The phrase "pulp" has been bandied about on
HeroPress - and other sites - quite a lot recently and so rather than try to offer up my own definition, I thought I would share the interpretations of three people whose opinions I value, to help you make up your own mind as to what constitutes "pulp".
However, to start with we'll set a baseline, by quoting from
Wikipedia on the subject of pulp magazines (give that what credence you feel it is worth):
"Pulps were the successor to the "penny dreadfuls", "dime novels", and short fiction magazines of the nineteenth century. Although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines are perhaps best remembered for their lurid and exploitative stories, and for their similarly sensational cover art. Modern superhero comic books are sometimes considered descendants of "hero pulps"... the pulps were aimed more at adult readers whereas comic books were traditionally written for children and adolescents."
We'll kick off with
Troy 'Doc' Holaday's strong, but well made, points as to why pulp is
not a genre, from a discussion of roleplaying games on the
Midnight's Lair message boards:
"Writers who worked for the pulps, and were paid almost nothing for it, were generally free to explore and pander to the common man
(and woman to some extent). As a result, they came up with a number of stylized story types ... formulas really, that helped them churn out 3-500,000 words a year.
"These story types later became distinctly separate genres in their own right. Science Fiction, South Sea Tales, "Spicy" Fiction, Weird Tales, Daredevil Pilot Stories, Jungle Stories, etc. are all primarily a result of the inventiveness of pulp writers....
"I guess when people talk about the pulp genre (singular) they are talking about some supposed mish-mash of these genres. However, the genres were usually not crossed in the old pulp magazines (though there are a few exceptions, such as Burroughs bringing Tarzan into the Pellucidar tales). They were mostly kept very separate, and had very separate audiences, just as genre fiction generally does today.
(Not too many readers are equally devoted to spy stories, who-dunnits, westerns, and space opera.)"It's a modern conceit that there was such a thing as a monolithic pulp genre thread that contained elements from all of these stylized story types.... I'm so tired of people talking about
Spirit of The Century like it's referring back to some established tradition. It and other RPGs of its ilk, are drawing on a plethora of sources that were lumped together by format and to some extent style, not content. That's not a value statement. I don't think what I have said has any bearing on whether SotC is a good or bad game...
"Imagine a television show with elements of
The OC,
24,
Dresden Files,
Friends,
Family Guy, and
American Chopper all in the same show. In some ways, that would be no less of a weird concept than is proposed byRPGs that are supposedly built on the backs of
the pulp genre."
On
HeroPress, in last week's
Six Of The Best, David Drage - the mastermind behind the
Dial P For Pulp podcast, said this:
"Pulp started off covering a wide variety of genre’s and to a certain extent it still does. From science fiction and horror, through hardboiled or noir and on to adventure stories and even romance stories. The whole heroic fantasy/sword and sorcery genre pretty much started with the works of Robert E. Howard. Today the term "pulp" generally refers to somewhat naive adventure, hardboiled detective, and sword and sorcery stories - usually with clear cut good and bad characters, “dames” in distress and dastardly plots!"
And I shall leave the final comments to
Jeff Mejia aka
The Evil GM, who reignited my dormant childhood passion for this style of storytelling:
"Pulp is about excitement, adventure, fun and escape. More than anything else the pulps were about location. The pulp magazines were in their heyday during the Great Depression. Folks needed to escape from the drudge of daily life.
"The pulps offered this escape to exotic far away places where a man could make a difference. The keyword here is: exotic. Whether the locales were natural; tropical jungles, Arctic wastelands, volcanic islands – or man made; underground labyrinths, lost temples, ancient libraries, hidden tombs, and ruined cities.
"With the right use of description and the proper tone just about any locale can be made mysterious and exotic...
"I think pulp, rather than beginning or ending at a set point, constantly evolve[s] – much like comic books. Comic aficionados have accepted the premise that there are different “ages” that define the comics- 'The Golden Age' 1940s and 50s, 'The Silver Age' of the 60s, 'The Bronze Age' of the 70s etc. I feel the same about pulp."
Pulp, it seems, is all things to all people. But the main thing is, whatever your views, it seems to be something we can all get passionate about and that has to be good thing.
Sometimes you don't want - or need - big action blockbusters or violent hokum, sometimes only a good chuckle will do and that's where 30 Rock comes in.
.JPG)
