Skip to main content

The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane (Cont.): The Platypus Reads Part CCLV

The One Black Stain

In an interesting twist, the world of Solomon Kane is revealed not only in prose but in three short, narrative poems.  The meter of these poems has the bounce of country ballad required for narrating stories of this kind and it's an excellent addition to the world.  Howard apparently learned from this inventing entire faux epic cycles to quote from in his Conan tales.  One distinction from the Conan narratives, however, is that the Kane poems attempt to link Kane in to our real world by means of characters and places.  The One Black Stain, for instance, features a show-down between Solomon Kane and the historical figure Francis Drake.  This real-world element gives Howard's Kane a sense of immediacy in a way that the characters of the mythical Hyborian age lack.  Quite frankly, I like it, and wish he'd been able to write a few more of Kane's exploits before moving on.

The Blue Flame of Vengeance

This is that title than which no pulpier can be thought.  True to its name, The Blue Flame of Vengeance is a pure swashbuckling adventure complete with sword-fights, pirates, a damsel in distress, a hero in the making, and the wise, old mentor figure that shows him the way.  Kane flourishes in this decidedly English and decidedly non-supernatural setting.  Howard had a knack for creating strong characters that could survive being moved from genre to genre thus allowing him to avoid telling the same story over and over again.  In this case, Kane does just as well at mundane adventuring as he does in the world of occult detection.  My question is: "do we have anyone today creating characters that are this flexible and, if so, what is there any direct link back to Robert E. Howard?"   

Then Hills of the Dead

Back to Africa.  This story appears to be the start of what was intended to be a string of "African Adventures."  I suppose it would be followed by a string of "Oriental Adventures," and then perhaps "Colonial Adventures."  It's a great idea and I wish Howard had stuck with the character long enough to perfect it.  The real question, though, is what would be left of Kane when the adventures were over?  As with Mike Mignola's Sir Edward Grey, Hills of the Dead seems to suggest that constant run-ins with the occult might unravel Kane's solid Puritan faith.  N'Longa explicitly challenges him with the idea at the end of this story.  I have to ask: "is a Kane without his Puritanism still Solomon Kane?"

Several other fragments follow these stories which I'm not going to comment on due to their incomplete status.  Hopefully I can finish out the final complete pieces in this collection in the next post.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Platypus Reads Part XXVII

Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...

SNES as Money Well Spent: Platypus Nostalgia

I got my Super Nintendo Entertainment System when I was eleven years old.  That's a couple years after it first came out.  The occasion was a little dramatic: to celebrate the end of a two-and-a-half year course of treatment for cancer.  I had no idea that it would be waiting for me at home after the final doctors visit.  It was a nice spring day, the trees were waving gently in the breeze outside the bay windows.  With a cup of tea resting on the coffee table, I set down to play.  What was that first game?  It was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past .  Around twenty years later, my SNES still works as does that Zelda cartridge.  It's been a long way from boyhood in Southern Connecticut to manhood in North Houston, but I'm still playing. Why am I still playing?  There were stretches when I didn't.  Many times, I've just been too busy.  There were also seasons when it felt embarrassing to still be playing video games....

Under the Moon: The Platypus Reads Part LXVI

My wife and I were discussing our favorite books from the Chronicles of Narnia on our way back from lunch.  My wife, true to her sunny personality, is a staunch fan of "The Voyage of the Dawntreader."  I can't argue with that choice but, when push comes to shove, "The Silver Chair" has always been my favorite. I have a bit of a theory.  I think "The Voyage of the Dawntreader" is Lewis' grail legend.  If that's so, then I'd hazard a guess and say that "The Silver Chair" is his "Pilgrim's Progress." -just think about the shape of Puddleglum's hat and the fact that he lives in the Fen Country and you'll see what got me thinking down this line. That brings me to why I like "The Silver Chair" so much.  When I was little, we had a children's version of "Pilgrim's Progress" that my mom used to read to me.  I lived in New England and the Christianity I was raised with had a heavy tin...