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A wish-fulfilment fantasy for pubescent boys of all ages, or a subtle disquisition on the ethics of a sorcerous world? John Milius' Conan the Barbarian (1982) manages to be both, although one may be easy to overlook. In this episode, JF and Phil leave the heights of Hesse's The Glass Bead Game with a headlong dive to the trash stratum. Their wager: that Conan the Barbarian, a film without a hint of irony, is a spiritual statement that is equal parts empowering and disquieting, and a prime of example of how fantasy is sometimes the straightest way to the heart of reality.

REFERENCES

John Milus (dir.), Conan the Barbarian (1982)
\nRichard Fleischer (dir.), Conan the Destroyer (1984)
\nRobert E. Howard, American writer, author of the Conan stories
\nJack Smith, "On the Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez"
\nWeird Studies #3: Ecstasy, Sin, and "The White People"
\nH. P. Lovecraft, "Supernatural Horror in Literature"
\nFritz Leiber, American writer
\nWeird Studies #95: Demon Seed: On Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child
\nDungeons & Dragons
\nWeird Studies #20: The Trash Stratum (part 1, part 2)
\nMasaki Kobayashi (dir.), Kwaidan
\nJerry Zucker (dir.), Ghost (1990)
\nRoget's Thesarus of English Words and Phrases
\nMaria Montez, Dominican-American actress