When I consider why I enjoy Pulp fiction so much I think of particular characters that excite and fascinate me. I think of Francis Galt The Gold Fish or Donald Wandrei’s Ivy Frost or Eric John Stark. And, of course, there’s always Tarzan, Doc, The Shadow, Sexton Blake, and many others. I know that not all Pulp heroes are always well-written or interesting, still there are so many characters that are enjoyable and excellent in other ways. We can enjoy the good stuff, or even the not-so-good-stuff, about specific characters if there is something about them that speaks to us.
I could say the same about Pulp fiction as a genre. Some of the stories are good, some, Lord knows, are not good at all, but I love Pulp as a body, despite the individual stories with individual problems. This is also true about some of the ideas regarding people and cultures represented in some Pulp stories. Some of the ideas presented are just plain stupid, and not in a fun way. And worse, there are bigoted representations or biased ideologies present in some Pulp stories that are deplorable, especially those from earlier time periods, but that is no excuse.
To say that these representations are “of their time” and existed in all other types of media of the same periods, while true, certainly does not excuse them. All time periods had people with different ideologies including people who knew that bigotry was an evil that needed to be opposed and defeated. It is important that these bigoted ideas should be recognized and rejected.
I submit that while biased concepts exist in some Pulp stories, they are in contradiction to more elemental concepts that motivated artists to create Pulp fiction in the first place, and made Pulp so enjoyable for audiences for so long. In essence, the very basic concept of Pulp is against any bigotry, no matter the stupid biases of some of the individual creators.
One consistent underlying premise of all Pulp fiction is that anything is possible. Pulp promises that there is a whole new world, whether it’s arrived at after a long journey to a foreign land, or to be found in the shadows of a familiar city, that will excite or horrify you. This fundamental idea creates a wild sense of wonder at a limitless horizon. There is a clear understanding that venturing into that horizon could bring glory or terror or thrilling adventure, but doing so will expose us to a bigger and stranger world than any we know. Pulp presents the lure of mystery, and inspires a craving for the thrill of the bizarre. That is the most basic character of all Pulp fiction.
The idea that anything is possible motivates a yearning to encounter new places, people, and different ideas. To plumb unexplored territories. That is why Lost Land stories are so prevalent in Pulp. They exemplify a healthy outgoingness, a desire to explore new things even though it’s difficult. They advocate the value of bravery in adversity, that the challenges are, in fact, part of the benefit.A desire for adventure and for the new.
It’s true that once a Pulp story got the characters into strange new territory, sometimes the creator would frame the characters’ experiences with their own biases -cultural or otherwise- either minutely or in a manner that would direct the narrative. Nonetheless, I argue that these biases are added on elements to the Pulp story, possibly even reactions to the wild possibilities that Pulp fiction affords. It’s possible that once the characters stepped over the horizon some creators, limited by their own biases, couldn’t imagine a world quite so big as the genre of Pulp fiction dared them to. They were frightened by the possibilities. And fear of the possibilities sometimes causes people, even Pulp creators, revert to a cowardly paradigm that rejects a nuanced and open understanding of the natural, human world.
Pulp fiction is about possibilities and adventure. Intense, visceral excitements and ideas. The popularity of Pulp fiction indicates that people want there to be more to their world than their mundane experiences. Pulp fiction was specifically designed to answer the call for a bigger, more exciting, universe. A universe where there are interesting people adventuring in a land unknown, and we’ll be better for going out to join them.
