Lately I have been musing about Nick Zettel musing (in his April 22 Viewpoint "'Freedom' warrants definition") about President Bush's recent press conference. However, it is not Zettel's concern with the current state of the world that concerns me, rather his excessive use of the word "epoch." At one point I even began to question his motivation for writing his Viewpoint. Was it to express his political concerns or to merely wow us with how many ways he could apply "epoch."

I began to believe the latter, and instead of partaking in my usual naptime (aka theology class), I tallied up how many times the word appeared. The count is in: nine times. Not a huge number by any means, but I would wager that it is the most times the word has appeared in the epoch of the Marquette Tribune. Now giving Zettel some credit, "epoch" is a pretty cool word, but such excessive use depletes its overall coolness.

The repetition of "epoch" also got me to thinking … not about my personal views on the world, but rather about the cool epochs with which I am familiar. The best example I came up with is that of Robert E. Howard's timeless pulp fiction hero, Conan the Barbarian. He lived in an extraordinary epoch.

The more I thought about it, the more parallels I found between the life of Conan and what Zettel claims is the current conflict between Western and Eastern freedom. Before we begin, I would like to define "epoch" as stated in Webster's 1990 New World Dictionary: "A period of time in terms of noteworthy events, persons, etc." With that in mind, I shall paraphrase Zettel's argument using the life of Conan the Barbarian in place of Western and Eastern epochs.

Beneath the life of Conan rests an entire history that can be divided into two vital epochs (just like Zettel's): First, that of pre-Conanine dominance and, second, that of Conanine dominance (after he became King of Aquilonia). Similar to Zettel's argument, it is no secret that the point of conflict between these two epochs is the story "Conan the Liberator" by Howard, where the clashing of Conan's rebels and Aquilonian forces takes place.

Both epochs, as it were, present two definitions of freedom, similar to Zettel's Eastern and Western epochs. The pre-Conan dominance epoch represents Conan as the East: A rogue striking out against the "tyranny" of an oppressive force. In Conan's case the oppressive force could have been the northern kingdom of Vanaheim, in Howard's "The Frost Giant's Daughter," or the giant serpent on the Isle of Dagon in "The Devil in Iron." During the second epoch — the epoch of Conan dominance — Conan became like the West (or more specifically, Bush): Powerful, determined and winning. Conan became a great leader of the most powerful nation of his day, Aquilonia in "The Phoenix and the Sword."

So if someone were to ask me which epochs best defined freedom, I would not trouble them with such petty conflicts as the Crusades or try to define an "epoch" (by the way, I've already hit 17 mentions of "epoch" — count 'em!) by religion alone. I would rather tell them about Conan. I hope this provided a brief look at how much more commensurable Conan is compared to the incommensurable (Zettel used that clunker twice!) ideologies mentioned last Thursday. As a man of the West, I may not understand freedom as Zettel describes it, but at least I know my Conan! It is interesting enough how Zettel seems to understand freedom, as he is a man of the West as well. I know this not only because he is a Marquette student, but he is also my roommate.

Kelly is a sophomore broadcasting and electronic communication major.

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