Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 5, 2019 2:57:29 GMT -5
With the recent "The God in the Bowl" episode at Cromcast and the upcoming essay by Mark Finn for the Conan Blackgate series it seems like a good time to discuss this yarn. Season 9, Episode 2: The Extension – "The God in the Bowl" with Mark Finn!thecromcast.blogspot.com/2019/05/season-9-episode-1-extension-god-in.htmlWelcome back, Cromrades! We're picking up steam as we head down The Road of Revisions with our guest, Mark Finn! In this episode, which we term 'The Extension,' we tackle one of the earliest-written Conan stories, "The God in the Bowl," which didn't see publication until 1952 when it appeared in Space Science Fiction.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 6, 2019 2:42:27 GMT -5
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Post by buxom9sorceress on May 6, 2019 9:09:51 GMT -5
Hi Naga fans. the slow GITBowl eventually became 1 of my fave tales, mainly because of the powerful Stygian magic and supernatural monster. >>>> I wrote an action packed 'later version' which features king Conan struggling in big trouble with a very powerful unique female monster. You can read my gory horror tale [ and fan comments ] on this fine forum... swordsofreh.proboards.com/thread/166/stygia-love-king-conan-horror=== enjoy ===  |
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Post by charleshelm on May 6, 2019 19:15:15 GMT -5
I really like the stories of Conan's early forays into civilization, and The God in the Bowl is a favorite of mine. That and Rogues in the House.
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Post by Von K on May 16, 2019 0:44:08 GMT -5
With the recent "The God in the Bowl" episode at Cromcast and the upcoming essay by Mark Finn for the Conan Blackgate series it seems like a good time to discuss this yarn. Season 9, Episode 2: The Extension – "The God in the Bowl" with Mark Finn!thecromcast.blogspot.com/2019/05/season-9-episode-1-extension-god-in.htmlWelcome back, Cromrades! We're picking up steam as we head down The Road of Revisions with our guest, Mark Finn! In this episode, which we term 'The Extension,' we tackle one of the earliest-written Conan stories, "The God in the Bowl," which didn't see publication until 1952 when it appeared in Space Science Fiction.
Took me a while to catch up with this but I'm glad I did. Another great episode from Mark and the Cromcasters. Thanks for the notification Hun. |
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Post by robp on May 16, 2019 7:58:31 GMT -5
Hi Naga fans. the slow GITBowl eventually became 1 of my fave tales, mainly because of the powerful Stygian magic and supernatural monster. >>>> I wrote an action packed 'later version' which features king Conan struggling in big trouble with a very powerful unique female monster. You can read my gory horror tale [ and fan comments ] on this fine forum... swordsofreh.proboards.com/thread/166/stygia-love-king-conan-horror=== enjoy === Nice sequel! And yep, agree with Von K, that was a great Cromcast episode too. |
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Post by johnnypt on May 16, 2019 8:06:46 GMT -5
Ironically it took detective work to put it correctly into Conan's chronology...  |
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Post by buxom9sorceress on May 17, 2019 10:59:28 GMT -5
Hi Naga fans. the slow GITBowl eventually became 1 of my fave tales, mainly because of the powerful Stygian magic and supernatural monster. >>>> I wrote an action packed 'later version' which features king Conan struggling in big trouble with a very powerful unique female monster. You can read my gory horror tale [ and fan comments ] on this fine forum... swordsofreh.proboards.com/thread/166/stygia-love-king-conan-horror=== enjoy === Nice sequel! ... Thanks very much, Rob. [ i cant get used to my pretty head now being blended ontop of a big long serpent body: with scales of yellow and firey red shining in the torchlit maze of tunnels. my belly feels full to bursting. By Ishtar's arse, i think i will have to lay some fekkin eggs! Fekk that sh#t, and fekk the powers of Set! I will fight them to the end of my bones! ] |
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Post by lordyam on Aug 25, 2019 20:40:53 GMT -5
See the rpg has this be the last of Conan’s thieving stories (after tower hall and rogue). What is it?
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Post by johnnypt on Aug 26, 2019 7:49:57 GMT -5
See the rpg has this be the last of Conan’s thieving stories (after tower hall and rogue). What is it? They're wrong.  |
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efb
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Post by efb on Dec 14, 2020 19:56:33 GMT -5
In the introduction to CONAN (1967), L. Sprague de Camp said he had revised "The God in the Bowl" "considerably for publication" in its first-ever appearance, in SPACE SCIENCE FICTION for September 1952. "Considerably" indeed.
As he says in his introductory note to the magazine version, "In reworking this tale I have retained the original storyline without change. My alterations comprise: (1) Changing the names of characters where these names too closely resembled each other or those of other characters in the Conan series. (Howard was incorrigibly careless in such matters.) (2) Condensing the dialogue which, especially in the early part of the story, got out of hand. (3) Correcting many minor infelicities and modifying the style, which in places approached that of a contemporary whodunnit, for greater consistency with the other Conan stories." And so in this iteration,REH's Arus becomes deCamp's Orys, Kallian Publico = Kallian Podarco, Demetrio = Lord Hymetrio, Enaro = Enaros, Posthumo = Bostoumo, Aztrias Petanius = Astrias Petanius, Dionus = Diomus.
An editor's paragraph preceding de Camp's intro makes unintentionally humorous reading as it attempts to justify including a Conan story in a science-fiction magazine. "Perhaps it is outright fantasy, since science says no such world existed; or perhaps, if you'll imagine this on some world of the future where conditions are different from those on Earth, it's as truly science-fiction as many stories are. In either case, SPACE SCIENCE FICTION feels the discovery of a hitherto-unpublished story of Howard's Hyperborean hero, Conan the Cimmerian, is an important event."" Presumably the paragraph was written by editor Lester del Rey. The issue of SPACE SCIENCE FICTION is available on open access at archive.org, a true curiosity for those of us who are interested in Conan's long and winding publication history.
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Post by johnnypt on Dec 14, 2020 20:41:51 GMT -5
The amount of dialogue is a fair criticism and justifiable to make some editorial change in that aspect of the story for publication. But the changing of names is frankly as random as Howard's penchant for naming characters similarly.
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Post by keith on Dec 19, 2020 8:43:14 GMT -5
I agree that de Camp's changes to the names in the story don't add a thing or improve a thing. I always liked de Camp's own work very much, from the Harold Shea stories ("The Incomplete Enchanter" and others) to the Viagens yarns (TOWER OF ZANID may owe something to Kipling's "The Man Who Would Be King") and the Jorian trilogy. and definitely his informative non-fiction, but he was just too cool and rational to have the right touch with Conan.
I thought the Marvel comics adaptation of "God in the Bowl" was excellent, and the changes Roy Thomas made to the original valid and necessary ones for the comics medium. Making Aztrias a glamorous, aristocratic young woman with money problems due to gambling debts instead of a foppish youth was good, and so was the extended battle with the monstrous occupant of the huge copper bowl. Barry Windsor Smith illustrated the issue, so how could it miss?
I enjoyed that version from the first panel, and I liked the barbarian's run-in with the gate guard and Kallian, after which he demands of Aztrias, "Who was that bad-tempered dog, girl?" only to have her answer "Which one? I saw three such."
As for the original story, it was interesting that REH gave it essentially the format of a hard-boiled detective yarn, with interrogation, suspects, brutal cops whose first instinct was to third-degree a confession out of anybody handy, and so forth. Not the finest Conan story, but well worth a read.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 4, 2021 16:49:41 GMT -5
A fascinating review of REH's The God in the Bowl by Cora Buhlert  Retro Review: “The God in the Bowl” by Robert E. Howard or Conan Does Agatha Christie
No, not that way. Get your mind out of the gutter!
Before I dig deeper into the science fiction and fantasy of 1946 (for more about Chicon’s 1946 Retrospective project, see here), I want to go back to the early 1930s to revisit one of the more unusual Conan sword and sorcery stories. This review will also be crossposted to Retro Reviews.
“The God in the Bowl” is one of the first batch of Conan stories that Robert E. Howard wrote. According to Patrice Louinet’s essay “Hyborian Genesis” in the back of the Del Rey edition of The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, “The God in the Bowl” was written in March 1932 and was the third Conan story written, following “The Phoenix on the Sword” and “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”.
Unlike the two previous stories, “The God in the Bowl” remained unpublished during Howard’s lifetime and appeared for the first time in the September 1952 issue of the short-lived magazine Space Science Fiction. Why on Earth editor Lester del Rey decided that a Conan story was a good fit for a magazine that otherwise published such Astounding stalwarts as George O. Smith, Clifford D. Simak and Murray Leinster will probably forever remain a mystery.
Space Science Fiction September 1952As for why I decided to review this particular Conan story rather than some of the better known adventures of our favourite Cimmerian adventurer (which I may eventually do), part of the reason is that the story just came up in a conversation I had with Bobby Derie on Twitter. Besides, I have been reading my way through the Del Rey Robert E. Howard editions of late and realised that there are a lot of layers to those stories that I missed when I read them the first time around as a teenager.
I don’t think I read “The God in the Bowl” during my first go-around with Conan or at least I don’t remember the story. And I’m pretty sure I would have remembered it, simply because it is such an unusual story. Because “The God in the Bowl” is a locked room – pardon, locked museum – mystery set in the Hyborian Age and features Conan as the prime suspect.Wanna read more? corabuhlert.com/2021/06/03/retro-review-the-god-in-the-bowl-by-robert-e-howard-or-conan-does-agatha-christie/ |
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Owen
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Post by Owen on Jun 4, 2021 21:31:09 GMT -5
A fascinating review of REH's The God in the Bowl by Cora Buhlert Thanks for posting! Great review of a great story. Very interesting that this might have been the first Conan story. I think Howard gets somewhat unfairly tagged for having "historical influences [that] are all over the place" when really the placement of Nemedia as being just north of Italy is not bad at all, considering that the precursors to Rome in the Hyborian age would have corresponded to proto-Etruscans, whose origins still aren't known very clearly. Germany is as good a guess as any for where the Etruscans originated, especially with what was known at the time this was written. It's a fun story because it really does read like a mashup of Poirot and Conan. And I got a real kick out of Conan's inexpert lie that he was there to steal... "food." But reading through this thread, I actually like De Camp's name's better, though, I have to say! |
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