Defining "Pulp"

[furashgf]

Both Sorcerer and Sword and Sorcerer have (or can be played with) a "pulp" feel.

What the heck is "pulp" (in a setting/mood sense)?

Gary Furash

[Clinton R. Nixon]

This is not a definition of pulp. This is more of a "why I like pulp and what it means to me" statement, the sort of thing you might write an essay about in 8th grade.

To tell the truth, I don't know my pulp. I think it refers to the fact that many of the stories referred to as "pulp" came out in serialized, "pulp" magazines.

Generally, though, it's talking about real swords-and-sorcery fiction, or two-fisted adventure-in-the-jungle-with-Nazis-and-dinosaurs fiction, or hard-drinkin-hard-livin detective fiction (although this is actually noir).

Anyway.

Pulp is actually good, clear-cut fun. It's a literary style in which pretense is dropped in favor of raw emotion and furious action. Pulp will not win the Pulitzer Prize (although a book about pulp will - see The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon.)

It's real literature disguised as garbage. It's dirty, dirty fun.

That probably didn't help at all.

[hardcoremoose]

Hey Clinton,

It helps.  It helps to know that someone else feels the same way.

I kind of liken "pulp" to a decent B-movie.  It's cheap, it'll never win an Oscar, but it's usually good for multiple viewings, and almost always gets more bang for its buck than the highbrow mainstream stuff.  

Most of all it's honest, and that's something everyone appreciates, right?

- Scott

[Uncle Dark]

Clinton,

Yes, Pulp (the genre) is derived from pulp (the cheap paper used in 20's and 30's adventure magazines).

I highly reccomend Brian Misiazsek's essay on Pulp and gaming for the curious.  Some of the stuff regarding "how to game pulp" is fairly obvious (to me, anyway), but the bits on the history of Pulp and the major (still famous) characters is great.

Lon

[furashgf]

Thanks.  The article was helpful too.