PULP IS BACK!

During the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s there was a literary tradition beloved by the common folk. This was called “Pulp Fiction” and took the form of magazines printed on very cheap pulp paper. The content ranged from westerns, war dramas, romance and detective stories. But the stuff that really exploded to the heights of popularity were the genres that survive today as fantasy, science-fiction and cosmic horror. Authors such as HP Lovecraft, Robert E Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. Stories about heroes, monsters, strange futuristic technology and ethereal terror. Publications like Weird Tales and Amazing Stories were homes for these niche genres that went on to inspire everything we read today. Every comic book hero is based on Doc Savage, every modern horror writer is inspired by Cthulhu and every fantasy hero is the son of the mighty Conan. The influence of pulp in all things fiction today is inescapable. These once strange and imaginative stories became the blueprint for every movie and every book today. So, we at The Bizarchives strive to be proper heirs of this wonderful western literary tradition.

WHAT MAKES SOMETHING “PULP”?

When a true pulp fan hears that something is pulp they are expecting a story that focuses more on experience than philosophy. Pulp can absolutely have questions of morality and existence. It certainly can have intellectual undertones. But first and foremost pulp invokes thrills and chills. Adventure, mystery, terror and action. It is at it’s core an appeal to excitement. A good pulp author can give the reader an adrenaline boost, make them shed a tear or even keep them up at night with nightmarish visions in their heads. Pulp is an action movie in text. There are sword fights, spaceship battles and sexy ladies. It has mystery, magic and mayhem. It is anything strange and imaginative packed into short form mediums like short stories and novellas. A pulp story has little exposition and grabs the reader in the first few lines then takes them on a wild ride that is over before they know it. Messages are rarely explained but are instead demonstrated through action. It is entertainment for the sake of entertainment. It paints a world as it happens instead of literal dissertation.