While I was relishing the Moorcock/Dent formulae for writing pulp fiction, posted below, I was notified by Twitter of the latest "Weird Things" column by Damien Walter about "The New Pulp"... He tries to make the case that this is a golden age for pulp because the barriers for publication have become so low... Not convinced myself, but he has a couple of compelling recommendations, including one for a book called Empire State, by a guy called Adam Christopher, published by the admirable Angry Robot.
Sez Walter:
If the history of the 21st-century pulp fiction revival is ever written, Empire State might well be seen as its starting point... Empire State is a homage to all things pulp, a multi-genre mash-up of a novel that collides fictional tropes such as a literary particle accelerator, while hoping like hell the thing holds together – which on the whole it does quite admirably...
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8 comments:
I'd say that "real pulp" has to be, for want of a better term, organic. The guys who write those pamphlette-sized Mexican westerns for a working class readership are true pulp writers. Guys who write arch imitations for hipster fans, are not. That stuff is pulp pastiche at best.
I told you I was an authenticity snob.
Walter considers your argument and disagrees, thus:
The new pulp looks the mob square in the eye and says, hey, I'm just ordinary folk like you. But I got me this idea for a book about zombie-vampire-ninja-supersoldiers that I thought y'all might enjoy, want to hear it? Just 99p in the Kindle store for the next 24 hours!
The old pulp is dead, all hail the new pulp....
It's possible, if their heart's in the right place. Prime example: Hoodtown. In spite of how completely cooked up it is, it's underlyingly sincere.
"Heart," though. That's a problem, right? "Sincerity" even more so? Both prime indicators of authenticity.
They might be prime indicators of authenticity, but are not especially required when writing a Warhammer novel for Black Library...
I can't define it myself. Nobody ever called China Mieville insincere, but he's far from pulp, even though he writes a couple fo books a year. Chabon and Moorcock are both steeped in pulp, but not of it... Paul Auster, the ur French-admired post-modern pulpster absolutely lacks heart.
Part of what's admired is taking a certain kind of risk. By speaking what you feel. Holding things at arms length allows deniability.
BTW, I'm not trying to claim that I'm this brave. Partly why I'm so impressed by those who are.
Perhaps "synthetic" is a better term than pastiche.
Empire State is a delight and is published by Angry Robot. A company that can only be described as a group of "Gamers made Publishers."
I reviewed their "Kell's Legend" here http://cinerati.blogspot.com/2011/02/kells-legend-action-packed-fusion-of.html
One could also argue that the "new pulp" began with The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril http://www.amazon.com/The-Chinatown-Death-Cloud-Peril/dp/0743287851
I would posit that it got a lot of steam from a couple of key locations. First, Monkey Brain Books. Second, Jean Marc and Randi Lofficier of Black Coat Press. Third, Win Scott Eckert's work in defining and expanding the Wold Newton Universe.
Their work in the field is without compare. I'd add Black Gate magazine as a modern Weird Tales if it had only published "Sword & Sorcery."
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