Thor the Barbarian interviews me!

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Have any of you heard of Thor the Barbarian? I'm not really sure where to start ... well, there's this guy, right? And he decided that Conan was a better life-model than anyone else he'd come across, so he, well, decided to live his own life accordingly. Not the looting and fighting so much as embracing life, taking no shit, and doing what he figured was the best thing - and being a leader, if it worked out that way.

Now, Thor conducts radio programs and a public TV show, and he has all kinds of projects goin' on all the time. But the main thing, for me, is that he wants to spread the Word, specifically, embrace life, take no shit, and do what you figure is the best thing and succeed. Especially creatively and commercially. This is what makes him different, in my view, from anyone else who decides to hoist a tankard and grow his hair out. He promotes others who do their thing, and who make the money work as well as their own ravings/visions.

So it turns out that Thor came across Sorcerer & Sword, and - no surprise - Thor is also a veteran role-player (back in those glorious Tunnels & Trolls days, as it turns out, which led to a whole bunch more tangential discussion). That led to all manner of phone conversations, and eventually to my interview on his show Fantasy Quest.

If you can stand a near-hour of listening to me rant & rave, and of poor Thor trying to get in a word edge-wise once in a while, check it out! It was a lot of fun.

Best,
Ron

[joshua neff]

That was a fun interview. I'm not sure I learned anything I didn't already know (except for the existence of Thor the Barbarian), but it was still fun. Congrats on the exposure, Ron.

[lumpley]

Yeah.

It sounds like it could've been a much longer conversation - like you were both reigning yourselves in to stick to the bullet points, any one of which could've supported an interview all itself.  Or more.  When's the lecture series?

-Vincent

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Yeah, we did have to sort of damp down various directions we could have gone, especially about sword-and-sorcery: authors, themes, history, and more.

Also, as if one hour of me weren't enough, Thor also wants to do another interview for his series "The Power of Legend," which is mainly about how to realize your goals. That one will be more about self-publishing and the Forge, I think. Listening to this one, I realized that I did not give Clinton the credit he deserves, or made it clear how much I owe to the good advice of people like Dav Harnish and Liz Fulda.

A lecture series? Well, depends - who's paying, and how much? (Ah, to dream, to dream ...)

Best,
Ron

[JamesDJIII]

Too bad it's in.... grrrrrr....

Real Player format.

<mumbles something about Ogg Vorbis...>

[Andrew Norris]

Too bad it's in.... grrrrrr....

Real Player format.

If you're on a Windows machine, search for "Media Player Classic" and "Real Alternative". I wouldn't want someone to miss out on this just because they (rightly) were disgusted by RealPlayer.

Ron, the idea of you being interviewed by this guy makes me giddy. I can't wait to listen to the whole thing.

[JamesDJIII]

If you're on a Windows machine

*cough* *gag* <spit take>

Yucky! Naw, I'm one of them there Linux folk. Round here, we don;t do Windows (the Microsoft variety, anyways). I suppose I could look for a Real plugin for Mozill, but, after installing he Flash plugin, I'd rather not.

Although I'm sure there is a solution out there somewhere. Google, save us!

[Trevis Martin]

What a great interview Ron!

That was fun to listen to, I only wish you'd had more time to expand on things and I look forward to hearing the next one.  I especially was intersted in the little juicy bit about people's reaction to the word 'Demon.'

the only side effect is that now my mental model of Ron has to be edited to change the voice from the Deep Booming Tones of Sonerous Wisdom (TM) to the...um...well...

regards,

Trevis.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Trevis,

That would be, "California central-coast + south side Chicago + north Florida," actually. I can hear bits and pieces of all three in my recorded voice, and it's awfully strange. Three accents that you don't hear much in comparison to widely-stereotyped equivalents (southen California valley, New York Harlem, and rural South Carolina), and wedded in funny ways.

Anyway, about that word demon. One of these days, I'd like to see a meaningful blend of language/linguistics analysis with a sociobiological understanding of "identity," focused on this term. I think it and its equivalents in all languages are one of the basic human concepts, and quite likely pre-human (i.e. social mammals). Modern concepts like The Other or local-cultural explanations ("unclean spirits") are inadequate.

Best,
Ron

[sirogit]

The line (Low tone)"We're trudging along in a dungeon, I'm an elf you're a dwarf." has hilarious delivery. I'd have to play it to introduce Elves.