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Originally Posted by TTBRAHWTMG  Thanks for the Bob Howard recommendation. I've got good relationships with several quality used book stores and am certain I can get my hands on originals. |
Actually, that's precisely what you
don't want to do; not if you want Howard the way he wrote it. It's actually the more recent editions, such as those from Del Rey, that are disencumbering Howard of all the encrustations that have gathered about his work over the past 70 years. There are some others, such as Wildside Press, that are going back to the original magazine versions, and a British edition of the complete Conan that went back to Howard's original mss. (including fragments, etc.). Those are well worth investing in, and the majority of them are fairly cheap. The old Lancer/Ace paperbacks (as fond as I am of them, for they are how I first read most of Howard's stuff) are chock-full of unnecessary editing, alterations, stories by various other hands, and non-Conan stories that de Camp revised into Conan stories for the series.
On your other statements, all I can say it: Congratulations! and Good for you! You've been down a very rough road, and come to a realization that few do. You are to be commended for taking responsibility for yourself.
On Heinlein being your "professor"... I'm always reminded of something Robert Bloch said about HPL: "Lovecraft was my university", for much the same reasons. Joshi has agreed. I'll add my voice in there, as well. So no need to be apologetic about this devotion to RAH; from what I understand, the man was a genuine gentleman in person, and there are much, much worse role models to take. I'd just caution you to read him critically (something I do do with HPL, though many might dispute that
); this helps to keep him in perspective, and still to learn the lessons he has to teach, without losing one iota of respect for the man or his work. (An unnecessary caution, perhaps; but useful nonetheless.)
Razorback... perhaps; but I'm quite dubious about that assertion; certainly taken to the levels it has been. A certain amount of liberties we
may have to compromise on, but this wholesale abandonment of them... no.
That is for no reason other than to make a populace that is much easier to manipulate. Divide, keep ignorant, and disempower, and they are conquered for life. As Heinlein said, "Mighty little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked"; and that's a process that's been in high-gear for quite some time now....