I agree with you on that regard. As you said, Conan is intelligent, even educated. But he is not blinded by the arrogance and denial of the "civilized man", living in comfort with his walls and cities. He is aware of the fragility of man, and is well acquainted with the violence and chaos that governs the world. This knowledge steels his resolve and allows him to navigate dire situations that cause the will of civilized men to crumble.







I don't think Conan necessarily has disdain for civilization, I think it would be odd if he did, given he became the king of one. I think he doesn't take for granted the false sense of security, it provides. And I think he takes humor in men who do, or who have some sense of power over nature.







I think that's one of the tropes that both writers were heavily vested in, maybe one of the reasons that they became friends, and likely why many folks who like one as an author also enjoy the other. Its the trope that in man's arrogance, he forgot how small, weak, and temporary he is in the grand vastness of that natural world, and what men do in confrontation to that fact.

