The term pulp fiction sprang up in the 1930s. Many people associate pulp fiction with cheap and not very good. That happened due to the fact that “cheap” often appeared in the same paragraph whenever someone wrote about pulp fiction. The cheap part was the paper. Paper manufactured from wood pulp was cheaper and made reading accessible to the masses. A personal observation about pulp fiction is that it often embodies exciting tales of bold characters in over-the-top actions that usually define that character. Many “literary” purists seem to think character development requires narrative explanations and as a result, think of pulp fiction as second-class. I think character is much more accurate and clear when defined by action. I recently watched a webinar by Christopher Lockhart, story editor at WME, and he gave a great illustration. To paraphrase - A wallet is lying on the road. A man sees it, picks it up and leaves. Another man sees the wallet, finds money in it, takes half, and leaves the wallet. A third man sees the wallet, retrieves it and takes it to a police station. Same circumstances in each case, but the actions of the three men reveal three distinct characters. Some incredibly popular and successful writers began as pulp fiction authors. In spite of the fact that many people take a bad and unfair view of pulp and many more don’t recognize or understand it. As the author of the Vic Challenger novels, I am proud to be considered a pulp author. It puts me in quite notable company. I’m sure you’ve heard of a few authors in this list. Edgar Rice Burroughs the Tarzan novels, John Carter novels Dashiell Hammet The Maltese Falcon Dan Brown Angels & Demons Anna Katharine Green The Old Stone House & Other Stories Robert E. Howard The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian John Grisham A Time to Kill C.L.(Catherine Lucille) Moore Jirel of Joiry Raymond Chandler The Big Sleep Max Brand Many Westerns and Dr. James Kildare H.P. Lovecraft The Dunwich Horror Mildred A. Wirt Penny Parker Mysteries Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 Erle Stanley Gardner Perry Mason Series Earl Derr Biggers Charlie Chan novels Kenneth Robeson Doc Savage Series, The Avenger Series Margaret Penrose The Radio Girls Books L. Frank Baum Phoebe Daring Philip José Farmer Two Hawks from Earth Damien Walter My Lovesick Zombie Boy Band: & weirder tales Nancy Hansen Master’s Endgame J.H. Moncrieff Return to Dyatlov Pass Andrea Judy The Bone Queen Will Murray All-New Wild Adventures of Doc Savage series Ron Fortier Brother Bones-Tapestry of Blood Vera Nazarian Cobweb Bride Trilogy Naomi_Hirahara Grave on Grand Avenue
Carolyn Keene Nancy Drew series
How is that for a list of Who’s Who? Everyone had more credits than listed. Most had MANY more. My apologies to all the authors who are not on the list - my guess is, hundreds (thousands ?) more should be listed.
As you can tell from the above list, pulp fiction is a broad genre with many sub-genres, including action-adventure, western, horror, science fiction, speculative, mystery, crime-drama, and even romance.
So, how is new pulp defined? An article by Tommy Hancock of Pro Se Productions back in 2011, says of pulp:
“…layered storytelling, the one-two punch of the dialogue and the action, and the over the top antics, characters, and resolutions that made readers believe in the amazing, the fantastic, and the incredible…”
Then new pulp? It’s pulp written today. Want an adventure? Read some pulp fiction!
RESOUCES & Other sites you might want to visit.
https://book-genres.com/pulp-fiction-definition/
https://www.writermag.com/get-published/the-publishing-industry/pulp-fiction/
http://prose-press.com/what-is-new-pulp/
www.airship27.com
https://thepulp.net/pulpsuperfan/2020/03/09/the-other-pulp-heroes-villains-of-johnston-mcculley-revisited/