Saffar Perez, Amir A., Ma August 2020

SAFFAR PEREZ, AMIR A., M.A. AUGUST 2020 ENGLISH THE DISTORTED WORLD: SOLOMON KANE, HAJJI BABA, THE MAD ARAB AND SHE (82 PP.)

Thesis Advisor: Christopher Roman

This thesis examines the portrayal of race and gender in serialized works, with a major focus on pulp literature. I argue that lower regarded literature such as pulps has relevance in the discussion gender and race precisely because of their appeal to the masses in comparison to the higher class of literature, and that many of these texts while offensive to the modern reader, still have value and relevancy in literary discussion. To do this, I first examine H.P. Lovecraft and his position in pop culture due to his popularity compared to his pulp peers. I focus on his obsession with the civilized world through his story Rats in the Walls, and how the removal of a person from civilization can doom them. Afterward I turn my attention to James Morier and his work The

Adventures of Hajji Baba of Isphahan. I argue that Morier uses this work to exploit the Iranian culture, banking on the fact that it was not well known outside of the Middle East. In the third part I focus on H. Rider Haggard’s She: A History of Adventure, which, while intended to be an antifeminist text, I argue undermines itself and actually provides examples of protofeminist characters and societies in spite of its racist imagery. Finally, I turn my attention to Robert E.

Howard’s character of Solomon Kane and his closest comrade N’Longa. I argue that while

N’Longa seems to fit the “Magical Negro” stereotype, he is in fact a nuanced portrayal that actually defies that stereotype. Ultimately, it is these lower tier stories that the masses consume, and which define how we perceive the world, and I believe that we need to take them more seriously.

The Distorted World:

Solomon Kane, Hajji Baba, The Mad Arab and She

A thesis submitted

to Kent State University in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of Master of Arts

Amir Saffar Perez

August 2020

Except for previously published materials.

Thesis written by

Amir Saffar Perez

B.A., University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, 2016

B.S., University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, 2016

M.S., University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, 2018

M.A., Kent State University, 2020

Approved by

______, Advisor Dr. Christopher Roman

______, Chair, Department of English Dr. Babacar M’Baye

______, Interim Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Dr. Mandy Munro-Stasiuk

TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………………………………....iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………………….v

CHAPTERS

I. Introduction: …………………………..…………………………………………...... 1

Setting the Stage……………………………………………………………………...1

The Method…………………………………………………………………………..2

The Authors………………………………………………………………………...... 5

Pulps……………………………………………………………………………….....7

Lovecraft…………………………………………………………………………….12

II. James Morier and Hajji Baba: A Case of Pulp Bigotry……………………………..21

III. She and the Oriental Protofeminist………………………………………………….36

IV. Race, Mysticism and the Works of Robert E. Howard……………………………..49

V. Conclusion: ………………………...……………………………………………….71

BIBLIOGRAPHY….………………..……………………………………………………….....73

Acknowledgements

The first person I must thank is my advisor, Professor Christopher Roman, whose tireless patience and advice is the main reason this thesis was completed. He provided assistance during a tumultuous time which allowed me to truly argue and develop my work beyond the shallow narrative I had started with.

I would also like to acknowledge the members of my defense committee, Dr. Vera Camden and

Dr. Babacar M’Baye, for their support and advice during my academic career.

I extend my thanks to my colleagues Devin, Shibaji and Fahrooq for putting up with my obsession with pulp literature.

And finally I extend my love and affection to my family, whose support in this very bizarre time helped push me to finish this thesis.

Chapter I: Introduction

1. Setting the stage

Within the first line of H. Rider Haggard’s pulp-novel She (1887), Ludwig Holly notes that “There are some events of which each circumstance…seems to be graven on the memory in such fashion that we cannot forget it…It rises as clearly before my mind at this moment as though it had happened but yesterday” (Haggard 1). This notion of memory and by extension legacy carries over throughout the narrative and proves essential in capturing the timeless quality of its immortal titular character. It is within these recollections, which is framed within another recollection, we are presented with a life whole and unbound, of a unique and powerful woman,

Ayesha. But it is the nature of the narrative, this memory within memory of a woman that draws my eye. Like Haggard, many of us are drawn in by memories of nations and people long since passed. The less we know of them factually, the more our imagination can encompass and create within those gaps of memory. But in doing so we rob that history of its agency, of its ability to tell the story of its people, of its nation, of its faith on its own terms. We take away the uniqueness of history to replace it with the increasingly mundane creativity of modern-day pop culture.

As far back as 1937, critics could see the problems of devouring a culture and nation without having little connection to it, with Wallace Brown noting in his criticism of “Lalla Roch” that “The criticism is that the poem misrepresents actual eastern life by presenting only one side of the picture” (166) and upon taking that side, proceed to exaggerate to oblivion. But why do

1 so? One easy answer is that it was difficult to fact check the farther back you go. Now it’s easy to spot a liar, but in 1824? This would be a far more difficult endeavor. And while travel guides existed, they too were tinged with bias, as these travel guides were often the source for these sedentary writers, they were the basis for these stories. Even further on, National Geographic became the western world’s go-to guide to everywhere else, in spite of its early bias. Not every writer wrote from ignorance or secondhand accounts; some actually went to the places they wrote about, and proceeded to write whatever they wanted.

This thesis aims to look at several obscure (from a modern perspective, at least) texts from three authors in particular: Justinian Morier, Rider Haggard and Robert E. Howard; these texts being Hajji Baba, She: A History of Adventure, and Solomon Kane respectively. These texts and their authors are oftentimes offensive, but occasionally stumble upon something meaningful and profound. I will dissect these texts and their historical and academic merits. As a counterpoint, I will also highlight H.P. Lovecraft and his relevance in the discussion of pulp at the end of this Introduction..

2. The Method

When looking at how we teach literature, it’s impossible to catch it all. The teacher has to pick the best of the best, the works that encompass a genre or era, as they have no time read it all.

But even then, stories fall through the cracks. When discussing modernist stories such as Heart of Darkness, little is made of its publication history. Most students don’t even realize it was originally published in Blackwood Magazine, and most do not know how the form of the story affects its narrative. The serialized nature of these stories meant that each section had to be self- contained in order to keep the reader engaged with every issue. Within modernist history, there is

2 an even less talked about aspect: the pulps. These pulp paper magazines, defined by cheapness and volume, serve as the bedrock of early Americana pulp culture. These are stories that were sold to the everyman, and disregarded of relevance by its disposable nature. These stories are a struggle to find, and even harder to preserve. Yet, while modernism gave way to post- modernism, few kept an eye on its shadow, pulps often reacting to trends and often surpassing them in scope and idea. As Jason Carney notes, “How can it be a surprise to pulp enthusiast today that its study has become the purview not of literary criticism but of ‘pop culture studies,’”

(4) something that makes it nigh impossible to get significant discussion on its nature or value.

From the first pulp magazine, The Argosy, to Black Mask to Weird Tales, pulp magazines have had a profound impact on modern media. Tarzan and Zorro debuted within the pages of pulps; although, they are rarely considered as a pulp works, instead turning them retroactively into more

“serious works of literature”. The defining ideas of science fiction found their basis in the early sci-fi pulps. Black Mask gave America the framework for its detective shows, Argosy introduced the pulps to the world at large and Weird Tales gave us Cthulhu and Conan; two figures whose representation in modern pop culture is comically large. The form and nature of these forgotten stories and history intrigues me and attracts me into a discussion on their merits in modern gender and race analysis. Its increasingly common to read articles and blogs summarizing authors like H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard as racists and refusing to give their works any credit. But the immediate dismissal does more harm than good, because it prevents us from acquiring meaningful and potentially intriguing ideas from a text. No person and by extension, no text, is completely morally pure. There are shades of grey in the best of us, so to dismiss and reject a text of all academic merit based on the views of an author, deprives the reader of making

3 judgment on the text itself. She and Hajji Baba have historic precedence that is denied in favor of sexier stories and narratives.

I also plan on studying the real life regions the stories described, examining both geographical and social accuracy to the era of the tale. Based on my initial readings, I will spend a lot of my time in African and Middle Eastern Studies, Iran being one of the main subjects, as

Hajji Baba is set there. I will look into the country during the period the story is set and compare the liberties taken with Hajibaba and Iranian court. Lovecraft was quite fond of outside cultures and ideas, although it was more for stylistic imagery than actual depth. With that in mind I will use Lovecraft to establish my objectives with the other three writers.

In regard to Africa, the continent features heavily in many pulp stories partially because of exotic allure and the general public’s ignorance of the nuance within the area. Solomon Kane stories feature heavily the backdrop of the African jungle, and She takes place within made-up tribes worshipping a white goddess. I intend to dissect the common pulp tropes associated with the African jungle from characters like N’Longa and his relationship with the Magical Negro trope, as well as the damsel in distress trope and how She breaks those limitations. By looking at the pop culture of early 1900’s Americana, I hope to explain why these pulp stories were written the way they were, and the symbiotic relationship in enabling and being enabled with the stereotypes of the era. Furthermore, I will also connect pulp and its interaction with modernist theory and how it absorbed and outright copied elements of the philosophy without ever joining it. Examples include Howard coopting themes from texts like Heart of Darkness, and Morier manipulating his experiences with other cultures in order to further the story.

I ultimately hope that this thesis will being back pulps and older forgotten texts back into modern discussion. This will provide a fresh avenue to foster discussion, much in the same way comics have created whole new classes and ideas. As much of literary criticism moves towards more gender and ethnic focused analysis, it’s time to go back and reexamine the stories that entertained early America to see the ways they represented the other. We may find we have not moved all that far from those representations. These texts may be, to the modern reader, trash, but all art is trash at one point or another, and I feel this “trash” deserves a closer look at its impact and relevancy with its more “proper” contemporaries. For in the case of pulps, these were the masses’ entertainment. In the modern age where the reader has access to any text for free, it is difficult to comprehend the idea that what we consider classics could be restricted by price or social status. What is often dismissed as trash literature is in fact the literature that was read the most. Because it was so commonplace, it is essential to bring them into the modern literary discourse.

3. The Authors

James Morier was a writer who, when presented with an opportunity to create an accurate and sincere portrayal of the Iranian people, instead gave us the character of Hajji Baba in his titular story The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Isphahan in 1824; the resultant character served as a reinforcement of Persian stereotypes and the superiority of the West in both technology and morality. The irony of this is even more pronounced when one considers that Morier was a diplomat who lived in Persia for 6 years, so one would have hoped that his characterization would have some accuracy. Instead the Persians are presented as villains, fools, born from a decadent and immoral society. His meshing of actual real-world facts (Isphahan is a real city in

Iran for one thing) with horrific fiction becomes even more uncomfortable when one considers how popular it was in England at the time (Watt, 194). The novel is ultimately propaganda to soothe European sensibilities (while also stroking Morier’s ego), but it’s meshing of truth and fiction bears closer examination because it highlights the exploitation and manipulation of other cultures and traditions in a country that does not get as much discussion as it should in literary theory. Even stranger is how the Iranian people reacted and accepted the text, initially seeing the text as an insult, but eventually viewing it as amusing satire to the point it is arguably more well regarded in Iran than in Europe. There is even an argument that they welcomed the novel simply because it put a spotlight on Iran itself.

H. Rider Haggard is in many ways a transitioning point between Morier serialized novel and the pulps of Solomon Kane and Lovecraftian horror. Haggard’s stories were initially published within magazines, and his story She: A History of Adventure is a subject of discussion due to its strange blend of racist language and arguably feminist tendencies and ideas. This is in spite of Haggards intent to create a cautionary antifeminist text. This discussion is important precisely because of how paradoxical it is. There is an unpleasant notion in modern pop culture discourse that a work is either all good or all bad. She is a counterpoint to that argument precisely because of its paradoxical nature, being a fun romp into adventure, but the simultaneously pivoting into the death of Ayesha. Haggard represents the beginning of the pulp aesthetic as we know it, with his stories preceding most well-known pulp publications.

The third author is Robert E. Howard. I will expand on him when I arrive at his chapter, but his contributions to modern sword and sorcery fantasy is profound and understated. The barbarian and berserker characters found in many modern “dark fantasy stories” call back to the

6 wise and brutal Conan. But modern monster hunters owe a lot to Solomon Kane. This puritan hunter of evil, while not Howard’s most popular character, is arguably his best written, a deep and often sobering dive into man’s morality in the face of absolute evil. While many of his stories have European settings, the first written story “Red Shadows” takes us straight to Africa and never really leaves. As with many writers who set the setting in Africa, inaccuracy and stereotyping run rampant. Yet, I fully believe there is evidence of positive imagery and even progressive characters such as Kane’s only friend N’Longa. What starts as a racist caricature of the “Magical Negro” trope, evolves into a profoundly fascinating character that uses those stereotypes to bamboozle both Kane and the reader.

From a distance, these authors I am discussing have very little binding them. Aside from

Lovecraft and Howard, the authors barely lived within the same period. What connects these men is the nature of distortion and the genre of pulp. Their stories are decades and even centuries apart, and yet they take the world around them and morph them for fantastical adventures that audiences eat up like candy. But why them? Why mention these men, when similar has been written about more proper writers? I argue that while She has been mentioned and discussed previously as a feminist text, it has been largely forgotten in modern feminist discussion. Kane is outright discarded, while Lovecraft is remembered far more for his tentacle creation rather than his characters. Hajji Baba might very well not exist to the western audience, as nearly all discussion was born and died decades ago. But before any of these texts, I must define one of the formats and concepts that are the base for Haggard, Howard, Lovecraft and distantly Morier.

That is the term pulp.

4. Pulps

Literature tends to have some elitism as to what is and what isn’t art. Certain genres are just now starting to acquire legitimacy, comics being the most prevalent. But one genre tends to be forgotten, that being pulp literature. Pulps are so called because they are made from cheap wood pulp and intended for mass production. They are cheap and easy to make, but have short physical life, often degrading or falling apart over time. It’s rare to find complete intact pulp magazines as they were not intended for collection. As Earle explains:

The pulps are fiction for the masses, produced quickly and cheaply for fast distribution,

consumption, and disposal. Modern fiction, on the other hand, is painstakingly produced

for posterity. The idea of pulp as sensational counterpoint to artistic fiction is best

illustrated in the connotations of the word itself; in recent years, the moniker of “pulp”

has grown to mean trashy, popular forms and fiction—from the dime novel of the 1800s

through the sensational men’s magazines of the 1950s and 1960s to the lurid paperbacks

and the overtly violent films of the 1960s and ‘70s. (74)

But while these descriptors are somewhat true, there are stories and authors of merit within the pulps. H. Rider Haggard’s Ayesha, for example, while compiled into a novel, was originally published in a pulp magazine. And some of the great pop culture figures came from the pulps.

The status of Pulp magazines as the common persons literature meant that its appeal was far more widespread and all-consuming compared to more high literature. It also borrowed heavily and was influenced by much of the same elements that defined modernism. Pulps were influenced by World War I as much as modernism was, and has often copied elements from traditional modernist narratives, such as Heart of Darkness, using the framework of a trip into

Africa for several characters such as Solomon Kane and She. Ironically enough, World War II

8 would spell the doom of pulps as paper shortages would kill most of the publishers; they eventually faded away in place of digest magazines.

The first pulp magazine was The Argosy, founded by Frank Munsey. The Argosy and its followers would follow westerns, romance, detective and whatever they could turn a profit from.

They eventually began to break off from each other, different magazines focusing on different genres while providing a pulp aesthetic, which tended to be rawer and blunter compared to more verbose novels. These differences would lead to very simple titles that summarized everything you needed to know: Detective Story Magazine, Football Action, Adventure all told the reader what was within with little preamble, often coupled with a cover that inevitably involved scantily clad women at least once.

The problem with studying pulps is that many stories have been lost. As mentioned prior, the “actual magazines are elusive, […] either thrown out long ago or have disintegrated. Only a fraction survived in comparison to the number of pulps produced,” (Earle, 77); most of the stories saved were the most popular or infamous. Stories form the most popular publications such as Weird Tales Magazine and Black Mask magazine have been archived, but even then its mostly the most popular authors that are saved. We don’t even know how many pulps were even produced as sales number for each publication has been lost. With dozens of publishers with dozens of titles, the deluge of stories is a daunting task to archive. There is also the question of whether or not these stories deserved to be archived. While H.P. Lovecraft’s stories are worth preserving due to the quality of the writing and imagery, the fifteen copycats releasing 30 subpar stories after might not. Considering the reality of certain stories truly being lost, the history of pulps will always have gaps.

Pulps as mentioned previously, are often compared to modernism as the two movements overlap. So entrenched are they with one another, it is not uncommon for modern writers to connect the two as inseparable. Paula Rabinowitz explains that

The book, even in its shoddy pulp form, would seem to be a stable relic of past

technologies. Yet paperbacks, like tabloids, were rarely collected by libraries or archives;

they are almost as immaterial as digital bits. […] In effect, the story of American pulp is

the story of American modernism. Pulping is the process by which Americans became

modern (27)

Pulps “follow-the-leader” approach meant that they were always catching up and reacting to the world around them. But in doing so they became “transmedia” (Rabinowitz, 41) as they connected their readers to all the new discoveries and movements occurring around them. Stories would often have characters acting far more “vulgar” compared to other literary protagonists, as the freedom of being “trash” meant the boundaries were far more unclear. Stories were far more gory and sexual, with nudity and violence often written in visceral detail. These were like junk food, providing stories the public wanted but not openly read. These were private stories that held universal appeal no matter the social class. It also meant that stories could make bold character decisions, such as Robert E. Howard’s stories introducing powerful and competent characters of nonwhite ancestry. Female characters, while often sexualized, had more agency and independence than what was common at the time.

Naturally, critics considered these texts morally degenerate. According to David Earle,

“It was common for the pulps to be used as a symbol of cultural degeneration during the first half of the twentieth century,” (73) not helped by many magazines provocative titles and covers.

Saucy Stories billed itself as a magazine of modern morals, resulting in bizarrely contrasting

10 covers in which scandalous drawing of young women would be contrasted with ads for scholarships and education. This attempt to legitimize pulps as educationally did not take, and many senators and congressmen would point to them as the source of moral degeneration among the youth.

These stories would often show characters able to escape their class or social strata, and became popular among the lower class, as it promised escape from their social class. David Earle gives us an example in literature:

In Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1938), the boy protagonist twice locks himself in the

bathroom and covertly reads copies of Scarlet Crime or Horror Crimes. Both instances

accompany attempts to escape shame, not only the shame of his own guilt or dishonesty,

or the shame of his disintegrating home life, but shame for his cruelty to his mother who

is the scapegoat for his feelings of racial otherness, inadequacy, and poverty. (84)

In that regard, pulps had value as escapist literature, much like the early radio dramas and television shows.

Alongside the moral issue was the often offensive use of Orientalism within many stories.

Pulps would popularize the Fu Manchu style of stories, with widely inaccurate portrayals of distant land and cultures, banking on the average reader neither knowing nor caring about the accuracy of these stories. The heroes tended to be white, with antagonists having darker skin depending on when the story was set. Some authors, like Lovecraft, would lean heavily into the ethnic Other, with dark skinned people often depicted as evil or lowbrow. The other was the enemy, with foreign women being degenerate temptresses, who are killed toward the end, unless they lead the hero to their doom. The heroine was usually virginal and either died at the end or

11 lived happily with the hero. This may seem familiar to old fairy tales, and this observation holds weight, as pulps were encouraged to be simple and quick, resulting in one-dimensional characters. Villains and heroes rarely repeat, unless the writer manages to create a character with widespread appeal. Characters like The Shadow, Doc Savage, and Conan the Barbarian would recur in multiple stories, often surviving into other Medias such as film or comics. Other authors would instead build universes were stories would occur, with reacquiring themes and ideas. The most famous of these was Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, which became so open and widespread that many authors would create stories of their own within the same universe.

While pulps were often looked down upon, they themselves would take potshots at the elites and the highbrow, despite the fact that many of these authors would “graduate” to more proper and respectable publications. Earle sums up the idea of pulps through pulp writer Will

McMorrow: “Wood-pulp magazines are not bought for ornamental purposes. They are read”

(87). That function to entertain and be enjoyed results in text that has longstanding appeal and enjoyment beyond the era. While they can be hampered by racial or societal issues, they have a universal appeal harkening back to the old fairy tales. One of these pulp magazines of note was

Weird Tales Magazine, famous for the creation of several famous characters, and several authors of note. The most famous of which is H.P. Lovecraft.

5. Lovecraft

Lovecraft is the most well-known pulp writer, although most are not aware of his pulp roots. Most of his infamy in the modern age lies in his racism and anti-Semitism which has consumed much of his life and work. Because of this, and his relationship with Robert E.

Howard, it is important to address Lovecraft’s own usage of the outside world in his literature before moving on to discuss Howard, Haggard and Morier. While many of his stories stay close

12 to American civilization, his cosmic horror narratives tended to tap into the Orient and other outside cultures. This was rarely done for anything other than aesthetic, as Lovecraft adored the

Middle East and its mysticism and stories (born from his love for 1001 and One Nights).

However, he rarely represented these cultures accurately, preferring to use them as window dressing. Other cultures and races were used as the Other, something to fear and, in some cases, loathe.

Lovecraft is an important figure in pop culture, his creations being mass marketed and

Cthulhu being its own genre of entertainment, with board games, video games and books. But for all the presence of his creations, Lovecraft himself has come under fire for his racist viewpoints and religious intolerance. Often portraying any character not white and Protestant as either monstrous or corrupt, Lovecraft’s stories are marked with this alienation and disgust (Eil). It has been argued that much of his racist viewpoints are due to an abusive childhood with an equally xenophobic mother, but it has been pushed back with the notion that he was a grown man when he wrote, and the blame lies with him. (Roland, v) Yet, without his viewpoints and mindset, his stories lose much of their horror, and there are times when his stories seem to be self-reflection on his part, good or ill.

Lovecraft has one character that was one he was fond of, meriting an entire fictional biography in the Necronomicon. This character is Abdul Alhazred ,the mad monk. This character was a poet born in Yemen and acquired the secrets of the ancients. This culminated in his writing of the Necronomicon, a text that is portrayed in many of his stories as the source of much evil and strife. The characters fictional nature allowed Lovecraft to explore myths and ideas he fancied, such as the famous fantastical city of Irem, which Abdul claims to have seen. The

Necronomicon itself has its own elaborate fictional history, with translations and passages being

13 passed around the world. The book itself is noted to be “rigidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries, and by all branches of organized ecclesiasticism” (History of the Necronomicon).

This fascination with the forbidden and unknown is emblematic of Lovecraft’s writing. Every story is a dive into the unknown and forsaken. And tying into this idea of the unknown was the idea of the civilized world and the barbaric one. The portrayal of the mad monk as a hidden figure, always referred to but never encountered directly, could be seen as a reference to

Lovecraft’s position in regards to his own narrative. He is a background figure, not just in a narrative sense, but a metatextual sense. Abdul looms over the mythos as a mystery, while

Lovecraft looms over any and all discussions of his stories.

Lovecraft’s dearest friend was Robert E. Howard who was the subject of 6 years’ worth of letters, and much is made of their disagreements and philosophies. Lovecraft adored stories based within the nebulous “civilization”. Whenever the barbaric is presented it is as an intruding force that corrupts and destroys everything it touches. It is no coincidence that the Necronomicon was written by an Arab, and said book was bound in human skin and bone. The most barbaric acts are committed by the other, by the outsider. Lovecraft frequently studied lost civilizations, both real and fantastical. One of his novels, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, deals with the pursuit of a city of dreams, and the idea that one’s childhood is unreachable as an adult. It’s a tragic and bittersweet story that avoids much of his racist undertones. If his stories were not about fear, they were about cities. The more civilized the more capable. Many of his protagonists are detectives, scientists or writers. No Barbarians or heroes here, as those characters have long since been eroded by civilization. This obsession with civilization also served to create a divide between races.

The farther one strays from the civilized world, or more specifically from American society, the more we fall into depraved locations and mindsets. The unknown was a monstrous place where humans became subhuman and to allow such elements close to one was inherently corrupting. This serves as an intellectual racism, the idea that men who are not educated or literate are lesser and inhuman in the face of the civilized citizen. Lovecraft’s disdain for backwater towns and people is reflected in stories such as Call of Cthulhu, which has several cult rituals being performed servants and slave labor, as “the prisoners all proved to be men of a very low, mixed-blooded, and mentally aberrant type. Most were seamen, and a sprinkling of negroes and mulattoes, largely West Indians or Brava Port,” (12) also managing to include a dislike for the mentally impaired. To simply leave behind the comfort of home is to enter a world of strangeness and rituals, of sacrifice and blood.

Lovecraft would often refer to Roman history in his letters to Howard and looked unfavorably on the Middle Ages. Howard for his part was often polite and thoughtful, although he refused to budge on his fondness of the barbaric man:

"I am unable to rouse much interest in any highly civilized race, country or epoch,

including this one. When a race – almost any race – is emerging from barbarism, or not

yet emerged, they hold my interest. I can seem to understand them, and to write

intelligently of them. But as they progress toward civilization, my grip on them begins to

weaken, until at last it vanishes entirely, and I find their ways and thoughts and ambitions

perfectly alien and baffling." (Letters, 338)

This correspondence would actually serve to broaden Lovecraft’s ideas and viewpoints, which indicated a potential change of heart, although he dies before it heavily, impacted his stories.

That is not to downplay his viewpoints or statements which to the modern reader can be hard to reckon with.

Lovecraft is important in pulp discussion because he is emblematic of the issues pulp stories have with connecting with future readers. His isolationist tendencies and fear of the other meant his stories were often rooted in his worldview. It is impossible to read his stories without coming across his uncomfortable ideas on race and eugenics at one point or another. This is rather ironic as Lovecraft actually traveled heavily and produced travelogues; something that one would assume would result in an open minded person. However his focus seems to be in literature and history, resulting in him traveling to historical locations rather than immerse himself in a locations social culture:

The 1929 travelogue describes Lovecraft's visits to Richmond and Fredericksburg,

Virginia and to Dutch areas of New York in some detail, containing mini-histories of the

areas and lengthy architectural descriptions. It also describes an interesting visit to

Colonial Williamsburg, "one of the most impressive evocations of the Colonial past that

America can display" (Miscellaneous Writings 335). Even in these early travelogues,

Lovecraft's interest in vernacular and regional traditions (rather than "high style"

architecture) is evident. (Evans, 2004)

He became fascinated by architecture and its connection to a regions traditions and forms, and its reflected in his stories, in which locations such as Arkham Asylum and Miskatonic Museum became characters of their own, in which the foremost scholars and scientist researched the horrors of the outside world. This blend or tradition, architecture, culture and fear are the basis for most of his most famous stories. These locations would house the unnatural as subjects of

16 study, where civilized men would ruminate on the other, in a place of safety. It is a strange paradox; a man with deep racist viewpoints and beliefs, who never the less obsessed over other cultures and traditions. Even his characters are driven with a neurotic need to learn of the other, whether it be a race, nation or god.

Rats in the Walls is based entirely on a location and the history and horror behind it. A man named Delapore attempts to restore a ancestral home but is slowly driven mad seemingly by supernatural forces and his families bloody history. What’s unusual here is that despite the stories blatant racist overtones (the household cat is name “Nigger-man” for example), there is the idea of reckoning with one’s own past. The main character is haunted by his ancestors monstrous acts, even when is not aware of them, and each discovery into his family’s history reveals more and more depravity. The story plays with the Lovecraft formula, as it is the rich and civilized family that is inflicting the barbaric acts on their subjects, and Delapore must reckon with their crimes. And the horror is born from the historic travesties the family committed, treating human slaves like cattle to consume. We are given graphic visuals of the caves and bones of his family’s victims, and this cannibalistic terror is turned to horror when the main character is eventually driven to consume a friend of his in his madness. The houses history and architecture gives it an ancient feel, further removing the story from the civilized world:

Exham Priory had remained untenanted, though later allotted to the estates of the Norrys

family and much studied because of its peculiarly composite architecture; an architecture

involving Gothic towers resting on a Saxon or Romanesque substructure, whose

foundation in turn was of a still earlier order or blend of orders—Roman, and even

Druidic or native Cymric, if legends speak truly. This foundation was a very singular

thing, being merged on one side with the solid limestone of the precipice from whose

brink the priory overlooked a desolate valley three miles west of the village of Anchester.

Architects and antiquarians loved to examine this strange relic of forgotten centuries, but

the country folk hated it. They had hated it hundreds of years before, when my ancestors

lived there, and they hated it now, with the moss and mould of abandonment on it. (Rats,

The land is alive in Lovecraft’s stories, and he gives energy and fear that radiates off these walls.

The fact that it is the house that drives him to madness hammers home the power of a location on the human soul. The fact that house is removed from “civilized people,” and is surrounded by the uneducated masses highlights an intellectual racism, the aforementioned fear of the uneducated man. And yet, despite this, the story has Delapore forced to reckon with his families viewpoints and elitism. It is made clear the victims were slave labor, and it is strangely self-reflecting of

Lovecraft to have these crimes perpetrated from the supposed civilized ancestors. Ultimately

Delapore cannot reckon with his ancestors crimes and is destroyed mentally, reduced to being a cannibal himself. This tragic and aware ending does seem to encapsulate much of Lovecraft’s duality, a love to learn from the other coupled with a loathing of the other.

However, while his stories are classified as horror, they did cross over into the realm of terror and the experience of the sublime (Dziemianowicz, 2002). Colour out of Space is a story of light that infects a well in a farm and slowly corrupts the land and family that lives on it. The family is eventually destroyed, and the light escapes back into space. But the horror of the families’ death is juxtaposed by the extraordinary light and their journey home. The terror of an unknowable light is sublime and powerful, overwhelming the scientists who arrived to examine it. In that moment, humanity is overtaken and paralyzed by the unknown and left with no answers:

Not a man breathed for several seconds. […] For the terror had not faded with the

silhouette, and in a fearsome instant of deeper darkness the watchers saw wriggling at

that treetop height a thousand tiny points of faint and unhallowed radiance, tipping each

bough like the fire of St. Elmo or the flames that came down on the apostles’ heads at

Pentecost. It was a monstrous constellation of unnatural light, […] and its colour was that

same nameless intrusion which Ammi had come to recognise and dread. All the while the

shaft of phosphorescence from the well was getting brighter and brighter, bringing to the

minds of the huddled men a sense of doom and abnormality which far outraced any

image their conscious minds could form. It was no longer shining out, it was pouring out;

and as the shapeless stream of unplaceable colour left the well it seemed to flow directly

into the sky. (Colour, 15)

The imagery is powerful, despite never defining the light or giving it a color. And yet the story still manages to include the civilized world vs the “backwater” as the victims of the color are all farmers and field workers, while the ones who see the color in the quote above are scientists and researchers. The civilized men survive and are amazed by the beauty they witness, and completely forget about the monstrous actions of the color.

Lovecraft’s importance in the discussion of pulps and its stories is a necessary one. He is too involved in its history to pass over without comment. His continued pop culture relevance long after most pulps have faded away, both figuratively and literally, and has been mined for monetary gain ever since. His stories are by far the most overused and exploited media in the pulp genre, despite his problematic history. These products all tend to distance themselves from the man, often halfheartedly writing a passage or two excising him from their product. But this

19 passive avoidance is insulting towards both Lovecraft and his critics as it dismisses their ideas as slight concerns that can be leaped over. One cannot leave Lovecraft behind precisely because the alienation and fear in his stories is rooted in Lovecraft himself.

While Lovecraft is the most discussed pulp writer, his friends and colleagues have slowly started appearing more in public discussion and media, with authors Clark Asthon Smith and

Robert E. Howard entering pop culture through film television. And even when not directly referenced, their influence can be felt through pop culture, and their widespread appeal means that the pulps are still there in one way or another. This could be seen as a good thing, as his fellow authors, while often mired in racist undertones and ideas have a less overtly offensive writing style and their stories can be separated an appreciated without them, something a

Lovecraft story cannot do. For it is that fear and hate that encapsulates and elevates his stories to the strata of horror modern audiences have deemed it to be, and we cannot separate Lovecraft without denying the stories core completely

Chapter II: James Morier and Hajji Baba: A Case of Pulp Bigotry

One of the biggest mysteries in Hajji Baba has nothing to do with the story itself but with its author, James Morier. All information about him is given to us by introduction written by other authors, and complaints from the people he portrayed in his novels. Other than his introduction in the Hajji Baba sequel, we rarely get any information about the man. What we do know is that Morier (1782-1849) was a Persian diplomat for six years at a time where Europe’s relationship with Persia and the Middle East was rather shaky (Garza, 15) in part due to

England’s constant interference in the Middle East. His experience in the Persian court led to his development and creation of the character of Hajji Baba, who embodies the worst and best parts of the Persian people. This chapter will examine how Morier uses Hajji Baba as a blunt instrument to exploit the stereotypes of a country that had no hope of stopping him.

The story is about a barber’s son, named Hajji Baba, who is kidnapped by raiders, and embarks on a long series of misadventures. Said misadventures culminate in Hajji Baba being civilized by England and becoming an ambassador for his people. Hajji Baba is presented as mischievous and manipulative, often being the source of his misfortune, but being clever enough to escape his own troubles. He jumps from positions of power and authority rapidly, to the point of exhaustion from the reader, going from poor too rich to poor again in a short amount of time.

Oftentimes it feels as if he only survives through the author’s will, with the universe throwing tragedy and danger nonstop, and somehow he survives. The story is largely satirical, presenting

Iranians as cowards, cheats, fools and thieves. Interestingly enough, Morier had previously written travel accounts of his trips to Persia several years prior, but in those stories, it was entirely from the perspective of a foreigner. He used Hajji Baba to present an “authentic” Persian man, who falls into depravity and sin, before being educated by the heroic and noble English

Ambassador. The stories episodic style has its roots in The Thousand and One Nights, which had been translated into English, incorrectly titled as Arabian Nights, only a few years prior. He copies the quick and blunt style of Nights, but focuses solely on one character, while excising the

Scheherazade framing device. It serves as a text that reaffirmed Europe’s superiority over the

Persians, a security blanket for fears of foreign cultures being culturally superior.

While the text has issues with its biases and stereotypes, there are benefits to the story. It serves as an informative source of the Qajar period of Iran, due to its use of Persian expressions and proverbs, which are accurately used by Morier, and the sense of unity and life it gives us of the Persian people. Society seems to be in a state of flux, with large caravans covering the roads between cities, caught in between civil wars and religious establishments exploiting there authority. There is a grudging respect for Iranian society as a whole, an enduring nature that extends to its people. However, despite the little positives that can be bled from the story, it does not excuse the rampant stereotyping and racial and sexual language in the text. What little respect Morier includes is still used as an Oriental stage show to entertain the English people.

Public perception of the text was high, with the novel being extremely popular with both the general public and critics (Watt, 195). The rest of the public adored the text, and there are several reviews that have survived and paint a picture of an admiring public and academics. The general consensus was that Hajjibaba was an accurate and hilarious masterpiece. One review

22 from 1914, written by Stanley Edward is complimentary, stating that “There is no question

‘Hajjibaba’ is a true picture of Persian life and government, as Morier knew it, in the early years of the 19th century, when Persians and Turks had the vaguest possible ideas of European nations,” (256) something shared with most of the contemporary reviews. There was the occasional negative response, Blackwood Magazine provides a scathing review of the text, noting a connection to the novel Gil Blas and referring to the connection as a blot that “never considers that a character perfectly fitted for a hero in one country, may not […] fill the same role in another” (3).

The response in Persia was bizarrely positive as it was translated by a poet into Farsi; this translation is considered superior to the original, although by translating it as a full novel, the serialized nature of the story is lost somewhat. Once could argue the translation fundamentally changes how the story was originally portrayed, although the homogenized nature of the stories structure means it does not impede the stories ideas. The translation “transformed

Morier’s stereotyping tale into a self-aware, self-referential criticism of life in Qajar Persia,” a criticism so silly and absurd, that it’s impossible to offend the descendants of said people, as

Mojtaba Minovi commented on the response (Garza, 13). The translation turned the book from an example of British supremacy into a cautionary tale which arguably served as genuine social criticism, which kept the novel in Iranian minds far more than it ever did with the British.

However it could also be argued that the reason for its popularity is because it is a British novel, and by being a British novel, it indicates that Europe was paying attention to Iran. This may be a cynical analysis, but considering the British Empire’s status as a world power, being recognized and written about by said power would be a huge boon to global awareness. This would indicate why it was translated in spite of how racially insensitive and problematic the novel is.

Morier was not very creative from the very start, as the character’s nickname is simply baba, which is Farsi for father, an odd one for a young man. It’s hard to say why, although it could be foreshadowing his maturity later in the story, or it could be that Morier misunderstood the minor details of Farsi. The character is the son of a barber, but, in turn, becomes a merchant’s slave, a thief, assistant to a royal physician, executioner, a mullah apprentice, a marriage officiate

(in part because of being a mullah’s apprentice), a merchant, and finally, the secretary to a

Persian diplomat. His journeys take him from Isphahan to Tehran and even abroad.

Unfortunately, the cities are not characters in the narrative and never seem to have much detail other than they exist. It is very easy to lose track of where he actually is, unless one looks at the title of each section which tells you where he is, as if Morier needed help keeping track himself.

Hajjibaba is quite frustrating at times, never seeming to grow or progress as a person, often making the same mistakes he made at the beginning at the story. He is, for the most part, a static character who morality and mind is set at the outset. If you dislike him at the beginning of the story, chances are the following 79 chapters are not going to improve the reader’s opinion. In fact, it has been argued that the lack of progression means that much of the story can be read out of sequence, as Hajjibaba in chapter 70 is the same Hajjibaba in chapter 2. This is extremely jarring especially when he gets married, as it adds nothing to his life other than a wife he ultimately leaves. This can be seen by the following passage:

his ultimate failure each time is meant to highlight the impasse that Persian culture and

society had reached, plagued by vicious circles and vacillations that the author views as

inherent to Oriental societies.” Despite the swings in fortune, Hajji Baba remains an

unchanging personality, revealing the lack of character development in the novel.

(Encyclopedia Iranica)

Because the narrative is based on The Thousand and One Nights, Morier has several secondary characters, presumably to break up the monotony. Said characters storylines crisscross with

Hajjibaba, and are used to present other stereotypes and issues in the Persian culture. These include the storyteller Dervish; one of Hajji Baba loves Zeenab (Kurdish), Armenian couple

Yusuf and Mariam and the Persian ambassador Mirza Firouz. He also works under several viziers and dignitaries, playing the part of the obedient servant each time. Each character is a different stereotype, based on different regions and cultures in the Persian peninsula. There are other characters, such as the Chief physician, Chief Executioner, and most important of all the shah of Iran. This character and his court are based mostly in Morier direct observations of the

Persian elite.

The beginning of the novel, or more specifically its guest introduction, set the narrative stage and the consensus of the critics at the time. One famous introduction by Sir Walter Scott in

1828 bears mention. Walter Scott practically salivates over Morier, claiming that the text is an essential read to understand the Persian people. Hajji Baba he notes, “Is not an orientalist merely, but one of peculiar class and character- a Persian, and differing as much from a Turk as a

Frenchman from a German,” (158) seemingly portraying Persia as a more civilized nation.

However, he quickly backtracks on this explaining that Hajji Baba position as an executioner turns him into a “man of great consequence in a state where various gradations of violence […] from the pervading principle of motion,” (158) the implication being that more civilized that the rest of the Middle East does not mean they are not barbarians in the end. He continues to make light of Persian literature and contends that Morier work may lead to the illumination of the

Persian people, and civilize them to be more like them (160).

From the Epistle at the introduction of the novel, which is presented as a letter written by

Hajji Baba himself to a certain Chaplain of the Swedish Ambassador, we can see Morier attempting to legitimize the story: “He states that He states that he considers the Arabian Nights’

Entertainment as the best “delineation of the Asiatic manner,” because it is the “work of their own community” (Morier, 2). Morier was motivated by Alain Rene’s Histoire de Gil Blas de

Santillane, which he considered an excellent picture of European life, (Blackwood, 3) which can be seen in the titling of Morier novel: Hajji Baba of Isphahan. The formatting of Gil Blas meant the character rarely changed as a person, but his strong moral character helped keeping him in the reader’s minds. Hajji Baba static nature with an unpleasant character means that the book can be frustrating to read if you don’t connect with his moral ambiguity (Blackwood, 5).

The Epistle is supposedly of the real Mirza Hajji Baba, a Persian envoy Morier met in

Tukat while on his way back from Persia; this Epistle is like a veil, hiding Morier behind an

“authentic” Persian man. Morier embellishes greatly, heroically nursing Hajjibaba from illness, who in gratitude offers his life in the form of a manuscript, which is then translated by Morier.

Morier makes his opinion of them very clear however, insisting that “the Mohamedans will continue to hold fast to his bigoted persuasion, until some powerful interposition of Providence shall dispel the moral and intellectual darkness which at present overhangs so large a portion of the Asiatic world” (Hajji Baba, Introduction). This dismissal of the Persian people as decadent and in need of western salvation helps makes the novel more palatable for his European readers, which most likely did not want to read about the cultural and religious progression of the Persian people.

This less than complementary characterization has often been remarked to be a reference to real life Persian envoy Haji Mirza Abu’l-Hassan Sirazi, also known as Ilci. Ilci was extremely popular during his visits to London, largely in part to his flamboyant personality. He visited from

1809-10 and 1816-19, keeping a diary of his journey, taking note of English culture, society, oddities and his own efforts in diplomacy. He also was part of high society, in part of charming and eccentric personality. His heavily accented and broken English made him even more of a novelty to English citizens.

This is eerily similar to the Hajji Baba character at the end of the novel, and it adds some truth to Morier claim of being a translator, but instead of portraying Ilči’s life accurately, he perverts and distorts his life into Hajji Baba, a man who serves as a caricature of Ilči. This combined with the Persian government refusing him the post of British envoy to their court, ironically because of his second journal, whose comments were interpreted as hostile. Because of this the illustrations in Hajjibaba now come under suspicion. Are they mere drawings, or insulting depictions of real Persian officials? Ilči himself does appear in the novel as Mirza

Firouz, the Persian ambassador. However, Hajji Baba’s life and character present the real Ilči, something the man himself noticed. It has been archived that:

On a number of occasions he angrily complained of Morier’s ingratitude and accused him

of dishonesty, ill will, and false characterization (e.g., Fraser, p. 3). In response Morier

only adds insult to injury by including, in the introduction of Hajji Baba of Isphahan in

England, a letter in broken English which was supposedly written by the Persian envoy to

complain of Morier’s abuse of himself and his countrymen in the book: “You call me

Mirza Firouz, I know very well, and say I talk great deal nonsense. When I talk

nonsense? Oh, you think yourself very clever man; but this Hajji Baba very foolish

business” (Morier, 1942, 22). (Encyclopedia Iranica)

As mentioned previously, Hajji Baba is a massive text, to its detriment. It can be an overwhelming read, and Hajji Baba’s commentary can be somewhat frustrating. Early on he is captured by bandits, but luckily due to his skills as a barber, is soon essential to the group:

“Every fellow who had a head to scratch immediately found out that he wanted shaving, and my reputation soon reached the ears of the chief, who called me to him, and ordered me to operate upon him without loss of time.” (Hajji Baba, 27) This bragging is nonstop throughout the novel often mixed with Hajji Baba proclaiming his humility and kindness. The character does have moments of dry wit and sarcasm, as upon his work with the chief. The chief decides to keep

Hajji Baba as his personal barber, to whom Baba states that “I leave the gentle reader to guess what were my feelings upon this occasion,” and endeavors to escape. Unfortunately, these moments mean trudging through repetitive exaltations and planning. What could be one sentence explaining his situation, becomes paragraphs explaining how he is now in a position to plan. This is a Morier style than anything approaching pulps, which focus on quick and blunt writing style.

And yet the vocabulary is “pulpish” in how basic it tends to be at times. Morier has no restraint or ability to present an idea without a background story for said thought. This becomes incredibly distracting in the sections involving side characters, as aside from a brief acknowledgment of these characters being secondary, the narrative cuts to a halt to facilitate less interesting and developed characters. This also highlights the issues Morier has with the Iranian people, as none of the characters have any regional or cultural difference, despite the fact that

Iran has different regions and territories. There is no subtlety between Hajjibaba and anyone else, no real distinction in habit or personality. The only real difference between characters is gender,

28 as the women are treated far worse by the men in the story, and the stereotypes each character represents.

The stereotypes are explored with the poet Asker Khan. A friend of Hajji Baba, the poet was captured by Turks before being ransomed to Asterabad, whereupon he sent letters to his family to order his affairs. With these letters Morier manages to insert several stereotypes at once, as in the letter to the steward, Asker Khan asks him to praise the vizier of the city, keep an eye on his women and slaves, making sure to accompany them when Asker wife goes outside.

He further notes “He hoped that no intriguing old women, particularly Jewesses, had been admitted into his harem,” (Hajji Baba, Chapter 78) and orders that if one particular black slave was seen in the company of female slaves, he should be whipped. In one paragraph Asker reveals his bigotry to women, black slaves, and Jews. We are only privy to this information because

Hajji manages to convince the courier to let him read the letter, with the courier curious if he would get a reward for the delivery, greed being a common characteristic of every character in the narrative, another stereotype based on the servant class. The harems in the story are rather odd, as Hajji he never has one, seemingly to add a layer of morality to the character. He is more moral than others, and is closer to a European mindset than the outside Middle East. One character who does have a harem is the doctor Mirza Ahmak, who becomes Hajji Baba’s employer due to a recommendation from Asker. It is in that harem that Hajji meets Zeenab, a

Kurdish slave, who is arguably his great love. Her explanation of her life in the harem as essentially a civil war between slaves is bizarre, with jealousy and sexual frustration running rampant (Hajji Baba, 115):

Much intrigue and espionage is carried on in the harem; and when the lady herself goes

to the bath or the mosque, as many precautions are taken about the distribution of the

female slaves, with respect to time, place, and opportunity, as there would be in the

arrangement of a wedding.

This politics of politeness and appearance is not uncommon in Persian culture, as Farsi is infamous as the language of double meanings, its subtleties often leading to misunderstandings and miscommunications between people who are unfamiliar with the language. The intrigue with the harem is reflective of the courts later on in the story, with the same petty manipulations, although with male authority. That being said this juxtaposition of the harem as an awful place is not only problematic towards women, as all the women in the story are portrayed similarity, but it also serves as a jab toward the Iranian culture for having such a lifestyle in it while still invoking the imagery for titillation. Morier uses the harem both as an exotic fantasy but also as a mocking caricature.

Occasionally there are moments of genuine comedy, notably in chapter 40. Hajji Baba is part of an expedition that ends poorly, with many of the men dying horribly under a poor general’s leadership. Naturally Hajji Baba survives, and returns to the safety of his chief. Upon reporting back to his chief in said expedition, Hajji is told to report to the Vizier in Tehran a rather embellished story in which the chief is a heroic general, wounded on the battle field, and to be as vague as possible with the result: “'You yourself were there, Hajji,' said he to me, 'and therefore can describe the whole action as well as I could. We cannot precisely say that we gained a victory, because, alas! we have no heads to show; but we also were not defeated,” (Hajji

Baba, 233) which also manages to blame everyone but the chief for their failure. This portrayal

30 of the chief as a self-excusing imbecile who carelessly tosses the lives of his subordinates away is bordering on self-reflective parody in regards to the British people, but the novel rarely engages in such subtlety. The entire chapter reads like a modern British comedy routine, with

Hajji Baba playing the part of the weary warrior upon reporting to the Vizier, resulting in the following exchange:

'How many strong were the enemy?' inquired the mirza, looking towards me.

'Bisyar, bisyar, many, many,' answered I, hesitating and embarrassed how many it would

be agreeable that I should say.

'Put down fifty thousand,' said the vizier coolly.

'How many killed?' said the mirza, looking first at the vizier, then at me.

'Write ten to fifteen thousand killed,' answered the minister: (Hajji Baba, 234-235)

Even the highest authorities are presented as lying and oblivious individuals, who pump up their victories to appear relevant. The characters are all power hungry and ambitious, and all seek to pass the buck off to someone else. They twist their defeats into triumphs and exaggerate their minor accomplishments. This result in very few sympathetic or even likable characters, with

Hajjibaba the most unlikable of all. This battle in chapter 40 is exaggerated so much that they claim they have so many prisoners that “the price of slaves has diminished 100 per cent in all the slave-markets of Asia.'” The vizier proceeds to give what might be the thesis of both the novel and Morier entire writing style:

'Barikallah! Well done,' said the grand vizier. 'You have written well. If the thing be not

exactly so, yet, by the good luck of the Shah, it will, and therefore it amounts to the same

thing. Truth is an excellent thing when it suits one's purpose, but very inconvenient when

otherwise.' (Hajji Baba, 236)

At times it reads as if Morier is speaking to the ambassadors of Iran that he was in correspondence with, potentially making fun at what he saw as arrogance of the Iranian culture.

Despite this, Morier does portray parts of the culture accurately. The use of Bisyar is accurate, followed by its English translation. Every time a word in Farsi is used, the translation followed immediately behind, resulting in very odd readings for someone who knows both languages, as it reads as if the characters stutter nonstop.

Examples of brutality toward women of color are also abound with one section later one being fairly graphic for the almost innocent portrayal, and for once the verbose wordplay actually serves the narrative, as a women is accosted by two men and in her attempt to defend herself plummets from the terrace to her death. The woman is revealed to be Zeenab, and despite how little she goes character wise from being a slave, it is with her death we are given something that is genuinely well-written and disturbing (Hajji Baba, 242). Her shrieks were described as

“so wild, so varied by the blasts of wind that blew round the building, that they appeared to me like the sounds of laughing madness,” (Hajji Baba, 242) and her body convulsed and writhed on the floor till her death. But what makes said death so disturbing is not the death itself, but the callous and detached nature of her attackers. The two men simply grab her corpse and take it to a burial ground and bury her there. It is so passive and sudden; the value of a slave’s life is laid bare for the reader. No matter how beautiful or useful they may be, slaves are easily discarded.

Despite his grief at her death, Hajji Baba quickly recovers and woos an Emirs wife 5 chapters later; Zaneed might not even exist anymore. The disposable nature of women in the story, especially considering their ethnicity, paints a rather dim view of Middle Eastern women as novelties that are there for the arousal of male characters. It is rather telling that the most cynical and well-spoken female in the text is unceremoniously killed and discarded, with only a few sad monologues from Hajji to console the reader.

When it comes to the portrayal of the Iranian faith, Morier is bordering on restrained, all things considered. It never feels too degenerate, except for one particularly complicated scheme of a Mollah and the laws regarding marriage. The Mollah boasts of how he has no wives and as such is even more perfect than Mohammed, something that would be unthinkable even today

(Hajji Baba, 315). The characters scheme with marriage and encourage quick marriages between men and women while collecting fees for encouraging said marriages. They are portrayed as degenerates who exploit faith for profit. Hajji Baba is even offered a job facilitating these marriages, all under the claim that “in time you may become a mollah yourself, and show the road to all true believers in the practices of their duty.” (Hajji Baba, 317) Hajji Baba himself is shocked that even men of faith are driven by a lust for money but shrugs it off because moral doubt would simply cost him a job. He never allows his morals to impede on his progress, almost counter to any heroic narrative. This dim view of both Mohammed and Muslim faith seems there in order to make sure there is not a single moral character in the entire story. Any character with strong moral character is either English or dead. The portrayal of their faith feels especially noteworthy, as in discussion the Middle Eastern people are often used interchangeably with the

Muslim faith and vice versa. Their faith is another facet of the horror of the Iranian people, and cannot lead to any true spiritual relief.

When Hajji Baba finally gets to England, Morier cannot help but portray them as racist toward Europeans, with the scribes and assistants referring to them as infidels, who will burn in hell. This is especially insulting, as Morier was friends with several Iranian diplomats, who historically acclimated quite well to English society, even if they were often regarded as a curiosity. Mispronunciation and misunderstandings abound, as Hajji refers to France as

Frangistan (Hajji Baba, 421), and they are tasked to figure out the social order and structure of the French and the English. Their ignorance is played for comedy, of the lost foreigner bumbling through a more civilized nation. There is even a quick jab at America, only referred to as the

New World, with one of the scribes summing up thusly:

'We have not had many dealings with it,' said the Katib, 'and, therefore, know not much

of the matter; but this is true, that one can get there by ship, because ships belonging to

the New World have actually been seen here. They are all infidels, my friend,' exclaimed

he, with a sigh; 'all infidels, as much as those of the old world, and, by the blessing of

Allah, they will all grill in the same furnace.' (Hajji Baba, 421)

Surprisingly, Hajji is unsatisfied with the dismissive answer, and his curious mind is one of the reasons he is chosen to be an ambassador in the sequel. His desire to learn is connected to his civility and his potential to become a more civilized gentleman. The novel concludes with the

Shah assigning Mirza Firouz to England as his representative, and Hajji Baba allowed to go home to Isphahan. He returns as Mirza Hajji Baba, and eventually finds his way to England.

Hajji stays Hajji, and this characterization as opportunistic continues into his next story, where

Morier doubles down on the characters greed and moral ambiguity, by having Hajji exploit his standings in England for superficial gain.

Hajji Baba stands as a testament toma very specific perspective on Iranian people and culture. Morier portrays the Iranian people in a variety of ways; to say it is stereotypical and bigoted misses the other ways this text shows a populist perspective to Persian culture. While readers of the time saw it as satirical or humorous, it comes at the cost of reducing Iran to unlikable and hateful characters, portraying an entire region as monstrous and greedy individuals. Morier’s representation cannot be separate from its time, much like a H.P.

Lovecraft story cannot be removed from his worldview. Morier presents us a story of an author venting his frustrations with both his government and the Persian people for economic gain. It is petty at times, occasionally funny, but ultimately harmful even at the time it was written, precisely because it was so popular.

Hajji Baba’s popularity and cultural impact can be dangerous and its popularity, as mocking as it may be, is still blight on the representation of the Iranian people in outside fiction.

It’s nothing new what Morier does, but the bluntness with which he portrays the people he knows bears mention. Of the writers I studied, he is by far the most personal with his work, as no other author in this paper has such a personal stake in a novel that he intended to be impersonal, and this includes Lovecraft, which is alarming in of itself.

Chapter III: She and the Oriental Protofeminist

Much like James Morier before him, H. Rider Haggard had firsthand experience of the places he wrote about, specifically Africa. At 19 years old, Haggard went to South Africa to serve as a secretary to Sir Henry Bulwer, and would remain there until 1879 at 23 years old

(Encyclopedia Britannica). His experiences there would motivate him to write, although his first few novels were not very successful. His first taste of success would be King Solomon’s Mines, which would introduce the character of Alan Quartermain, who would become one of his recurring characters. This success would spur him on to create the novel She: A History of

Adventure, as well as its protagonist Ayesha.

Technically speaking She is not a pulp story because it is not printed on pulp paper, and yet its structure and style place it as a proto-pulp narrative. Published in 1887 in the magazine

The Graphic (Reid, 5), the serialized nature of the story meant that the She was written to maintain the audience’s attention through each section, something Haggard does through often explosive bursts or action and violence that serve to awaken the reader. The benefit to serialized stories, at least from a commercial point of view, is that reader must read all the issues containing the story to get the big picture. As such, She ended being a huge financial success.

Critically it also prospered as several figures endorsed and referred to the novel including

Sigmund Freud once recommended the novel, describing it as "A strange book ... full of hidden meaning ... [representing] the eternal feminine." (Young, 1).

She: A History of Adventure (abbreviated to merely She) tells the story of an expedition to find a lost tribe in the African jungle lead by a scholar named Holly and his ward named Leo.

In doing so, they encounter a matriarchical society where Leo is chosen to be a young native named Ustane’s husband. The group then is introduced to Ayesha, who is revealed to be an immortal genius, and sorceress. Leo is revealed to be the reincarnation of Ayesha’s great love, who died millennia ago. However, as her love for Leo grows, she also portrays more tyrannical and violent behavior. Ultimately, she is undone by her own hand. In attempting to prove the safety of the Flame of Life, it consumes her and ages her till she dies. Both Leo and Holly are left with nothing but questions and begin the long trek home.

The text has received criticism because some have argued that Ayesha is an antifeminist character, (Roy, 22) because the story presents a female run society as evil and malevolent.

However, I posit that while Haggard may have intended to create an antifeminist narrative, characters such as Ayesha and Ustane actually serve as protofeminist characters regardless of the intent. Furthermore, the text provides an interesting dive into the notion of racial and societal structures through the character of Holly. In this chapter, I will break down each of the most important characters and their relationship to their races as well as the tribes and cultures they encounter.

She is framed much like Hajji Baba before it, as an edited document the author acquired rather than wrote. This allows the author to distance himself from the narrative and add an air of credibility and authenticity to the text. It also shields the author from criticism by deflecting all

37 criticism to the “original” author. In the case of She, Haggard establishes the text to be a memoir written by Doctor Holly, who disappeared alongside his ward Leo. Unlike the framing of Hajji

Baba, which simply served as a way to protect Morier from criticism by passing the buck off to fictional character for his errors and stereotypes, Haggard uses the framing device to explore concepts that would not flow naturally in a traditional text. Both the fictional editor and Holly are scientists and historians who are fascinated by foreign nations and tribes. Scenes where Holly investigates ancient writings serve as a way for Haggard to flex his intellectual muscles and classical training. Several paragraphs are written in Greek and Latin, oftentimes crippling the flow of the narrative as the reader is left unclear if Haggard ever plans on translating the material or if he plans on just abandoning the text. Haggard does not in fact translate these sections, on the assumption that the characters are learned men and do not need to voice a translation out loud. In some ways this is novel, as the characters are not artificially translating or asking stupid questions, but it does interfere with the actual enjoyment of the text. The reason I relate this story to pulp is because it’s serialized nature in The Graphic as well as its static protagonist. Because of its original publication, Haggard must create cliffhangers that engage the reader and keep them coming back for the next chapter. Furthermore, the nature of the text allows him to place unique interruptions and information without bogging the narrative even further as evidence by the following passage:

.It is possible that they, or any one of them, may have had colonies or trading stations

about here. Remember those buried Persian cities that the consul showed us at Kilwa.”[*]

[*] Near Kilwa, on the East Coast of Africa, about 400 miles south of Zanzibar, is a cliff

which has been recently washed by the waves. (Haggard, 28)

The ability to use footnotes within the narrative without having to compromise the story allows

Haggard to establish Holly as an intellectual without having to have monologues for the character to prove how smart he is. Katy Brundan even notes that “She duly begins with a translated document, priming the reader to anticipate the discovery of foreign land through the deciphering of foreign text,” (963) indicating that we are meant to be part of the team that follows Holly and Leo into the mysterious jungle. The story in this regard is occasionally confusing but narratively sound.

What makes it extremely difficult to read the text casually is the overabundance of racist imagery and dialogue. Characters, such as Horace Holly (who appears to be of Jewish descent) are descried in animalistic terms, while every white character is described in messianic tones, such as Ayesha and Leo. Ayesha’s entry alone is a powerful image as Holly describes her as

“that of a tall and lovely woman, instinct with beauty in every part, and also with a certain snake- like grace which I had never seen anything to equal before,” (Haggard, 64). Leo is introduced as an Adonis like figure, which remains ridiculous even now.

While the white characters are described as gods, people of color most certainly are not.

The stories structure once again benefits Haggard, as early in the story we are told the landmark that will lead them to the tribe in Africa:

On the coast of Africa, in a hitherto unexplored region, some distance to the north of

where the Zambesi falls into the sea, there is a headland, at the extremity of which a peak

towers up, shaped like the head of a Negro, similar to that of which the writing speaks.

(Haggard, 14)

This descriptor as being shaped like a “negro” is not a one off line, as upon landing at the actual island, the reader is treated to a guided tour of the peaks face. The monstrous imagery returns once again as the face is described in racist terms: “There was no doubt about it; there were the thick lips, the fat cheeks, and the squat nose standing out with startling clearness against the flaming background,” (Haggard, 26). However, Haggard takes an interesting approach in how he portrays the natives of the area. Based on the fact that we have “negro mountains” as landmarks, one would assume we would see a horrifically stereotypical tribal village. And in many respects, that is exactly what we get, but Haggard uses the framework of the tribe stereotype to create an intriguing dynamic: a kind of matriarchically society.

The tribe Ayesha rules over is called the Amahagger, with part of the name being derived from Haggard’s name, which is rather self-indulgent, and considering how often the tribal name is spoken, dull. The tribe is as mentioned previously, run by women, which at first seems to be a progressive concept. Haggard naturally attempts to frame this as a negative as the tribe is also cannibalistic. The tribe’s courtship rituals are observed with amusement by Holly who describes it thusly.

Women among the Amahagger are not only upon terms of perfect equality with the men,

but are not held to them by any binding ties. Descent is traced only through the line of the

mother, and while individuals are as proud of a long and superior female ancestry as we

are of our families in Europe, they never pay attention to, or even acknowledge, any man

as their father, even when their male parentage is perfectly well known. (Haggard, 37)

The village actually reveals much of Holly’s personality as a misogynist, partially because he treats the society he is observing as nothing more than amusements to tease his friends with. His

40 description of the village’s manual labor is biting, as the men do all the fieldwork whiles the women do not stating “But then, as I think I have said elsewhere, among the Amahagger the weaker sex has established its rights” (Haggard, 40). He does not bother to examine how the women contribute to the tribe. And yet Haggard undermines his point by having the societies structure being, essentially, a sham:

“We worship them,” he went on, “up to a point, till at last they get unbearable, which,”

he added, “they do about every second generation.”

“And then what do you do?” I asked, with curiosity.

“Then,” he answered, with a faint smile, “we rise, and kill the old ones as an example to

the young ones, and to show them that we are the strongest. My poor wife was killed in

that way three years ago. It was very sad, but to tell thee the truth, my son, life has been

happier since, for my age protects me from the young ones.” (Haggard, 52)

The matriarchy is a lie, casually shattered with no preamble. The worshipping and devotion are easily discarded if the tribal woman gets uppity, and the women are killed quickly. What’s even odder is we do not encounter much of this culture after this bombshell. Haggard unintentionally establishes the need for genuine transparency and honesty when establishing societal structures, regardless of race or gender. It is not enough to pay lip service while still holding authority and it cannot be a ceding of authority, if said authority can be removed by force. Haggard undermines himself precisely because the society is not truly matriarchically. If the power the women wield is false, then the portrayal of the tribe as feminist society is weak because the tribe is not in fact female run.

Race plays a huge part in the novel, alongside sexuality and gender. From the moment

Holly and his men encounter the Amahagger tribe they are protected because of their whiteness.

Ayesha has ordered her servant not to harm white skinned men or in the case of Holly, whitish, and the very nature of the skin is constantly referenced and alluded to in the novel:

“Slay not,” was the reply. “Four suns since was the word brought to me from ‘She-who-

must-be-obeyed,’ ‘White men come; if white men come, slay them not.’ Let them be

brought to the house of ‘She-who-must-be-obeyed.’ Bring forth the men, and let that

which they have with them be brought forth also.” (Haggard, 34)

Holly is fascinated by the tribe’s appearance and their language, comparing it to Arabic, but ultimately discarding the notion as the people “were too dark, or rather yellow. I could not say why, but I know that their appearance filled me with a sick fear of which I felt ashamed,”

(Haggard, 35), and because of that description we are already on edge, as their appearance is apparently to the reader unnatural. These are not ordinary Africans, the novel says. These are a unique and savage version of Africans that are cannibals and fanatics worshipping a mad goddess. But Holly and Leo are not world weary enough to consider they might be in danger, resulting in them entering the village. This leads to the deaths of the rest of their expedition group, albeit over a long period of time. Holly himself represents a strange duality that lies at the heart of the novel.

The writer of this text, Horace Holly is rather odd in how he is presented. Specifically he is described often as hideous and disgusting to look at, with an ape like visage (Haggard, 5) that almost makes him sound inhuman. This on its own is not particularly distressing, but when coupled with a brief reference to him having tough dark skin it takes on racist undertones. It also

42 keeps him safe during his stay at the village as he theorizes that “Indeed, of the three I had come off much the best, probably owing to the toughness of my dark skin, and to the fact that a good deal of it was covered by hair” (Haggard, 32) which seems to posit the idea that level of uncivilized appearance is needed to survive in an “uncivilized land.” The problem with proving this is that Holly is never given a deep ancestry, making it difficult to ascertain his racial background. It is this appearance that gets him the tribe name of Baboon when his group encounters the tribe in Africa, and the title follows him throughout the rest of the story.

His ward Leo is quite literally his counterpart. Whereas Haggard avoided describing

Holly beyond his gorilla countenance, Leo is almost lovingly described and sculpted. He is often compared to Greek gods and Adonis, with pristine white skin. Yet, for most of the narrative Leo is, personality-wise, a statue. A consequence of the framing device is a distant relationship with the characters in the narrative. As there are four layers between the reader and the story (Haggard to Holly to Editor to reader), we tend to latch on to the consistent and focused characters, and for the first half of the story that character is Holly. For the second half, Ayesha takes over and becomes the dominant focal point for the rest of the novel. Leo, in contrast, rarely has lines that do not involve Holly in some way. On the one hand, this is because the story is written from

Holly’s perspective so a level of bias is expected. On the other hand, by the end of the story

Haggard raises an interesting notion: if Holly truly loved Ayesha, it could very well be that Leo’s portrayal as a useless sidekick is Holly playing the unreliable narrator and distorting Leo’s character. Holly’s own self-deprecating descriptions seem to indicate sincerity. I would argue that both positions are true, and Holly’s guilt and self-loathing are translated in Holly being uglier than what seems possible and Leo seeming to be a bumbling fool. This is all rather ironic because Leo, as the perfect white male specimen, should have a greater impact in the narrative.

He never is more than Ayesha object of affection. But aside from some denials and complaints he never lives up to what Haggard claims he is: the ideal man. It is Holly that has more agency and pathos, as he falls in love with Ayesha because of her intelligence and beauty. Again,

Haggard unintentionally pushes a feminist narrative were genuine companionship is born from mutual understanding and intelligence.

To facilitate his travel into the African Jungle, Holly acquires a team of several individuals that includes himself and Leo, but also has an Arabic Muslim named Mahomed.

Mahomed, due to the setting of the story, steps in to be the murdered minority of the plot, as he is an outsider and a person of color. Mahomed exists merely as a character to kill, who is not white enough to be under Ayesha’s protection. The tribe has cannibalistic tendencies and as

Holly and Leo fall under Ayesha’s protection, they decide to eat Mahomed. The character is flat, whose defining characteristic is that he is not white enough to survive. Even more egregious is that the tribe is established to have Arabic roots, and yet it is made clear that Mahomed has no bond or connection with this group whatsoever. It could be argued Haggard is trying to point out that even if two groups have common origins, it does not automatically grant familiarity.

Mahomed is ultimately shot by Holly, who was attempting to save the man from being eaten.

While it is a stretch, the imagery of a Muslim man being attacked by a foreign tribe (who also speak Arabic), and both being killed by the great white hunter who understands neither group is both comical and tragic. This is because Holly genuinely wants to help, but ends up killing both the attacker and the victim with one bullet. It also serves as a smaller scale version of the ultimate conflict between Ayesha and Holly. She speaks every language he does and is his intellectual equal, and yet there is a divide between the two that cannot be crossed, born from

Ayesha’s immortality.

Ayesha or She-who-must-be-obeyed is the focal point of the novel, despite only appearing in half of the story. Despite her lack of direct presence, the novel spends a great deal establishing her presence and will through the people who serve her. Ayesha looms over much of the story in the same way most deity figures do. When she does appear, the deity imagery ramps up, as she is described Ayesha’s benevolence and fascination, as well as her trust is rooted in two concepts: loneliness of peers and sexual obsession. As Nelson Dale puts it, “Haggard has been careful to situate Ayesha herself in solitude; she has no consort until the Englishmen, including

Leo Vincey, the youth whom she believes to be the reincarnation of her lover, arrive,” (4) creating another layer of mystery and tragedy for the character. She is quick to trust Holly, allowing him to tour the ancient burial sites and temples. Paul Stanfield argues that there is a tinge of imperialistic imagery, stating that:

Fiction makes the promises underlying the Mandeville trope particularly plain: no

prohibited interior will remain un-entered, no secret will remain unpublished; even that

which is, under pain of death, to remain unseen and unknown will, inevitably, be seen

and be known, and the West's taking of dominion will proceed uninterrupted. (167)

Her inability to the tribal people as her equal and only seeing Holly and Leo as comrades highlights how little she recognizes her subjects. However as female character, Ayesha has a unique positon, as the character is both the protagonist and antagonist of several parts of the narrative. She shows compassion and kindness to Holly, and finds in him an intellectual equal.

So equal in fact that, coupled with Leo’s lesser mind, one wonder if it is Holly she should have loved. There is a focus in the narrative on Ayesha’s intelligence and isolation from her servants because of said intelligence. She is isolated intellectually from her people, while Holly is isolated by his appearance. The two have an understanding of one another, and their interactions are

45 stimulating for both of them. Instead, Ayesha focuses on Leo out desperation for a companion, and is killed because of it.

Her death is particularly gruesome as she is rapidly aged to death in front of Leo and

Holly slowing shrinking and devolving into an ape like creature. The story was written around the time Darwin’s theory of evolution was picking up speed, so the ape and monkey descriptions were most likely intentional:

“Oh, look!—look!—look!” shrieked Job, in a shrill falsetto of terror, his eyes nearly

dropping out of his head, and foam upon his lips. “Look!—look!—look! she’s shrivelling

up! she’s turning into a monkey!” and down he fell upon the ground, foaming and

gnashing in a fit. (Haggard, 135)

Her death ironically enough completes a blood oath Leo’s family had set generations ago. His presence leads to her demise because of her obsession and love, whether it is reciprocated or not.

And yet, for all discussion on Ayesha being an interesting feminist character because of her authority and strength, I find Ustane, a tribal woman who is introduced early on, to the arguably true feminist figure in the text.

Ustane serves as a counterpoint to Ayesha’s obsession with Leo, as Ayesha feels entitled to have Leo, while Ustane allows Leo the capacity to reject her. Ustane chooses Leo to be her husband when he arrives at the village and proceeds to be a background character for most of the novel, except for one instance where she shields his body from attackers. But when Ayesha enters the stage, she attempts to remove Ustane by ordering to leave Leo. Ustane says no.

Specifically, she says no to the god of her people and is willing to defy her because of her love for Leo. The character embodies a strong willfulness that comes off as more pure than Ayesha’s

46 more selfish and deranged lust for Leo, as Ustane refuses to leave Leo side when he is injured and ill, and takes his wishes into account. Ayesha takes it as a given she and Leo will be together and is violently jealous toward Ustane. It is not so much romantic as possessive but Ustane still deserves praise for doing so, as she refuses to bow to societal pressures and even racial pressures by defying her white goddess.

However, Ustane’s defiance ultimately drives Ayesha to have her killed or forsake Leo.

Ustane refuses and provides a monologue that shuts up Ayesha threats and leaves her impotent with rage:

“I did it, oh She,” she answered, drawing herself up to the full of her stately height, and

throwing back the panther skin from her head, “because my love is stronger than the

grave. I did it because my life without this man whom my heart chose would be but a

living death. Therefore did I risk my life, and, now that I know that it is forfeit to thine

anger, yet am I glad that I did risk it, and pay it away in the risking, ay, because he

embraced me once, and told me that he loved me yet.”

“I have no magic,” went on Ustane, her rich voice ringing strong and full, “and I am not

a Queen, nor do I live forever, but a woman’s heart is heavy to sink through waters,

however deep, oh Queen! and a woman’s eyes are quick to see—even through thy veil,

oh Queen! (Haggard, 104)

Here Ustane Ayesha responds by killing her instantly, but the victory is not hers. Ayesha won every confrontation through intelligence and guile, the strong powerful woman. And yet, when faced with genuine courage she reveals herself to be a bully. Ustane is fascinating to me because

47 of how little she appears in the narrative despite how powerful her final moments are. It is she that embodies a feminist ideal, not Ayesha. Ayesha was intended to portray an example of the monstrosity of the dominant female, but Ustane portrays the courage and determination in a positive way. Much like everything else Haggard, he has unintentionally created a positive figure. Ayesha is a false idol in more ways than one, as she cannot be a protofeminist or feminist icon, but Ustane can

Unlike the other novels in this thesis, She is far more character driven, focusing on characters who actually have depth beyond a single stereotype unlike the ones drawn up by a bitter ambassador who never learned to let it go. Haggard has an eye for the sublime in his environments, but it is the human elements of his story that is most revealing, as he ruminates on race, religion and gender with equal measure. While the average reader walks away from the text with a low opinion of Haggard and the story, I would argue that beneath the racial language, there is a deeper discussion on both the nature of patriarchal society and use of language and culture as dividers between people, giving the text a more valuable position in literary discussion.

Chapter IV: Race, Mysticism and the Works of Robert E. Howard

While Raymond Chandler and H.P. Lovecraft are the oft remembered pulp writers, men whose stories consume the discussion on pulp, it’s easy to forget they were not the only writers around. One writer, whose presence and contributions to pulp culture often surpasses

Lovecraft’s, stands alongside these legends. That writer is Robert E. Howard, the man behind the characters Conan the Barbarian and Solomon Kane. A native Texan, his parents contributed heavily to his love and fascination with literature, especially his mother, whose bond would be the one anchoring elements in Robert’s life. His mother was so essential in fact, that upon learning she would never awaken from a coma, Robert walked out of his house into his car and took his own life.

Prior to that however, Robert and his family moved around Texas for much of his childhood. In his youth he came across a pulp magazine called Adventure magazine, which after encouragement from his teacher, he wrote to (Liptik, 1) Adventure promptly rejected him, which stung him greatly. His pride over his writings would often get him into argument after argument with editors, critics, and his fellow writers. He continued to write, being printed for the first time in high school, which culminated in forgoing college in favor of writing professionally. Success did not come easy, but in 1924 to actually get published with his story “Spear and Fang” in

Weird Tales Magazine, a story which captured a lot of his later Conan tropes; ancient tribes, barbarism vs civilization, and Neanderthal men (Burke).

This ancient man theme would fascinate him; a constant theme of his characters was simplicity of ideals and focus. His characters were often straightforward and strong, pinnacles of physical strength with uncompromising wills. In these stories, as well, were elements of survival of the fittest and conquering and dominating natures. The Cro-Magnon man is the superior being to the Neanderthal, and triumphs with both superior bodies and skills. The concept of the superior being is the root of every single one of his characters, who stand head and shoulder from normal humans.

Conan is perhaps the ultimate expression of Howard’s Adonis; the barbarian superhero, whose uncivilized nature and warriors lifestyle served as a critique of western civilization and the weakness it fosters in people. Despite the iconic status of the character, Howard only wrote

21 short stories about the character, all of them illustrated with scantily clad women that Conan would inevitably save. This was not uncommon in pulp, and Conan veered into that trope with all the subtlety of a barbarian from Cimmeria. Conan in recent years has fallen under criticism for racist and sexist imagery, aspects that were excused by defenders as being endemic to the setting of the story. Conan takes place in a barbaric world, so barbaric notions would not seem out of place. The setting was never completely defined, allowing Howard to play fast and loose with cultures and religions. This is in contrast to Solomon Kane, which was grounded in real world cultures and nations, which also had a harder time excusing the more problematic language of the text. And yet Conan, much like Solomon Kane, would occasionally swerve into

50 bizarrely progressive characterization and ideas. One such example is the bizarrely feminist character of Belit

This is even more impressive, as she only appeared in one story “Queen of the Black

Coast,” wherein Conan is captured by Belit. She is the only female character to be portrayed as

Conan’s equal, and is ultimately the protagonist of the story, her pride and obsession with treasure leading her and her crew to their doom. She isn’t without problems however, as her crew is clearly noted to be black slaves. This oddly seems to harken back to SHE: A History of

Adventure, as both stories portray a white woman being worshipped by Africans or African- inspired people. The story has her worshipped by the crew to the point the story makes it clear that none could ever be her lover, only a man like Conan is worthy of bedding her. Her crew is described as worshipping her: “to these men Belit was more than a woman: a goddess whose will was unquestioned” (“Queen of the Black Coast”, 10). This affair of theirs does hit some genuinely interesting notes, as both characters discuss their gods and the notion of the afterlife,

Belit’s being based on Egyptian myth and Conan’s having a more Norse feel taking cues from the old traditions of Nifelheim and Valhalla for a warriors death. This constant integration of other cultures and religions was common in his stories, although this meant his stories often did not seem grounded in a specific place. Conan stories as a result appeared to take place in some land were all mythologies and faiths existed, without bothering to consider how they would coexist The story stumbles with Howard’s fascination with extraneous detail and history being shoved into the story, cutting its momentum with almost a quarter of the story devoted to a civilization long since passed. Further, Belit’s crew is killed off with little fanfare, except for her right-hand man, who Conan mistakes at one point for a gorilla, a descriptive device Howard would employ multiple times throughout his stories, which period or not is responsible for

51 detractors referring to him as racist. Belit is ultimately hung by the stories monster, but her spirit’s love for Conan saves his life in climax. It was this will and the tragedy of the story that catapulted Belit into his most remembered female character, to the point she has received additional stories from other authors in the decades following the story. Oddly, Conan has more problematic language and descriptions, which paint a picture of Howard as a racist. Yet earlier stories hint at a far more complex view on race and faith that seem rather strange given those earlier stories European influences. Conan is an odd regression in Howards portrayals of race, which can be jarring to read them after Solomon Kane, which actually tackles the notions of the white conqueror and colonialism, while simultaneously using similar clichés and stereotypes. Reading Conan after Solomon leaves the reader with the impression the racial language in Conan is more for titillation rather than malice, a way to sell more copies. Because of this Conan is not nearly as complex or nuanced as Solomon Kane, which could possibly explain the difference in popularity among the general public.

While Conan is his most remembered character, Solomon Kane is his best written. The character first appeared in Weird Tales, within the story of “Red Shadows.” This story also introduces Solomon Kane’s counterpart, teacher and friend N’Longa. A character that in subsequent stories would help Solomon Kane grow and progress as a character without falling under many of the stereotypes for people of color of the time. “Red Shadows” occupies a curious place within the Solomon Kane oeuvre. The story introduces several elements common to

Solomon Kane; women in peril, racially incentive descriptions of the African people, extremely complimentary language to Kane, and a monstrous nearly inhuman adversary. Within its economical word choices lies a dive into the dark depth of humanity to match even Conrad’s

Heart of Darkness. Both stories involve a character in the pursuit of a sinister figure in the depths

52 of the other. In one story its Kurtz, while, in the other, the power lies in Le Loup. The difference is the nature of the pursuit. Within Red Shadows, initially the reason for the search is the rape and murder of a woman. Within his travels he comes across a dying young woman who had been murdered by a group led by the monstrous Le Loup. With her death, Solomon vows that “men will die for this” (“Red Shadows,” 31). This leads him on a hunt from the modern well-known

European lands to the dark depths of Africa. Both of them use mystical imagery, but Kane goes further, with actual mystical arts, as during his travels he meets both the mystic and primal aspects of the Dark Continent.

Solomon Kane is defined within this story as an unyielding monolith of a man. After finding the young girl raped and left for dead, Solomon begins a long hunt against the bandits responsible. He hunts them across Europe before cornering them in a mountain cave, meeting Le

Loup for the first time. It is here that we come across a common theme in Howards pulps; elaborate and detailed descriptions of his heroes. The first the readers received is as follows;

Long arms and broad shoulders betokened the swordsman, as plainly as the long rapier in

his hand... A kind of dark pallor lent him a ghostly appearance in the uncertain light, an

effect heightened by the satanic darkness of his lowering brows…Strangely, the

mephistophelean trend of the lower features was offset by a high, broad forehead, though

this was partly hidden by a featherless hat. (“Red Shadows, 37)

This near monstrous description would be repeated again and again in later stories such as “Blue

Flame of Vengeance” and “Skull in the Stars.” This ethereal and strange nature of the character would be constant in all his European adventures. I say European, as his travels in Africa would reveal a different side to the character, and in doing so Howard himself.

This divide between Europe and Africa is represented by how characters see Solomon

Kane. His European adventures carry a sense of both dread and invincibility. His is viewed as the superman, effortlessly defeating his enemies, never once showing any exhaustion and rarely if ever getting injured. This invincibility is not uncommon in pulp stories, but what makes this turn unique is how Howard plays with these tropes and leaves the reader in shock. In “Red Shadows,”

Le Loup manages to escape Solomon by fleeing to Africa, abandoning his men in an attempt to bury Solomon. Kane follows him to the Dark Continent and it is here that the characters invincible image starts falling apart. It borders on comical how the descriptions try to salvage his reputation and fail, initially comparing him “with the stealth and easy movement of a cheetah” and then within the same paragraph describing his journey with “vines tripped and slapped him in the face…forced to grope his way between the huge boles of towering trees” (“Red Shadows,”

43). It’s as if the narrative is in on the joke that Solomon Kane does not belong here.

It is easy upon reading these stories to call Solomon Kane a white savior stereotype. And in many respects he does feel likes a white savior, yet the stories tear apart these elements, banking on the readers expecting him to dominate the narrative and failing at times. This happens in the stories set in Africa. Any tale set in France or England will have every problem solved quickly, sometimes without Solomon actually resolving anything. In “The Right Hand of

Doom,” the entire conflict is a revenge plot by which a necromancer’s hand comes to life after its owner is executed and strangles the man who snitched on him. Solomon does “gingerly thrust his rapier point through it (the hand) and lifted it his eyes,” (“Right Hand,” 24), but this does not actually prevent the revenge from being completed or do anything other than solving the question of how the hand came to life. If Solomon Kane is resolving the situation, it will follow

54 classic pulp narratives, with Kane being an invincible superman and being unharmed. None of the European tales ever truly harms Kane, which to the pulp aesthetic is par for the course.

In the African jungle, however, he is ignorant, outmatched and outnumbered. On arrival he is subdued and caught without any chance of fighting back. This is a theme in the African set stories; ignorance of land, terrain and people will get you killed. Every Africa-based story usually has Solomon caught off guard because of his ignorance and pride, resulting in him often being beaten, injured and in one case enslaved. In these stories, the Dark Continent concept is used in full force, combining with mythology in order to create a mystical Africa. This is an

Africa that cannot be reckoned with casually and must be studied and understood in order ot survive. But one aspect that separates the African stories from the European ones is that of companionship. Whereas in Europe Kane never has recurring characters, in Africa he is given an ally. It is upon recovering that we are introduced to one of Howard’s most important supporting characters; N’Longa, a mystic shaman, Solomon Kane’s closest and only friend, and what is often, incorrectly in my opinion, described as a Magical Negro.

The term Magical Negro was established by Spike Lee in 2001 to describe a character of

African ethnicity with magical powers, who exists to provide advice, comfort or assistance to a white character (YALE Bulletin). The character has no purpose and seemingly no life outside of serving the hero of the story without question. They are almost entirely selfless and noble, and presented as an outlier to their race. While this term was used to describe characters from films such as “The Legend of Bagger Vance” and “The Green Mile,” it has relevance in a discussion of N’Longa, who on the surface, falls under this stereotype. There are some elements that separate him from these other Magical Negro characters. For one thing, N’Longa does not

55 practice more heroic arts, his magic is explicitly dark and malevolent. His first display of magic is the possession of a corpse in “Red Shadows” and using said corpse to murder a rival (57), something that the stereotype would not do. In fact he is explicitly mentioned to be serving what is named the “Black God,” a neutral entity that provides power to its worshippers (58). In any other story, this would make him a potential villain, an obstacle for Solomon to kill.

Instead, N’Longa is developed over the stories into a great ally of Solomon, in spite of his usage of the dark arts. In fact, his usage of the dark arts causes Solomon to question the nature of magic as an evil tool, as the shaman saves the day in multiple stories, where Solomon is rendered powerless. N’Longa is not just a dangerous other, in fact he is as much of a hero as Solomon, and his gift to Solomon of a staff proves to be an iconic weapon in Solomon’s arsenal, causing

Solomon to wield both the ideologies of the “modern world” and the mystical powers of the other. This character serves as a positive depiction of African culture in this story, as he serves as

Solomon’s ally and savior. N’Longa ends up surpassing the trappings of his “Magical Negro” stereotype to become a beloved ally, and is one of the only recurring characters in Solomon’s life. In “Red Shadows” alone he is the savior of the story, singlehandedly solving half the problems with one possession. He is wrapped up in certain stereotypes, however mostly in his language and diction as evident from his initial conversation:

"You speak my language—how is that?"

The black man grinned.

"I slave—long time, me boy. Me, N'Longa, ju-ju man, me, great fetish. No black man

like me! You white man, you hunt brother?" (“Red Shadows,” 45)

However, it’s implied in the following story, “Hills of the Dead,” that this is partially an act, a way of setting the paranoid and frightened Kane at ease. In his initial appearance he forms a blood pact with Solomon, as Le Loup has joined forces with the chief of the tribe by endearing himself with his technology and skill. This bond between the two men would be explored in later stories alongside Solomon Kane’s growth as a character.

The distinction between Solomon and Le Loup is quite literally compared to ice and fire.

Solomon Kane is spoken of like a god, mythical and beyond comprehension. The rituals and atrocities done in his name serve to highlight the divide between our protagonist and the ivory trader. Le Loup on the other hand, is represented as a devil. His actions are equally monstrous, although he is perceived as far more villainous as his victims are not just in Africa, but in

Europe, as well. Le Loup spreads his brutality far and wide, and is only defeated by Solomon and the shaman putting an end to him and his new allies. Le Loup is a corrupting influence in the tribe as opposed to N’Longa more benevolent (but still controlling) position For what little can be ceded to Le Loupe, he never attempts to justify his actions, more confused by Solomon’s morality, comparing Kane to “a true Galahad, protecting the weaker” (“Red Shadows,” 40). The use of imagery is extremely similar, although it’s contrary to each other. Le Loup’s dialogue involves some variation of the word hell or devil, contrasting him with the Black God he now serves. However both men are extremely charismatic and charming, although we see it first hand with Le Loup. While in Africa, Le Loup endears himself to a chieftain referred to in the text as the Songa, supplanting the chief’s former advisor, N’Longa. Despite not being the master and being a mere advisor, Le Loup uses his technology and knowledge to make himself appear to be a great spirit, raised on a throne under the tribe’s Black God, a monstrous entity presiding over

57 the jungle itself. The characters triumph and confidence even in a desperate position is evident on their reunion:

“Ah, Monsieur, we meet again” The speaker was far from the being the debonair villain

who had taunted Kane in the cavern among the mountains. His clothes were rags; there

were more lines in his face; he had sunk lower in the years that had passed. Yet his face

still gleamed and danced with their old recklessness and his voice held the same mocking

timbre. (“Red Shadows,” 47)

Le Loup is stubborn, unyielding and refuses to die. But, similar to Solomon, Le Loup has a layer of overconfidence influencing his decisions. He is constantly mystified by Solomon’s morality and pursuit of vengeance, especially considering it was for someone Solomon had just met. He goes beyond being a mere man, at this point he is far more to Solomon with “the bandit symbolized, to Kane, all the things against which the Puritan had fought all his life: cruelty, outrage, oppression and tyranny” (“Red Shadows,” 48-51).

Le Loup has transcended his mortality to become an outlet for Solomon’s frustration with the modern world, a man he can kill, seemingly without any moral dilemma. This dark soul of his puts him right at home with the grotesque imagery used in this story, no better example being the Black God itself, a being that almost seems Cthlhuesque:

There in front of him loomed a shape hideous and obscene – a black, formless thing, a

grotesque parody of the human. Still brooding, blood-stained, like the formless soul of

Africa, the horror, the Black God (“Red Shadows”, 46)

While the Black God never is directly fought (in fact he continues to rule even at the end), he facilitates Le Loup’s rise to power right until Solomon kills Le Loup in one final duel. Yet, even

58 in death, Le Loup never loses his “wild, mocking laughter,” (“Red Shadows”, 66) leaving

Solomon with an empty feeling in his vengeance. Furthermore, the Black God’s introduction has several parallels with Solomon’s physical introduction, playing off the god imagery, with the

Black God being an opposing force to Solomon Kane’s god. The Black God is an amalgamation of the traditions and mythology of the African jungle, but it also ties into Howard’s obsession with the barbaric world and its raw power. The jungle is presented as alive and aware of

Solomon Kane, with the Black God merely being one facet of its power. Solomon equates it with evil, but this viewpoint disappears as his experience in Africa and friendship with N’Longa grows. The story also makes it very clear that whatever triumph Solomon Kane achieves, it is ultimately meaningless:

I am everlasting (Kane thought the Black God said); I drink, no matter who rules; chiefs,

slayers, wizards, they pass like the ghosts of dead men through the gray jungle; I stand, I

rule; I am the soul of the jungle (said the Black God). (“Red Shadows,” 60)

The jungle is seen as equal opportunist, as the climax of the stories portrays. Solomon Kane kills his nemesis in a duel, but is then defeated by the gorilla slayer Gulka. Before the final blow is struck, Gulka is killed by the gorillas mate and the reader is left watching a cycle turn and turn without end. N’Longa for his part has reclaimed his position and eliminated his enemies and acquired a new ally in Kane. This once again refutes the descriptor as a “Magical Negro,” as his opportunistic tendencies are against the servile nature of the stereotype.

N’Longa returns in the story “The Hills of the Dead” which starts with N’Longa bequeathing Solomon Kane’s signature staff which features in several stories as a weapon forged to fight evil. What telling about this story from the outset is the title of the first chapter: Voodoo?

While Howard avoids naming any specific traditions, he does integrate some spiritual traditions such as dream walking and being ridden by spirits in order to allow them to interact with the living. It is through this dream walking that Solomon asks for help and N’Longa possesses a young man to answer the call. The passing of the staff is presented as a peace offering from the jungle itself, a tool to allow Solomon to begin his education and training. He is ill equipped to face the mystical forces in the jungle, but the staff gives him a fighting chance. His unpreparedness is not just in arms but in mind, as the opening discussion between the two men indicates:

Me, N'Longa, mighty worker of nameless magic! You go to the jungle as all men go who

hear her call. Maybe you live, more like you die. You believe in my fetish work?"

"I understand it not," said Kane grimly, "but I have seen you send your soul forth from

your body to animate a lifeless corpse."

"Aye! Me N'Longa! priest of the Black God! Now watch, I make magic." (“Hills”, 225)

This lack of experience haunts Kane again and again, as his inability to accept anything other than his faith as true or worthy of understanding leaves him vulnerable. And while N’Longa is the hero of the story, there are still the staple uncomfortable descriptions that Howard saddles to the minor characters, as the young African girl that Solomon rescues early on in the story is described thusly:

The girl was a much higher type than the thick-lipped, bestial West Coast negroes to

whom Kane had been used. She was slim and finely formed, of a deep brown hue rather

than ebony; her nose was straight and thin-bridged, her lips were not too thick.

Somewhere in her blood there was a strong Berber strain. (“Hills, ”230-31)

This passage highlights the research Howard does for his stories, at least in comparison to his other contemporaries, as the references to the Berber strain refers to the indigenous people who lived near the Nile. However her lighter skin tone is presented as a higher form and her

“whiteness” in comparison to the rest of the indigenous people Solomon comes across, makes her more appealing to Solomon’s protective nature. Naturally there is something racially concerning in how the mixed race woman is worthy of protection, and while prior stories indicate he would help her regardless, when read in a vacuum , this story portrays Solomon’s morality as centered on her gender and race, rather than simple kindness. It is not enough that she is in danger, her race is apparently essential to be known to us. Other stories in Solomon

Kane canon make a point of distinguishing certain group of natives from others, to specify who is the enemy and who is the friend. And while N’Longa is a unique figure in Howard’s fiction, it does not excuse the characterization and descriptors such as the one used “Hills of the Dead”

Her being a young woman garners the reader’s sympathy even more, but she serves as a mere expositional device for the rest of the story and a distressed woman when her lover is being possessed by N’Longa. So useless is she that N’Longa puts her in a trance to remove her from the majority of the climax. There is slight positive aspect to Kane’s interactions with the girl;

Kane is quick to put them on an equal playing field when she attempts to deify him:

She whimpered a little. "Are you not a god?"

"No. Zunna. I am only a man, though the colour of my skin is not as yours.”

(“Hills,” 231)

This quick correction ties into Kane’s past as a man looking for redemption from his crimes. His attempts to atone cannot let him place himself above others, which leaves him sympathetic compared to Conan and Kull who openly placed themselves above others through martial force.

The story carries on like a simple pulp, with Kane encountering vampires, however he is only able to survive the encounter through use of the staff. Upon learning there is a city of the monsters, he has no choice but to call upon N’Longa, who makes quick work of the city through use of vultures. But N’Longa’s triumph is contrasted with Kane nearly being devoured and killed in the same scene. His guns and sword are trashed and he is nearly torn to pieces before the vultures arrive. It’s unusual for a pulp story to sideline its characters in favor of his buddy, but

Howard was unconventional. It is this story that elevates N’Longa beyond the stereotype he seems to be. Upon Solomon asking him how he came to know all his mystic arts, N’Longa delivers what might be one the most powerful passages of Howards career, and most certainly

N’Longa’s best:

"My blood-brother," said N'Longa, discarding his pride in his pidgin English, to drop into

the river language understood by Kane, "I am so old that you would call me a liar if I told

you my age. All my life I have worked magic, sitting first at the feet of mighty ju-ju men

of the south and the east; then I was a slave to the Buckra and learned more. My brother,

shall I span all these years in a moment and make you understand with a word, what has

taken me so long to learn? (“Hills”, 251)

N’Longa suddenly shifting to a more fluent language and his long history on the Slave Coast reveals the sage man underneath the comic relief. He is not a mere prop or tool made to saver

Solomon; he has an agency and presence within the narrative that entrances the reader. He avoids

62 the stereotype Magical Negro by virtue of not being selfless. It is his deal brokering and using of

Kane to facilitate his own goals that truly breathes life into the character. Howard takes this a step further, using N’Longa to counter Solomon Kane’s hate and disgust towards magic and other traditions:

These things I know and am a part of, but how shall I tell you of them? Blood-brother,

you are a mighty warrior, but in the ways of magic you are as a little child lost. And what

has taken me long dark years to know, I may not divulge to you so you would

understand. My friend, you think only of bad spirits, but were my magic always bad,

should I not take this fine young body in place of my old wrinkled one and keep it? But

Kran shall have his body back safely." (“Hills”, 252)

N’Longa’ s wisdom and mentor like role is constantly referenced in all stories taking place in

Africa, even though he rarely appears after this story. In spite of this, N’Longa remains an interesting blend of stereotyping and subtle progressive character aspects that leave the modern reader stunned.

While other texts explored the dark aspects of the world, Solomon Kane goes further and has its character embrace it, for good and ill. For example, there is no greater example of this criticism of colonialism than in the later story “Wings in the Night.” Whereas “Red Shadows” gave us a taste of the dangers and mythology of the African jungle, “The Hills of the Dead” showed us a Solomon Kane out of his depth, “Wings in the Night” makes the bold move of turning Kane into a failure. It does so by using the best intentions of a character, and twisting them until the only recourse is punishment and penance. Solomon is broken and beaten because he allows himself to embody the White savior ideal. And adding to this, this is a story where

N’Longa is not present, as Kane, whether through pride or ignorance, refuses to call for aid.

Where the prior two stories ended in victory for Kane, albeit with help, here it ends in failure and tragedy.

The story begins with Kane fleeing a tribe of cannibals, a common trope in jungle pulp stories. However much to his surprise they leave him alone when he crosses into a plateaued area. His good fortune turns sour quickly as he comes across a ghastly sight of a “thing that had once been a man” (“Wings,” 278) bound and broken to a shaft in the ground. While Solomon attempts to rescue this man it’s all for naught, and he dies in terror, chanting and warning about the terrible wings. Naturally the fast pace of pulp means we meet those wings immediately, and

Solomon is quickly engaged in a battle with a horrific flying monster, one that faces on both ground and air. While he does triumph, he is rendered unconscious and awakens being cared for by the Boganda tribe. This tribe is fascinating from a pulp narrative perspective, in part because they are allowed to be human.

They are Howard’s most unique tribe in that their speech is not a caricature of mocking, which immediately places them on Kane’s level intellectually, simply based on their civilized and kind nature. These are good people and Kane himself recognizes this in his more gentle and warm descriptions:

Solomon Kane came back suddenly from the land of delirium, and his first sight of sanity

was that of a fat, kindly native face bending over him. Kane saw he was in a roomy, clean

and well-ventilated hut, while from a cooking pot bubbling outside wafted savoury

scents. (“Wings in the Night,” 293)

Instead of ape like protrusions and slopping foreheads, words like “gentle” and “kind” dot nearly every description of the tribe. Their willingness to help Kane and curiosity about his skin leads to a repeat of the ideas brought out in “Hills of the Dead.” Kane is asked if he is a god, and quickly corrects them declaring "I am no god. . . . but a man like yourself, albeit my skin be white"

(“Wings,” 295). This near instantaneous correction is not Solomon being humble, as he immediately adds that his land is the fairest of all of them, but a genuine compassion for other people.

There are some more things to unpack here. Kane claims he is equal to these men, but also refuses to exploit the easily attained god status both his appearance and martial skill provide.

His respect for both N’Longa and Africa is at its highest here, as he constantly treats the villagers like people instead of almost people. It would be easy to be worshipped here, but Kane refuses to allow them to elevate his status. This also ties in to his faith, as being placed equal to God would be an incomprehensible thing to Kane.

We are then given a crash course on the Boganda tribe and the monsters that hunt them.

These creatures are revealed to be harpies; brutal creatures that have essentially enslaved the tribe slowly whittling the tribe down till less than 200 people remain. Even worse, the cannibal tribes nearby prevent any escape for the innocent people. Their plight is so dire they beg Kane to assist them, something he reluctantly agrees too. We see more development on Kane’s end referring to the Boganda people referred to as…people. His desire to help them is also balance by his empathy for them, as “Kane shuddered at the thought of a tribe of human beings, thus passing slowly but surely into the maws of a race of monsters” (“Wings”, 302). This is one of the few times he refers to African tribes as human beings and people, something rare in these stories.

But there is another facet of the story that is a bit more subtle in its discussion of colonialism. And that is the use of Greek myth within the narrative. Kane quickly connects Jason and the Argonauts to the harpies here and realizes they have fled to Africa. And this observation leads to a magnificent question:

All those myths of antiquity—behind them did there lie and lurk nightmare realities with

slavering fangs and talons steeped in shuddersome evil? Africa, the Dark Continent, land

of shadows and horror, of bewitchment and sorcery, into which all evil things had been

banished before the growing light of the western world! (“Wings”, 304)

This actually highlights African cultures ability to adapt and absorb other ideas and traditions in order to survive, or at the very least, a romanticized version of it. Voodoo culture for example, is a fusion of African and French Catholicism, while Santeria is a fusion of African, Taino and

Spanish Catholicism. This idea, that all the myths have fled to Africa, at the time and arguably even now, one of the more mysterious parts of the world. Civilization has banished these monsters and myths and in doing so has ripped away the heroes and triumphs that shaped the modern world. Howard awe and fear of the unknown and the world beyond is at its most open and honest it has ever been.

That being said it could also be argued that Howard is exploiting his reader’s ignorance of Africa to place whatever mythological creature strikes his fancy into the setting. I would argue against this, as the Howard was classically trained and his fascination with Africa and the outside world was genuine, and appears innocently ignorant rather than knowingly.

The villagers ask him to stay and protect them with his wisdom and martial skill.

Solomon, although skeptical of the assistance he can provide, accepts. He is aware that the

66 protection he provides is more an illusion of safety and yet he remains, believing his presence to be necessary in spite of his doubts. His justifications of knowing better and being wise enough to lead these people is destroyed rapidly, as the monsters return in larger numbers, killing all the villagers and leaving Solomon alive. While he does avenge the village, it’s a hollow victory as he is the only person left. He realizes that he is not meant to settle, and remains forever more, a nomad. While bleak, it puts the protagonist in a moment of true weakness where they become eerily similar to the monsters they hunt, and are punished. Rather than being punished with his life, Solomon is allowed to learn from his error, at the cost of the villagers. The character does not simply encounter evil, for a brief moment he is consumed with madness. The brisk episodic nature of pulp allows Howard to experiment and force their characters into positions that go beyond what would considered appropriate. What modern writer would have their character fail so catastrophically, and fall so far so fast? There was no slow burn, just the moral failings of a good man in the face of desperation. The descent into darkness is a short drop in Solomon Kane.

The destruction of the village is one of Howard’s most gruesome scenes, as the villagers are torn to pieces by harpies in such large numbers it blots out the sky. The tribe’s chief’s head is impaled on his hut, its visage haunting Kane for the rest of the narrative. As for Kane? He is left impotent and unable to save a single person, from the kindly chief, to the high priest, to the children who had nursed him back to health. This horror is captured thusly:

And was he not a symbol of Man, staggering among the tooth-marked bones and severed

grinning heads of humans, brandishing a futile ax, and screaming incoherent hate at the

grisly, winged shapes of Night that make their prey…dripping into his mad eyes the

pitiful blood of their human victims? (“Wings”, 312)

So helpless is Kane that he falls in a mad rage, a complete turnaround from his usual unflappable character in earlier stories. Where prior to this he was an untouchable superman, here is merely a man. This is why Howard refers to him as the symbol of Man, not because he is male or his status, but because he has failed his tribe. He has failed his humanity, has failed his mission, and note once again how Kane sees the villagers as human victims cementing his connection to them instead of his usual superiority. There is another aspect to this trauma, in that it references this notion of the white savior. Every story has Kane promise to protect or save one African after another and each time is progressively beaten or overwhelmed in some way. “Wings in the

Night” is the ultimate refuting and mockery of these notions at least until the end, where Kane seemingly let’s go of his notions of being on a mission and instead simply seeks to avenge the tribe. This is reflected in the last chapters’ title: “The White-Skinned Conqueror”.

It’s easy to jump to conclusions on that subtitle, but Kane’s grief and mourning for this tribe he just met as well as Howard’s most passionate monologue yet say otherwise:

Kane looked at the shambles that had been Boganda, and he looked at the death mask of

Goru. And he lifted his clenched fists above his head, and with glaring eyes raised and

writhing lips flecked with froth, he cursed the sky and the earth and the spheres above

and below. He cursed the cold stars, the blazing sun, the mocking moon and the whisper

of the wind. He cursed all fates and destinies, all that he had loved or hated, the silent

cities beneath the seas, the past ages and the future eons. In one soul-shaking burst of

blasphemy he cursed the gods and devils who make mankind their sport, and he cursed

Man who lives blindly on and blindly offers his back to the iron-hoofed feet of his gods.

(”Wings”, 313-314)

This madness is incredibly shocking; with Kane cursing God himself alongside all the monsters he hunts. But interestingly his usage of gods is revealing of Kane’s growth. Prior to this story, any spiritual entity that Kane did not understand was either a demon or the devil itself. But later stories have him acknowledge other gods but in still negative light, as his friendship with

N’Longa develops. And in this story he fully accepts the presence of other supernatural entities and sees that for one moment as equally to blame. Make no mistake, Solomon never becomes a truly progressive character in the modern sense, but his subtle development does highlight the characters complexity and moral dubiousness. Conan and Kull never quite reached the moral heights Kane does, and in many ways it feels like Conan was a step back from the quieter and pondering Kane.

Kane naturally kills all the harpies, through subterfuge and tactics rather than manly combat. It would not be Howard pulps unless the hero eventually triumphed over his enemies in one way or another, but the story is not triumphant. The ending is melancholic and hopeful, as

Kane once again reaffirms his desire to travel and fight evil in all its forms and we leave him staring to the east and to travel onward. While Howard never wrote a Solomon Kane story again, he left the character in the perfect place, ready for the next adventure. Kane was Howard’s most complex character, the one that broke all the rules of what a pulp hero should be. A hero that failed, questioned and learned at a time where such complex characters were not common place.

While Howard’s personal views were problematic, Kane always felt like Howards own growth and ideas concerning the world around him and his empathy and fascination with the other.

Howard’s life, much like H.P. Lovecraft, is a tapestry of what ifs. Had he lived longer, would his stories and themes change? Would he have expressed the same growth that Kane went through in subsequent stories? It’s impossible to say, but his stories and mastery of the English

69 language only seemed to grow with each story, and the complexity of his thematic elements expanded form character to character. Kull evolved to Kane, and Kane gave way to Conan and sadly that’s all we have. And Conan’s more offensive language and themes seem rather contrary in the face of Solomon Kane’s occasionally progressive characters and ideas. Was the real world setting the impetus to representing the characters Kane meets as human? N’Longa breaks the mold of how people of color were represented in pulps. Howard, intentionally or not, gave a window to his readers of an Africa simultaneously romanticized and real. The mystical elements and monsters are the romantic dream of writer who loved classical myths, but the people and characters within Africa are alive. They die, fight, and guide without Kane’s influence and these characters give humanity to the stories that Kane alone cannot provide. While Kane is the pulp superman, his ignorance and disrespect of other cultures is to his detriment. Kane, Howard seems to warn, is an example of what blind mistrust and dislike can do to you. To enter a culture or country with only vague notions and stereotypes can only lead to ruin. Kane denigrates the

Africans initially as lesser than and their faiths as evil, and in doing so pays the price multiple time. Whether it is bodily harm or humiliation, Kane is forced to learn. While it could be argued that Solomon Kane is just pulp junk food, not meant to teach or question, why break so heavily from the traditional pulp hero? By diverting from pulp hero stereotypes, Kane becomes a unique entity within the genre, because allows other characters to share the spotlight and break boundaries in race other writers simply would not dare.

Chapter V: Conclusion

In the modern era, nostalgia is king. Every bit of media from decades past has become vogue and revived in one way or another for the masses. Rarely do these new readers know where their media comes from. Yet, while they are oftentimes ignorant of their media’s roots, they keep it alive and allow it to evolve through their consumption. While Hajjibaba may no longer be culturally acceptable, it still served as a gateway to Middle Eastern life, a life that would elude most of his readers for one reason or another. It also serves as a reminder of the power of cultural standings and desire for acceptance many countries have. Many stories were allowed to pass without judgment precisely because these stories gave a voice, no matter how distorted or vulgar. In many ways it was tragic, but it also highlighted the power of mass media consumption and its ability to impact a population’s viewpoint on other nations. Iran was known, perhaps not accurately, but it existed in the European consciousness far more than ever before.

In that same spirit, Ayesha, Solomon Kane, and all the other pulps served a similar function; they opened doors to the world. Were they as well written as more proper texts? No, but their brashness, vulgarity, and bluntness connected to their audience far easier than academic texts. These were not stories to be passed on, or stories to rock society or correct some wrong.

Pulps and their counterparts were fun. They were fun in a way that is hard to explain, that simplistic fun that comes from reading something that is not trying to change you or the world around. A story that is rooted in its own world and never goes too far out of its comfort zone

. Every now and then, perhaps subconsciously, they would break through societal barriers and create characters that did rock the boat, such as Ayesha, who behind the racial issues provides a powerful and tragic female protagonist.

But for all my affection and analysis, I have to concede that many pulps truly are just disposable. Not every story in these 25 cent paperbacks are worthy of being overanalyzed and discussed. For every Solomon Kane, there are dozens of pretenders and imitators, who give us nothing but empty air. That creates a conundrum for future readers and one that has become more pronounced as I finished my research. Are these exceptional examples writers truly pulp writers, or just good writers pigeonholed into a media that would accept them, no matter the quality or style? While many of the lesser stories might not bear deep thought, they still provide the skeleton on which authors like Howard placed the meat. While pulp as a whole may not bring a great renaissance of analysis in modern readers, aside from a handful of select writers, its presence in American history as mass consumed media bears recognition. While future researchers may have to plumb the depths of pulp magazines to find stories worthy of discussion, the sheer volume of stories still around means we will never be bereft of sources. Future study may focus on other members of the Lovecraft circle, or look at how Solomon Kane portrays

Europe, something I did not get into in this thesis. With new writers potentially taking their cues from pulp stories, we could even see intentional feminist based pulp style stories that allow a new perspective on the genre. There are other characters to explore, other regions to study, and with the constant increase in unusual areas of research, pulp has a place more than ever in the discussio

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