Funny / The Whole Wide World

• If you've ever read a Robert E. Howard story (especially one of his Conan stories), some of the lines in the film become very funny.
  • Howard states "I was too dumb for college." While he did lack formal education and expressed a preference for writing dumb heroes so he didn't have think up clever solutions to their problems, his dumb heroes are smarter, more knowledgeable, and more articulate than most of the people reading them.
  • He notes the pulps don't pay particularly well, a few cents per word, "so I stretch my yarns. It's easy for me, I'm verbose. I got words!" It's been said Howard probably reached for his thesaurus more times a sentence than most writers do in a whole novel.
• On their first date, Bob gives Novalyne a copy of ''Weird Tales with one of his Conan tales ("The Devil in Iron"). Novalyne starts reading it after their date in bed. As she opens the magazine, the clash of swords and moaning of maidens can be heard (a good shorthand for what it's like to get carried away by Howard's lushly descriptive narration). Then she closes the book, pauses. . . and raises the collar of her nightgown, peering down at her chest, clearly concerned about how she stacks up against Conan's average Girl of the Week.