed a bit more of the connections -- although I think having a hero almost the antithesis of Conan -- a weakling, etc, is in itself too highly influenced by Conan and then made the equal and opposite.. )
