What is pulp fiction

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A. Also known as 'dime novels' in the USA and 'penny dreadfuls' in Britain, pulp magazines, the original home of what became pulp fiction, contained series, short novels or novels in serial form. The subject matter always emphasised the adventurous, ranging from risqu� love stories to space battles in the outer reaches of the solar system, and the cast of characters featured detectives, masked avengers, soldiers, sportsmen, aliens and cowboys. Generally not cast in a particularly literary mould, action rather than a character's inner dialogue was the main thing - which is not to say that good stuff wasn't produced and that good writers weren't involved, it's� just that pulp was about entertainment, rather than literary achievement.

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Q. Why 'pulp' fiction
A. Because they were printed on cheap paper made from pulpwood scraps. The name 'pulp' was first used in reference to Argosy magazine, launched in 1896 in the USA, which featured adventure fiction at a price and in a format that appealed to the American working class and immigrant populations who could not afford - and probably didn't want - highbrow hardback fiction or glossy periodicals. (Lest we forget the paperback wasn't invented until the late 1930s, and the cinema was yet to become a major force in entertainment.)

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Argosy was a huge success, and it spawned a host of imitations, including The Popular Magazine, All-Story, Top-Notch, Short Story, Blue-Book and Adventure. The Black Mask specialised in what became known as 'hard-boiled style' of detective fiction, and Amazing Stories and Astounding introduced the world to modern science fiction. These magazines had an enormous influence on popular culture well into the 1930s, after which time comic books took over the baton.

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Q. Who were the characters
A. A number of characters first featured in pulps have gone on to almost mythological status, such as Nick Carter, Tarzan and the fictionalised adventures of real people, such as Buffalo Bill and Jesse James. Some of these characters began to get their own magazines, rather than just appearing in one story among many, and these were known as 'character magazines'. The Shadow was the first to get his own, but Doc Savage soon followed, along with the likes of the Spider, Captain Hazard, the Masked Detective. It could also be said that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes was a pulp character, appearing as the stories did in penny dreadfuls.

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Q. Sherlock Holmes
A. Certainly, to the extent that Conan Doyle bemoaned the fact that no-one would ever take his other work seriously enough as a result of Holmes's popular and populist success.

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Q. And other writers
A. Early work by luminaries such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, H.P. Lovecraft, Dashiell Hammett and E.E. 'Doc' Smith all appeared in pulps.

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Q. But it's not all trashy is it
A. Not at all. As some of the pulp aesthetic crossed over to the more 'serious' medium of the novel, great writers, particularly in the field of 'hard-boiled' detective fiction such as Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade), Raymond Chandler (Philip Marlowe) and James M. Cain (Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce and the screenplay adaptation of Chandler's The Big Sleep), came to the fore. Without pulp, film noir could not have developed, nor the more philosophical branch of science fiction both in film and the printed word.

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Q. Is pulp still around
A. Certainly the descendants of pulp, such as Marvel comics and writers such as Stephen King and Jim Thompson, are still here. Endless attempts to reanimate the turbo-charged, but often murky world of pulp appear on film, from Indiana Jones to Pulp Fiction, and the current vogue for amoral crime and detective novels is testament to its lasting influence.

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For all your pulp needs check out http://www.thepulp.net/pulplinks.html

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See also the article on science fiction here

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For more on Arts & Literature click here

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By Simon Smith