WWCD

It's easy to forget why I called this thing What Would Conan Do? Other than making me giggle it was what got me into and through university and everything since. What would Conan do? We're not talking 1970s beefcake in a nappy Conan, we're talking R. E. Howard Conan.

Conan would win. He'd defeat it regardless of cost or moral ambiguity, express his will in the most direct manner. Conan wasn't a nice guy. He was a powerful part of Mr. Howard, who said he felt his hand upon the pen when it came time to write. Conan was exerting his will again.

You could build a convincing argument for Conan being Howard. Their relationship was powerful and peculiar, their lives mirrored in unusual ways. Maybe it was the reverse? Howard became Conan as time went on, the relationship turned. He fought imagined enemies and stalked his town in a black poncho and matching hat. When you start asking what Conan would do it leads to odd places.

And then the doctors told him that his mother was about to die. Without a second thought he left his father at her side, walked back to the car, and shot himself in the head. I'm not sure what this says.