Pulp: The Five Essentials

[Derek Hiemforth]

A hypothetical situation...

 

Let's say your best friend has won (by random chance) the opportunity to compete in a lucrative RPG contest, with a $50,000 prize provided by a rich eccentric gamer. The contest involves a group of gamers playing in a pulp adventure, and the prize will be awarded to the gamer who best captures the flavor, spirit, and tone of the pulps in his or her roleplaying.

 

Trouble is, your friend knows nothing about pulp! And there's only a few days before the contest, so he or she only has a very limited time to get up to speed.

 

Given all this, what five "pieces" would you recommend to your friend that best capture the feel of the genre, or cover the most essential character(s), or so forth? (In this context, a "piece" is something like a single novel or novella, a relatively limited story arc within a few issues of a monthly magazine, a single movie, a single episode (or, at most, a small stretch of episodes) of a TV series, and so on.)

[Emerald Mask]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

Movie The Shadow, The Phantom, Books Any Doc Savage Novel, Any Avenger novel, Any Indiana Jones movie.

[Steve Long]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

1. Movie: The Rocketeer

 

2. Movie: Raiders of the Lost Ark

 

3. Book: any one of the general Pulp anthologies that I listed in PH -- Goodstone's The Pulps, for instance

 

4. Book: any one Shadow novel

 

5. Book: any one Doc Savage novel

 

 

But of course, the best thing to do would be to sit down and read Pulp Hero cover to cover.

[st barbara]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

You could also throw in a couple of Pulp Crime writers like Carol John Daley or Mickey Spillane and some Pulp S F (E E Smith, John W Campbell or Phillip Francis Nowlan) as well.

[Lemurion]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

All the suggestions are good, but I'm going to try and mix it up a little more.

 

Doc Savage and the Shadow are vital (preferably from the original pulps which are available at http://www.blackmask.com). I would probably go with one of the Shadow radio plays, an early Doc Savage novel, the comics version of the Rocketeer, one of Robert E. Howard's Boxing stories (a Sailor Steve Costigan or Dennis Dorgan), and finish it off with the Mummy (the most recent version).

 

That gives a good cross-section of the pulps, the two most important English-language characters, and most importantly spreads it over all available genres.

[st barbara]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

Gee "Lemurion" I wish I could get hold of some of Howard's Dennis Dorgan or even beter his Breakenridge Elkins stories !

[Lemurion]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

Try Fictionwise

 

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook32855.htm

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook28763.htm

http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook10509.htm

 

Seek and you shall find

[Steve Long]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

Thanx for the links, Lemurion!

 

If they were printing-disabled, I'd definitely buy a couple of these. But in a pinch it's at least good to know they're available.

[Lemurion]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

You can also get a lot of the old Howard stuff through the University of Nebraska Press' Bison books line and there are a few other small presses doing things with his work.

 

Once I get unpacked from the move I'll try to dig up more links-- I think almost all of these are available in dead tree somewhere.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

Dark City actually has some very Pulp (heavily Noire) elements to it.

 

The Big Sleep is good Pulp Detective movie.

 

Sin City.

 

and all that other stuff people mentioned.

[Basil]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

A few non-standard ideas:

 

Something by Rex Stout; the Nero Wolfe stories go back to 1934 after all. I think either Fer-de-Lance (1934) or Too Many Cooks (1938).

 

H. P. Lovecraft is a must (Pulp includes horror, after all); A short-story collection would be best.

 

Dashiell Hammett is a good one: possibly The Maltese Falcon. Or, the movie version starring Humphrey Bogart.

 

Though it's just after the canonical "Pulp Era," I'd include the movie Casablanca. Bogart as world-weary Rick Blaine is the perfect noir (anti-)hero.

 

And because seeing a parody is a great way to understand a genre, the movie Amazon Women on the Moon (for Pulp SciFi).

[OddHat]

Re: Pulp: The Five Essentials

 

One Lovecraft novel or short story collection.

 

Doc Savage

 

Tarzan

 

G-8

 

The Avenger

 

That should give a nice range of archetypes and situations.

 

Movie wise, maybe:

 

Indiana Jones (any one or all three; the best of the modern Pulps imo)

 

Flash Gordon, the Queen version. Yes, it was campy; still a good Pulp Sci-Fantasy flick.

 

King Kong (Both the original and the 2005 remake)

 

The Mummy (1999 version)

 

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. A flawed film, but some nice nods to the genre.