Writing Blog Number 2

20240218 Pulp Fiction

Pulp Fiction

Pulp fiction is the term used for the stories written in the early twentieth century when mass-produced paperbacks first became popular and inexpensive to produce. The term comes from the type of paper used in the books - cheap, nasty, prone to falling apart after a few years. The pulp of proper paper-making processes formed into nasty paper. the glue was cheap as well and the covers were lurid and often hyper-sexualised. They were all genre fiction - detective, science fiction, horror, fantasy and western mainly, though erotica was also pulp - and the term "pulp" also came to be associated with the magazines that catered for these audiences, as they also used the same cheap paper and over-the-top covers.

Many people consider the era of the pulps to have died in the 1950s as first science fiction, then fantasy, then the rest came to be taken a little more seriously by the establishment and cheaper printing processes meant the need for pulp paper diminished.

However, there is something else that made a pulp story a pulp story beyond the paper and the fact it was a genre title.

The stories had one focus - entertain the reader.

There were no underlying messages. There were no political points. There were no hidden agendas. There was no pandering to trends in capital-L literature.

No, all the writer wanted to do was entertain the reader. Give them a book where they could guess how it would end, giving them what they wanted and had wanted for years. They could start the book at the start of a long bus or plane ride, then, at the end, sell it to a second-hand shop, knowing they'd been entertained for a few hours.

What's interesting is that romance as a genre did not start as a pulp fiction; it was deemed higher class than that. However, nowadays, it is Mills & Boon, Harlequin, et al. who keep that quick read, fun read, give the audience what they expect pulp fiction vision alive more than any other genre.

So, pulp fiction faded as pulp fiction, killed off for good, it is said, by the Internet where anyone can write anything and post it or publish it.

However, I think what I write is pulp fiction. It’s what I sell, it’s what I read. It just has a different name today: “Disposable fiction”; “Light reading”; “Crap” (that last one TM my ex-wife). It’s just that too many writers and way too many publishers want “depth” and “hidden meanings” and “themes” in everything, as if nothing will be read that doesn’t beat you over the head with its message. On the other hand, a majority of people want to read something that will entertain them for a while. They don’t want to have their work of fiction be used as an excuse to proselytise about the evils of the patriarchal society towards the lesser Amazonian shrew-lizard. They want a story to entertain them. That’s where we come in – the pulp fiction writers of the modern world.

So I ask this: Why does something have to be “relevant”? Why can’t it just be written to entertain, as escapism? Just write something that people will want to read, enjoy reading and want to share. That’s all…

And I know I am in the minority here, but I enjoy (and write and sell) pulp fiction, so this is a personal take on the topic.