It’s been 90 years today since the death of Robert E. Howard, one of the greatest fantasy authors who ever lived. Long ignored by scholars, his fiction is esteemed more than ever now that we’re finally appreciating its depth and artistry. Howard had much to say about the rise and fall of civilization, as well as the underlying nature of humanity that persists despite the circumstances and fashions of the hour.
His fans admire Howard’s vision of the lone hero who fights honorably in a world that often disdains honor, nobility, or courage. It takes courage to open one’s eyes to the world as it is and dare to live well. He affirms that stance in one of Conan the Barbarian’s most famous speeches:
“I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom’s realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer’s Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. “
Let’s raise a tankard of cheap wine to his memory.
I was hooked in quickly by this conversation featuring astrophysicist Adam Frank, neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett, and biologist Michael Levin. Barrett, the neuroscientist, had this to say:
“I’m not sure that materialism is actually the culprit here. … For a long time, the main alternatives to traditional realism were idealism. This is the idea that reality is all in your head. Empiricism is the idea that we can only study what we can sense and we shouldn’t even be making metaphysical um assumptions. But there is a third option which is the idea that there is a single reality, but that reality exists in relation to some perspective. So it’s inherently perspectival. And this is the notion of relational realism. It’s the belief that reality consists of the relations between interacting signals that can constrain or enhance one another.”
And I absolutely agree. All life is interrelated. We cannot understand reality until we grasp the complex interactions between biological organisms and their environments. Those interactions shape how living beings function, evolve, and adapt in a changing world. Rather than the universe being created for humans, humans are just one of millions of living things shaped by the environment. This insight is validated by common ancestry, as our shared DNA demonstrates, and our dependance on the biosphere for our survival and well-being.
