Blog Archives
sEmbrace The Red Revolution!
Monday , 13, February 2017 Appendix N, Before the Big Three, Pulp Revolution 36 CommentsStrong opinions piss people off. Strong opinions, expressed forcefully, piss people off even more. To those offended, I say this: Campbell, confreres, and successors have—for seventy-nine years—pumped out self-serving propaganda that paints the Pulps as worthless. Constant recitation of a litany of calumnies has succeeded in erasing not only the virtues of the Pulps, but […]
Guest Post by Karl Gallagher: Genre and Emotion
Friday , 10, February 2017 Pulp Revolution 17 CommentsJeffro’s Appendix N crusade is smashing the idols of the SF establishment and chasing off their high priests, to the joy of readers discovering forgotten works. But one of the idols being smashed is John Campbell, founder of hard SF, and his Big Three writers. As Jesse Lucas said, there’s some irony in that: “Note […]
Deconstruction. For many readers, it signifies a mean-spirited exercise in demolishing a genre’s conventions by a clever-in-his-own-mind critic. However, in the culinary world, a deconstruction is an attempt to distill a dish down to its essential ingredients so that they can be arranged into a new form. For pulp fiction fans seeking to reintroduce the glamour […]
The Great Myth of the Golden Age of Science Fiction
Monday , 6, February 2017 Appendix N, Before the Big Three, Pulp Revolution 65 CommentsHere’s the Great Myth of the Golden Age of Science Fiction: “Science Fiction sucked until the coming of John W. Campbell and the Big Three—Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. Together they swept away the puerile garbage of the Pulps and brought about Science Fiction’s Golden Age.” This is, not to put too fine a point on it, […]
In response to some recent questions and reactions, some of the guys have tried to clear up a few points of confusion. Cirsova editor P. Alexander has this to say in Attempting to Define the Pulp Revolution: What It Is and What It Is Not: We are not using the pulps to recapture kitsch; we are […]
Star Wars Stole Pulp
Monday , 30, January 2017 Appendix N, Before the Big Three, Pulp Revolution 51 CommentsHere is the narrative: Science Fiction was a tiny genre, largely ignored by the general public, a niche of a niche, only appealing to teenage boys… until Star Wars. Then, it got big. Star Wars blew up so big, they had to coin new terms to describe it: summer blockbuster. It was so big, it […]
P. Alexander on Why Pulp Revolution is Different
Saturday , 28, January 2017 Pulp Revolution, Short Fiction 1 CommentChris Lansdown has an excellent interview with the mastermind behind Cirsova Magazine, the inestimable Castalia House blog columnist P. Alexander. Within it you will find the most concise explanation of what Pulp Revolution is and what makes it different that pretty much everything else on the market: What we’re doing with Cirsova is not about […]
Pulp Revolution, Before The Pulp Revolution Was
Thursday , 5, January 2017 Pulp Revolution 5 CommentsThere is so much going on it’s easy to miss things. And there are books going out that I don’t even look at until three different people insist I take a look at them. Thune’s Visions was one of those books. Nethereal was another. Given how good those were, I pay attention when this sort […]
Another Hero – on heroism and storytelling
Thursday , 16, February 2017 Kevyn Winkless Comment, Pulp Revolution 7 Comments(Note: my brief history of Japanese SF will continue next time as I track down some references.) Heroes. Who needs them! Just another holier-than-thou vehicle for someone’s personal hangups. Just another overinflated cardboard cutout, a power fantasy made flesh. Too strong, too competent, too perfect. Real life isn’t like that. Real people aren’t heroes. And […]