Thread 24743874

Welcome to /pg/, where we read, write, and discuss pulp fiction.
No, not the Tarantino film, but the classic genre stories from early 20th-century magazines printed on cheap wood *pulp* paper. These tales offered thrills for the common man and let imaginations soar.
Though the magazines are gone, the spirit lives on, and here at /pg/, we explore the worlds, characters, and stories they inspired. So come on in and join the discussion!

READ PULP!
- The Eldritch Dark: http://www.eldritchdark.com/
- Luminist Archives - Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction: http://www.luminist.org/archives/SF/
- Luminist Archives - Fiction Magazines: http://www.luminist.org/archives/PU/
- The Pulp Magazines Project: https://www.pulpmags.org
- Project Gutenberg Sci-fi: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/68


LISTEN TO PULP!
- The Cybrarian’s Conan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmd1kGz5gLg
- HorrorBabble's Clark Ashton Smith: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeNNKRLWxwoMd3hyVZOXrZKy3TJfeTxRd&si=pHdZhOqvZyZ4Zv2v
- HorrorBabble’s Cthulhu Mythos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJDIvebdG8U
- HorrorBabble's Robert E Howard: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeNNKRLWxwoO6mZ5jR57W1tVS4iD82jG6&si=evYk--G8lir37YtN

WRITE PULP!
- Flash Pulp: Join us as we recreate the spirit of the pulps with Flash Pulps — 500-1,500 word stories packed with cheap thrills, lurid subjects, purple prose, and daring adventure. Enjoy our collection, and feel free to contribute your own!
- Flash Pulp Collection: https://pastebin.com/G4g4Z9YT

- Bet Pulp: Want to challenge yourself? Post a BET — literally, type the word “BET” — then reply to your post with a complete 6K-word story within a week to complete the challenge.
- BET Pulp Collection: https://pastebin.com/fXAmPuD4

- The Grinder - A website that lists fiction magazines with submission openings. For the aspiring pulp writer who wants to take things to another level.

EXTRA! EXTRA!
So you want to write pulp but don’t know how, say?
- Lester Dent Formula: https://www.paper-dragon.com/1939/dent.html
- Write Compelling Dialogue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpWKp-fnZuU
- Basic Pulp Template: https://files.catbox.moe/t5c17o.zip

My favourite Conan stories are the heist/roguish ones. Tower of the Elephant, Rogues in the House.

Really grand. Would love more examples of stories like that (not Conan necessarily) from anons.

>>24743885
The Frost-Giant's Daughter is my favorite. It's so short, but shocking and powerful, and is the story I can remember vividly. Even in Howard's early days of writing, he was excellent.

>>24743874 (OP)
REH was the greatest

>>24743969
Indeed.

Nice to see the general is back. Are you one of the original anons from this thread?

>>24744091
I posted replies in previous threads, but never contributed any work. I just copied the last thread because I want to discuss pulp.

One of the works of a previous anon, "The Skull" popped into my mind in the shower a few nights ago, and I've been reading much Conan recently, so..

>>24744100
When was the last thread made? A few months by now?

>>24744148
Many months ago.
Sadly it doesn't seem that there are that many people on /lit/ who are very keen on the pulps. The Sword & Sorcery / fantasy generals seem to do very well though.

Somehow /pg/ returns . . .
Neat. I wanted to dump this piece somewhere. Even if it’s on the shorter side.

>>24743959
The opening face off with the Viking warlord is so fucking hard.
>tell me your name so my brothers know who was the last to fall to my blade
>you can tell them in Valhalla that you met Conan!

>>24743885
I gotta give it to Red Nails myself.

>>24744596
Pretty good, thank you for sharing.

>>24744596
Wow Timmy’s a psychopath

>>24743874 (OP)
Man, Project Gutenberg has got a lot of pulps recently. Wish they would organize them better.

Can anyone recommend me something pulpy with a more "oriental" vibe?

Who do you guys think was the best horror pulp writer besides Lovecraft? I think it was Manly Wade Wellman.

>>24746074
What do you like about him? Any reccomendations?

pulp

>starting exercising
>starting reading pulps
>depression and anxiety fades
>become energetic and ambitious
It just works, I guess

>>24746950
This but I don't exercise.

>spend my early 20s agonizing over writing "a great work"
>discover pulp
>writing is fun again

>>24746958
There is just something special about pulps. The energy. The active heroism. I've never been much into writing. But I was getting bored with reading. Too many classics and contemporary works that just didnt inspire or interest me. When I read stuff like The Shadow and Doc Savage, I actually get excited for life. It may sound cringe in this cynical world, but pulps make we want to be heroic.

>>24746222
The entire John the Balladeer cycle is excellent.
It's basically an occult detective series set in the hills of rural Appalachia. It's like a urban fantasy setting but well....rural? I guess rural fantasy? it's got hollers,old mountains towns, pagan magic mixed with southern christian stuff.
If you like stuff like Hellboy, John Constantine, the dresden files, even supernatural, you'll probably like it.

>>24743885
My favorite is the people of the black circle. It hints at the epic scale that Tolkien would eventually achieve with the fantasy genre, but retains the fast pace and general strangeness which characterized the pulps. Not to mention Howard's prose, which is at its best here. Fun, macabre, and almost poetic; Conan at his best

>>24745680
Clark Asthon Smith's Zothique. Imagine Berserk plus Arabian Nights

>>24743874 (OP)
Semi-related. What's your opinion of the new Conan comics by Titan?
They had a crossover event with a lot of REH characters in Battle for the Black Stone.

>>24748466
I just ordered the first collection of the comics from my local comic shop, I'm curious to see what it's like.

I'm thinking of reading "The Coming of Elric" which was a crossover where Conan and Elric face off.

I’ve been on a Conan binge recently. Bob Howard was a better writer at 30 than most writers will ever be. Next up is Shadows in Zamboula.

>>24748569
Zamboula is in the Conquering Sword? That's the last of the Del Rey books for me to acquire.

Wrote this a few months ago. I've been wanting to write more pulpy tales about a living bog man. Inspired by the Grauballe Man. I've tried to submit it for Castle Jackal Magazine vol. 10. I'm ESL so let me know if there are things I could to better.

>>24748879
"Scantily little" sounds tad awkward and I think is rather tautological.

Otherwise, the tallow candle imagery was very nice. You need to put a comma between "if you could call the two horrible cavities in his head that" and "fell on the foal's crystal..."

Coolly atmospheric.

>>24748890
Thanks for the feedback, I will make the changes right away.

>>24748249
>dying earth setting
I'm sold, thanks anon

And so, /pg/ goes back into the dark nights and abysses of its Stygian origin...

>>24748536
>I'm thinking of reading "The Coming of Elric" which was a crossover where Conan and Elric face off.
I didn't knew they had a crossover, I did knew Kain and Elric had a crossover tho.

I wish there was a place where I could publish or post some of the pulpy short stories I've written. Writing for the sake of writing is cool and all, but knowing that when you're done with something it's just gonna rot on your hard drive does kind of take the oomph out of it. I remember one time somebody on /lit/ made a thread about a pulp magazine that was taking submission and I ended up banging out a 3000 word story in a couple of days and submitting it. I found it really fun and exciting, knowing you're actually writing towards a certain end.
The golden era of pulps where you had dozens of magazines taking whatever must have been amazing from a writer's perspective.

BET

>>24751283
I know man. I wish there was a good, open source type sit to upload pulp stories, maybe something like the creepy pasta wiki back in the day.

>>24752344
Something like r/no sleep would be cool. I once again have to mention an idea I had for a shared universe of super hero stories using public domain characters. Capeshit is the new big genre after all.

>>24751283
>>24752344
https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/

>>24746074
Raymond Chandler for me, although I liked Dashiell Hammett but idk if he's a pulp writer/

>>24748249
Thanks again for this, I've been loving it so far. If you can think of anything else in the same vein, I'd be happy for more recommendations

>>24743874 (OP)
I've heard Hyne's Lost Continent is pretty good and underrated.

>>24755804
Forgot picture

>>24743874 (OP)
>The Grinder - A website that lists fiction magazines with submission openings. For the aspiring pulp writer who wants to take things to another level.
Can I get the link? I’m not trying to look up grinder bro

>>24755812
>reptile
>pyramid
>volcano
>masonic checkerboard floor
I'm going to have to check this out.

>>24756303
>>24753844

Finished The Shadow vs The Five Chameleons. It was pretty touch-and-go, but The Shadow pulled through. Evil doers beware.

I think pulp fiction is higher quality than most literature written now because it doesnt suck its own. You get more originality in pulp than anywhere else now.

>>24757345
The fun factor definitely helps creativity. And the publishing schedule as well. Also the pulp authors were well-educated and very literate, despite the reputation pulps had for being low-brow.

>>24757458
>The fun factor definitely helps creativity. And the publishing schedule as well. Also the pulp authors were well-educated and very literate
Well said, anon

The Repairer of Reputations is my favorite horror short story

>>24753291
The problem with r/nosleep is that its rules fucking suck

>>24757345
Pulp fiction is superior to most literature because some of the things that prevent literature from being more desired or a "must-read" is the sheer complexity of the prose, the references to high-brow culture, and the fact that to get the most enjoyment out of the book, one must put a shit ton of work into it. None of this is inherently awful or wrong, but it does block a little more than half of the population from even looking in the direction of the classics due to feeling overwhelmed, not to mention the accumulation of midwits and snobs who surround high art and shit on anyone who doesn't share their interests while punching down on people who actually are brighter than them.

You have to go through SO MUCH to understand literature, and even when you do, you're stuck with a club of circlejerking assholes who make discussing the book a pain because things devolve into ego-stroking and repetitive discourse that doesn't challenge the status quo that comes to surround the story. And this isn't something limited to books, the same thing is found with movies.

>>24757458
I always found it funny how Stephen King wanted pulp fiction to be taken seriously by academia but then couldn't really make any pulp fiction that is on the level of the classic all-time great pulps. It's not to say that his works aren't bad, they're just nowhere near the level of REH or Lovecraft or Moorcock or PKD.

>>24759146
Didn't he shit on the Conan stories for a while? I know Moorcock did.

Have any successful pulp authors from the past written anything about how to write successful pulps? The only thing of that sort I know of is Lester Dent's formula.

>>24759228
The more I learn about Moorcock, the more I sometimes dislike him.
How can you dislike Conan or The Lord of the Rings?

This thread have any Thieves Eorld niggas?
Loved those books as a kid

>>24759334
I have the first book, but haven't read it yet.
I became interested because The Spoony One covered the roleplaying game setting in his Counter Monkey series on YouTube.

>>24759132
Pulp fiction is legitimately fun, enjoyable, and inspiring. And its action from page one.

AS I get older, I respect narrow arts more and more. Pulp is just action. That is it. And the authors are capable of writing incredible stories in such narrow limits. Its like PG Wodehouse. I am convinced he is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. But what is more incredible is that he only wrote light English comedies. He staying in very tight artistic limit and flourished.

Maybe writers allow themselves too big a scope, and their writing becomes bland. If they were forced by publishers to stay within very narrow limits, it may help writing in general.

>go in pulp fiction thread
>it’s all bros talking about cool action stories and based book recommendations while also encouraging eachother to write their own short stories
>go in fantasy literature thread
>theres faggots badmouthing Tolkien and C.S Lewis
Honestly /lit/ could learn a thing or two from you guys, also since this is a pulp thread anyone remember the original Tarzan stories? My grandpa read them to me when I was a kid but have a hard time finding them and remembering the reading order I’d appreciate a few tips on where to buy a full collection since it was such a important part of my childhood

>>24760551
I read the first one recently and loved it. Real fun book. I dont know about buying a collection. I read a PG ebooks.

>>24760551
Imo the best way to get into the Tarzan novels is the paperback omnibus editions, Tarzan: The Novels: Volume 1 and 2 . First 9 novels, not totally shit quality build, and as a point of personal preference, larger pages without a larger font. Kinda awkward on a shelf though desu. As for buying all of them, you'll probably end up having to mix and match different printings, but start with Volume 1, the first 5 novels are by far the best, so if you lose interest you won't be burdened with like 30 novels.

Personally I think Tarzan isn't as good as his Barsoom novels, so if you like Tarzan there are a million omnibus editions of the first few Barsoom novels as well.

>>24743874 (OP)
I want to get into Elric of Melbourne but I want to do it via publication order. What's the best path way to it ?

>>24761291
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock_bibliography#Elric_of_Melnibon%C3%A9
click the arrow and sort by publishing order

>>24760551
>My grandpa read them to me when I was a kid
That's a really cozy memory to have. Wish I could have experienced something like that.

I would like to read Tolkien to my children one day, if I ever have any.

>>24759323
He's an anarchist. Which explains why he's so endlessly whiny about the foundations of the fantasy genre

BET

>>24751283
>I wish there was a place where I could publish or post some of the pulpy short stories I've written.
spacebattles.com

>>24762649
That place is awful

What lessons does pulp have to offer in terms of writing stories with meaning?

>>24743874 (OP)
I'm writing my own Conan/Slaine stories, but he's an alien on a strange alien world.
>>24759323
>>24762077
Deep down, Moorecock is just really really inmature. That's why he acts like a spoiled brat everytime he can.

>>24764096
The takeaway from pulp is that you should be blunt and precise with what you want to convey to an audience. Both modern novels and literature glazed by academics struggle with problems born from an author spending too much time on a novel in its entirety (the story is either depthless or faux-deep).

What matters most is getting your shit out quickly and efficiently but with enough passion, background knowledge, and craft behind it so that it can still stand out on its own while not being pretentious or overly complex. It's like pumping a balloon with air or carving a soap sculpture. You get it done, you let it be, and you move on.

>>24761515
Yeah my grandpa was the best.
>I would like to read Tolkien for my children one day, if I ever have any.

You will bro, you will be a based father one day and read cool stories to your kids.

>>24764303
I think Moorcock was a phenomenal writer, the eternal champion cycle is among the best in fantasy (all fantasy, not just the pulp or Sword & sorcery thing) yet dispite all of it, all the influence and success he’s had, he still manages to be bitter and resentful. I guess it’s cause he’s a commie.

>>24762109
Good luck, anon.

>>24764096
Top of my head, first thing in the morning:
1. The story has to be interesting from page one.
2. People love active heroism.
3. Its like, the energy a person write with gets translated into the story.

And I swear there is something like, if a person want to get better at writing and storytelling, the best way is to just write a lot. Dont get lost in attempting to edit a story into perfection. Write a decent story, and then move onto the next one.

>>24764339
kek literally the life of Clive Cussler

>>24743874 (OP)
Question: are there things that can exclude a story from being called pulp?
Would a specific type of setting or added length make it just a regular story.

I ask cause I have two ideas of stories that I'd say are more for the action and concept than anything that deep. But one story would make me want to heaven a sizable bit of talking and me rambling about the world and the other is Cyber-Fantasy

Would that excuplude it?

>>24765072
Thanks.

850words so far.

>>24765187
Yeah, if it is too long it stops being pulp

>>24765187
The first rule of writing pulp is have fun!
The second rule is be giga

Are there any /pg/ recommendation charts? Looking for more recs (old and new)

>>24766358
Idk, Hour of the Dragon is 300 pages and I'd still consider it pulp.

>>24767239
Isn't it written somewhat episodically though?

>>24765187
I would say that pulp is a kind of " you'll know it when you see it" type of thing. Genre and even length are secondary to that classic pulp style

>>24767239
Haven't read that one, but I'm pretty sure the chapters can be enjoyed independently of each other if it was published episodically like >>24767690
Says

>>24765636
2900 words

>>24743874 (OP)
anyone know what pulps Tom Sawyer was supposedly reading?
I kind of want to get my head filled with stories of robin hood, the knights of the round table, pirates, injuns and cowboys told trough the lens of 19th century kids magazines
is karl may considered pulp?
this is what i fucking hate about the modern "woke" bullshit, they ruined mtg which was fundamentally pulp, their first expansion was arabian nights goddamnit, brass city and all. now we ve got black aragorn. i also hate that they made me wrote this last cringe paragraph

Newfag here
What are the BET post about?

>>24769515
It's like a commitment you make to write something within a certain timeframe. You post BET and then within a week you're supposed to reply to your own post with a fully fledged 6000 word short story.

>>24759132
Genuinely believe if middle school/high school incorporated these sorts of fun books/tales into the lessons more people would grow up to be readers. At a point students should be challenged but after learning how to read the next step should be trying to get them to love reading. Goosebumps at the book fair did more to foster that in the students around me than any assigned reading in any class I’ve had.

OP here. I'm going to do my own BET.

I haven't written a story for years.

>>24769676
Good luck have fun anon

>>24769585
But anom, how would students learn to hate themselves and their country if they don't read the slop schools force them to read nowadays?

>>24769532
I see, do i have to use a trip?
Do I share it through catbox, rentry or pastebin?

>>24769945
No trip necessary, catbox’d pdf. Check out previous submissions in the OP.

>>24769676
600 words so far, just putting ideas forward at this point. I have a rough idea for how I want this to go.

Based on this one page, would you guys read this? I don't feel it's that strong at present.

>>24743874 (OP)
Bump

>read weird tales
>story about some terrible horror
>the horror is revealed
>it’s a giant ape, orangutang, or harambe demon
many such cases

I want to do the BET thing, but I'm an ESL and I'm not confident in my English

>>24771624
You could write it in your native language, then translate it?

>>24745680
Salammbo. Don't be scared by Flaubert, this shit is pure pulp.

>>24771750
>Machine translation
I rather kill myself desu

>>24771578
Murder in the Rue Morgue was a let down for this precise reason.

I’ve been reading some of Josh Reynolds’ (the old black library writer) royal occultist stories. They’re good fun, and don’t take themselves too seriously. He’s super prolific too which is great - I guess when you’re a full time trash writer you can churn out a lot on the side while waiting for the next commission to come in.

>>24771578
People were apparently terrified of apes back then, I remember Conan fought like three different monkey people. I guess they were a stand in for orcs since they hadn't been invented yet

>>24772430
The ape man in Rogues in the House was the one time I was not necessarily scared of one, but could understand the fear he would incite.

>>24772430
Turn of the 20th century is when zoos really started popping off in the US, maybe that had something to do with it. Imagine you're some yokel that's only seen farm animals and cats and dogs in his life, and all of the sudden you're looking at this half-man, half-beast chimera swinging around a cage. We take it for granted, but it must have been pretty freaky for some people.

Any good heist stories that aren't Conan?

>>24772621
I'm writing one right now!

>>24770232
Don't emphasize the word "good"

>>24771578
One time it was a dead guy on the back of a feral camel where nobody had ever seen a camel. It roamed around for weeks, a smiling spooky skull skeleton guy riding a monster and actually killing people.

>>24773039
there was one where a guy digs up a toad statue from an aztec ruin and takes it home. only for the toad statue to come to life at night and throw pebbles that pass through his skull and hit his brain, torturing him to death.

>>24773470
The camel thing apparently really happened.

>>24773536
Source?

>>24772746
>I'm writing one right now!
What's it about

>>24773637
googled "dead guy on the back of a feral camel"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Ghost_(folklore)

>>24773666
I quoted it in the reply.

>>24771779
It's spiritually pulp and a masterpiece
Flaubert was a genius

>>24772575
It's interesting seeing how real world trends like this effect fiction. I wonder how much of the fantasy genre can be attributed to this increase in knowledge that occurred in the first half of the 20th century

>>24772575
I can't remember if it was Poe or who, but some old American writer once wrote a short locked room murder mystery story about *an orangutan* in Paris.

>>24775556
Murder in the Rue Morgue.

>>24771624
Me again
If i write it in English, would you guys read it without freaking out about grammar or ESLisms?

>>24776948
Sure.

>>24776948
No AI will literally edit it for free there's no excuse

>>24768787
>>24765636
>>24762109
>>24765072
I have failed.

>>24771779
>>24774294
When I read Salammbo it opened my eyes to how fake and gay the whole genre vs literature debate is. Here is a book that is simultaneously high literature and pulp fiction. They don't have to be mutually exclusive. The Western literary world just set up some arbitrary distinctions and categories over the years based some people's taste more than anything else.

>>24755100
Dragon of Ishtar Gate and the Khilit the Cossack series are more examples of "historical" fiction that just comes off as pulp.

>>24777206
ESLisms are nice to see these days because they're a sign AI hasn't touched it and the author has a pure heart

I’m part of a very small Venn diagram that likes old school pulp and LitRPG. I generally don’t think those two things should work together but somehow I found a story where they do.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/131113/skulltaker-litrpg-sword-sorcery-isekai

>>24772430
>I guess they were a stand in for orcs since they hadn't been invented yet
They were a stand-in for negroes, Anon. Or in one case, injuns. Howard was pretty frank about this kind of thing, human devolution etcetera.

>>24777413
>arbitrary distinctions and categories based on some people's taste more than anything else
Weirdly, the main relevant people were Flaubert's admirers. I'm not joking.

>>24771779
>>24774294
>>24777413
Thanks guys, gonna pirate it right now
>>24777437
I finished the Ballantine Zothique collection, what a blast. I'll look into these as well

>>24777206
Fuck off outta here, AI shill

>>24777437
>Khlit the Cossack comes off as pulp
Anon... it IS pulp, in the most literal way possible. Harold Lamb's stories were published in pulp magazines and inspired Two-Gun Bob's stories for the same magazines.

>>24778081
If you liked Zothique, try Hyperborea as well.

Are there any vampire or gothic pulps like Dracula? Is October and I have that inch again since I love vampires.

>>24779603
>Hyperborea
I've already started into the Hyperborea cycle. It's good but the Hyperborea setting doesn't have the magic of Zothique, for me personally. I'm looking for books that Edward Said would hate.

>>24744596
Nice!

should I read this?

>>24780889
>I'm looking for books that Edward Said would hate.
In that case, you should try to find English translations of Emilio Salgari's Sandokan series.

>>24780394
>I have that inch again
Anon's one-incher springs up with joy at the thought of vampires.

>>24782005
Yeah
>T. Haven't read it yet

>>24782090
Interesting, thanks anon

Deploying an emergency bump
Also a request
Recommendations for western pulps

>>24744647
Sorry I didn't respond earlier I was busy but:
Yes, I particularly love the story not just for its shocking nature, but the fact that Howard used the Ancient Greek archetypes of Daphne and Apollo, but only switched their power structure.
Instead of Daphne (the girl) a mortal and Apollo (the man) a god, he made "Atali" the god and Conan the mortal. Of course it's a nice little subversive trick, yet adds a sort of mysteriousness that Howard liked to put into his world. Conan the mortal is chasing the Frost Giant's Daughter in a lust-filled madness until she surprises him with her brothers, whom Conan kills, then when Conan is about to rape her, her divine father rescues her (compared to Apollo chasing Daphne in a love-filled madness until he caught her, then she prayed to her divine father Peneus, and turned her into a tree).

Has anyone here write some pulp recently?

>>24747676
How much of it is christcuck stuff?

>>24786764
come on now

This thread shall not die.

>>24743874 (OP)
I had an interesting thought. I wondered how a setting where there is a singular really fast way to get from point A in space to point B, but there is no equivalent speed way to return back to point A. So through this method it takes 3 days to get to alpha centari or whatever, but the return trip backto earth is like 3 months.

Wonder how that would effect things politically. It means the earth section can influence the alpha centauri section rapidly, but the inverse is not so quick. This also creates a massive chokepoint on the alpha centauri side. However earth would have the initiative but Alpha centauri would have a more up to date picture of both systems as a whole.

Any setting done something like this? A "Single direction flow valve" style superspeed?

>>24789389
needs space sluts and a fist fight with an alien to make it pulpy tho - world build around that

>>24743959
based
Every time I read it, I get so fucking bricked up when he describes the frost giant's daughter EVERY time. My dick gets so hard I could fuck my way through a bank vault door.

>>24790232
Sorry anon, I just read fantasy pulps.

>>24790232
I'm the same as the other anon, I don't know any pulp Westerns because I don't read them, sorry buddy.

I have a vague idea that Howard wrote some, that's about it.

>>24791034
>>24791246
Its over

Going to drop my awesome new character in the next writing contest

>>24792623
Writing contest? The one made by a tripfag?
I think they only litfic shit (drama basically) I don't think pulp would be appreciated there

>>24793795
Thats one of the reasons I entered

I'd like to read smut that has at least some thing veneer of a literary merit. The bar isn't high at all i'd just like some classy goonread.

Any such classics you guys know of?

>>24795287
I always recommend the same thing: Louys' Aphrodite.

>>24795287
Unironically you might want to consider getting into manga or light novels for that, but it's hard to find decent translations

>read Skullface
>Expect Fu Manchu
>get /pol/x/ schizokino instead
how was robert e howard able to write so many works yet with a robust and timeless style?

Did this thread kill /sffg/?

It's cool if it did.

Should I bother to read Hour of the Dragon if I already read The Scarlet Citadel and I’m going through all the other stories? Reviews say it’s the story is a copy of Scarlet Citadel that incorporates tropes from his other stories into novel-length. It’s long and reviews seem to indicate that it’s good but not great.

>>24796786
It is his counterpart to "the call of cthulhu".

>how was robert e howard able to write so many works yet with a robust and timeless style
He is older than the modern purist genrefiction, because of this he and his friends' have such an eclectic style.

>>24759795
Not Wodehouse but similar, to this day three men in a boat by Jerome k Jerome remains one of my favourite book. Very funny and comforting read.

>>24759323
>>24759228
Ironically enough, Moorcock had to latch on Conan through his invention of the "sword and sorcery" label.

>>24759316
Dwight V. Swain - Techniques of the selling writer.
I self-studied his ideas a lot at a time but I failed to produce anything worthwhile back then. Maybe i’ll re-read my copy again and try.

>Swainfag has breached containment
Oh no...

>>24796907
Based

Batman but he kills people and is poor. Character is kind of like an animal in his behavior. Obviously a vigilante story, but more focuses on how terrifying he is, and his status as a growing urban legend. Based? Ive already written part of it.

>>24799452
>Batman but he kills people
Isn't that just the shadow doe

>>24798358
What’s up in Swain to seethe about?

>>24799474
By the description, I thought he was talking about the Spider

>>24799474
I made peace with that idea
>>24800038
I dont like spiders

>>24799913
Nothing really its just that, as is usually the case with those type of books, the advice is kinda obvious and it should have been 200 pages shorter. Also whenever someone mentions Dwight wasn't all that good of a writer, swainfag starts seething

>>24796907
I don't even know what that is.

>>24798358
And here I thought you meant Swain the Viking

Speaking of Swain, I only skimmed his book, but this is what I got.
From top to bottom:
Level 1: A logline only needs two sentences
1: Situation, Hero, Goal
2: Villain, Disaster
Ex:
After awakening in a desolate future, Anon must journey across a ravaged wasteland to reunite with his family. But the Robot Overlord and his relentless robo guards are close behind, determined to crush the last remnant of humanity.
Level 2: Scene and Sequel
Scene: Goal, Conflict, Disaster
Sequel: Reaction, Dilemma, Decision
Ex:
Scene:
Anon sneaks into an old laboratory to retrieve a secret file that may give him an edge over the Robot Overlord.
A robo guard catches him. They fight. Anon wins.
Anon retrieves the file, but it triggers an alarm. More robots are rushing through the corridor.
Sequel:
Anon is angry with himself.
More guards may arrive at any moment. He must come up with an escape plan. The corridor he came in may already be blocked.
Anon decides to head deeper into the laboratory instead.
Level 3: MRUs
Motivation: The robo guard stomps toward him, eyes glowing a menacing red.
Feeling: A jolt of fear shoots through Anon’s chest.
Action: He stumbles back, eyes darting frantically across the room for anything he can use.
M: There! A silver blaster lies abandoned on a dusty table.
F: His pulse spikes. He doesn’t know if it still works, but right now, it’s his only shot.
A: Quickly, he lunges for it, hurling his body across the air.
M: The robot charges at the same time, blade-like claws gleaming and outstretched.
A: Anon crashes onto the table, snatches the blaster, and rolls to his back in one fluid motion.
M: The robot is right on top of him.
A: He pulls the trigger.
S: “Eat lead, tinman!”
So, is this it? Or am I way off the mark?

>>24802636
He gives some good points how to lure the reader into the suspension of disbelief, how keep reader interested and then he goes telling about his story mechanisms/devices:
His Scenes and Sequels are about forcing the plot forwards
His M/R units are about forcing the pacing so that scenes and sequels push forwards.
It’s one of the good ones from the how to write a book and better do it my style-genre. If reader gets some good tools and insights from it, good. If not, not so bad.

Pulp fiction general, huh? I hope this includes Hard Boiled detective fiction as well! It's my favorite literature, and it's great to have a designed place to discuss it. Really looking forward to spare some time and make a marathon out of Hammett and Chandler bibliography.

Serious question, but has manga sort of taken the place of pulp in the modern zeitgeist?

>>24803199
TV did.

Star Trek, X-Files, Quantum Leap, Knightrider, The A-Team etc etc

Writers that would have written pulp wrote episodic television.

>>24803070
What do you like about that genre?

>>24803199
Yes, in the print side, since comics became collection items.

>>24803243
I found it to be the most passionate form of fiction personally. Fun, deeply atmospheric, and immensely introspective about the human nature. I also always idolized the Hardboiled Man archetype. The heroes of those tales are the embodiment of truth, but also of personal power. Lone wolfs that live under their own terms, holding their personal ideals as sacred, and the truth as gospel. Besides all that: The aesthetics.

A funny thing about pulps, and older literature too, is how professional the characters act.
There's in group drama, but not in the levels of modern writing.

>>24803495
The drama around the characters was directed towards the overcoming of obstacles, and inner struggles, reconciling their violent nature or indifference towards the dark with the moments they face. Acts founded on courage, and wish of transcendence. I believe this kind of idealism became a completely lost value among the modern day stories, where the characters tend to adopt an stockholm syndrome mentality towards their shortcomings and tend to romanticize their own self destruction. The world of people that separate themselves from their dreams is a dead one; wittered, gray, and aimless, devoid of any heart.

Here's a great excerpt from Chandler that give a valuable insight about this feeling:
>"You go in through double swing doors. Inside the double doors there is a combination PBX and information desk at which sits one of those ageless women you see around municipal offices everywhere in the world. They were never young and will never be old. They have no beauty, no charm, no style. They don’t have to please anybody. They are safe. They are civil without ever quite being polite and intelligent and knowledgeable without any real interest in anything. They are what human beings turn into when they trade life for existence and ambition for security." - Philiph Marlowe

I am, for some reason, convinced that Bruce Wayne is based off of Dr. Satan’s rival, Ascott Keane

Are there any fans of The Shadow here? If, so Are the stories written by Bruce Elliott worth reading? I'm loving what i read so far..maybe like two or three misses out of 25 hits (But that's mostly Gibson stories and maybe one or two of Tinsley stories)

Always show. Never tell.
Never like this: Jess shot the burglar.
But always like this: Jess let loose on the slide. Point fourty-five ACP hollowpoint cracked into the chamber. The 1911’s trigger felt hot and stiff. She lowered the barrel on the silent man’s head.
—Go ahead punk, make my day.
BLA-BOOM

Jess shot the burglar cinematically.

Jess executed the criminal in a very Clint Eastwood-esque manner

Jess considered the sociological conditions that led the burglar to his life of crime.

Jess had run out of dyslexia medication. She butt the shorglar.

>>24804599
Just about everything Shadow-related is pretty fun, but I would advise against reading the Bruce Elliot stories. They're kinda OOC and make for "meh" Shadow stories. If you interpret them as their own pulps not related to the Shadow, they're pretty fun.

If you enjoy Elliot's stuff, you should read the James Bond series (as it's a clear influence on his direction for the character). If you like Tinsely, check out The Spider.

>>24803495
It's not really an accident. Both the pulps and great literature were written by well-read men (and some women), and this was before there was a TV or phone in everyone's house. Most pop fiction or "serious literature" nowadays is written by people who either don't read much, or read pop fiction by other authors who consume a lot of books...which are made by authors who don't read or have horrible taste.

>>24804496
And the Joker was ripped straight from a Street and Smith story, specifically "The Grim Joker" from the Whisperer by Tinsely. He's a clown-faced mob boss.

>the Red Hood is ripped from Tinsley's Scarlet Ace
>the Whisperer's lead character is named Commissioner Gordon

>>24806678
Ok. I will be skipping Elliot and Lynds (i've only heard bad things about his run on the Shadow) stuff for now. But, the James Bond comparison you made interest me so, i'll pick up one of Elliot's Shadow stories the next time I'm in the mood to reread the Fleming novels. I plan on reading The Spider next year, so now i'm looking forward to it even more. Thank You.

>>24806435
Perfect language reeks of AI these days. Fast pace, no time to edit for typos or grammar, that would be the seal of authenticity for literature of tomorrow, I definitely foresee a niche for that type of thing emerging.

>None of the BETfags wrote a story this thread
A shame

>>24743874 (OP)
bump

>>24808255
I asked if you guys thought my one page sounded interesting and I got no replies, so I became so disheartened that I abandoned it.

>>24806678
What’s the best Shadow story? I’ve never read anything from it.

>>24809694
Link it and I will read it

>>24810093
For the comics, check out The Death of Margo Lane, Year One, Grendel Vs Shadow, and Hitler's Astrologer.

For the books:

>Lingo
>The Shadow’s Shadow
>Gangdom’s Doom
>The Salamanders
>The Romanoff Jewels
>Atoms of Death
>Zemba
>Mox
>The Condor
>The Third Shadow

What's Doc Savage best story?

>>24812660
I just started reading Doc Savage about 2 years ago.I've read about 60 of them so far. I'm currently on story "The Pirate's Ghost" (1930's Era Doc).

Of the ones I read so far these are the stand outs (others may disagree) :

>The Land of Terror
>The Polar Treasure
>The King Maker
>Fear Cay
>Death in Silver
>Land of Always-Night
>Fortress of Solitude

If you read any of these and none appeal to you I wouldn't bother with the rest of the series. Also, don't be like me and avoid any Doc Savage stories written by Laurence Donovan.

>>24811243
Thank you

Do you guys think stories on the modern world would work with pulp?

>>24811168
It's in the thread.

>>24815036
As in similarly told stories told in the present day?

It would be trickier if you want them to be "believable". Today's surveillance makes it hard for vigilante types in urban environments being able to work unimpeded. Explorers don't have the same right of way and much of the savage uncharted world is now charted, so the idea of finding something truly hidden doesn't quite square up today. It'd need to be more extreme in the sense of something like Hollow Earth or other underground, under water scenarios, and plenty of justifications to explain how they've managed to stay hidden.

But there are plenty of modern day scenarios in terms of action and adventure, be it if you want a story about mercenaries working in some third world hellhole, cartel violence either among themselves or against law enforcement, or perhaps just general military/police/crime fiction.

Otherwise it'll be some form of urban fantasy if it's about modern day monster hunters etc.

What is less trite in my sword and sorcery project: giving the anti-hero protag's backstory through compiled psychiatric evaluations, or logs from a torturer's ledger/work register?

>>24815322
Tb totally h with you those sound like completely different stories, like the first one is 1970s crime fiction and the second one is a Byzantine adventure story.

>>24764096
Mediums and trends have a big impact on stories. The 1.5 - 3 hour limit of a movie has a major impact on the scope / focus of a story compared to a TV show with 10 - 20 episodes to work with.

With modern fantasy / sci fi novels specifically, publishers seek long trilogies with huge character arcs, sweeping plotlines and gimmicky lore... and most notably targeting the female audience.

Pulps (focusing on weird tales style scifi/ fantasy/ horror) are everything that modern literature and media in general has lost. Male focused stories, filled with action, sexy women, heroic deeds, bizarre monsters, and fantastic lands.

A pulp writer doesn't need to explain the cultural norms of 10 different peoples and explain the backstory of every character and spend a whole book setting up some character growth... pulps just throw you into a world and because that world is given to you in flashes and glimpses amidst a blistering paced story, the world is even more intriguing and mysterious... we see bits and pieces of another word and we imagine the rest... it makes the whole thing more magical.

Pulp writers also get to practice! Robert E Howard wrote a lot of stupid, duds before he got good. Inventing new worlds, characters and creatures to explore every few months in short form narratives gave writers a lot more experience being weird and experimental... that experience is something a modern writer expected to spend 6 years churning out a trilogy won't have the opportunity to achieve.

But more important than the inherent brevity and consumable structure of a pulp is the basic fact that they are stories written for men from a time when men were allowed to embrace their natural ambition, aggression, lust and wonder at our world.

>>24815036
Pulp is fresh.
Pulp contains within an original character in a quest of ultimate purpose.
Modern scenarios are not excluded. Pulp is an escape from modern reality though. If the scenario is a modern one, then it must be a strikingly different vision. Our modern Pulp reader who lives in a modern world does not want more modern world, he does want an escape from it. This is my 2 cents in the bucket.

>>24816090
In fact, the television episode is the direct latter-day equivalent of the classic pulp narrative: fast-moving, visceral, meant to be consumed swiftly, and far from always written to endure although the best work has lasting power. It is precisely the heightened viscerality of visual media that has allowed them to take over from the pulps, and the transition was especially appealing to men, who are the more visual sex.

With that in mind, it might seem odd at first blush that there are no pulp fantasy TV shows, but in fact something very close was the biggest show on television for years and years: A Game of Thrones proved that the public had an appetite for tits, bare-chested, oiled-up musclebound barbarians, sex and gory violence, and several other shows such as Rome (made by John Milius of Conan fame) and Spartacus fed the same appetites. It's worth remembering that many of the pulps back in the day were historical tales, not just fantasy (or indeed, historical fantasy, as for example the Khlit the Cossack stories often verge on), so this is nothing out of order. It remains only to hope that some capable network invests in a big-budget, well-made Conan or Lankhmar TV show soon.

(It may seem ghastly to anyone in this thread to acknowledge a debt to Gurm of all people, but I really believe the above. It's well known that the success of GoT drove the production of Spartacus and other epigons – albeit it killed off Rome, alas.)

>>24817117
Television, the online fanfic scene, video games, and anime/manga/light novels in Japan have all inherited the spirit of pulp but in different ways.

>>24815678
The idea is that the book will be a series of 9 or 10 short stories about the character. There will be a couple of epistolary stories giving backstory about the character's pre-adventuring days told from the perspective of a few others observing his behaviour (i.e. a torturer or some sort of orderly or similar at an antiquated lunatic asylum)

>>24817117
Spartacus was definitely pulpy. It was also very soapy. Its success at integrating soap opera structure and storytelling with pulp themes might be a case study in why purer forms of pulp are so rare now. There is no reason not to hybridize it with other forms of entertainment in order to reach a broader audience or to more effectively keep the current audience engaged. This is especially important for visual media because it takes a long time to make; the fast pace of production that the original pulps were known for is simply not possible in television or videogames.

>>24817442
>the fast pace of production that the original pulps were known for is simply not possible in television or videogames
That's very true, the amount of required labor for production is almost diametrically opposite. Be interesting to see if sloppa-based production techniques might reduce an episode down to something one guy can dash off on his keyboard in a few days.

>>24816302
One of the ways I think a modern pulp would work is placing them on war-thorn shitholes like Sudan or the middle east.

>>24819358
Not related but this made me want to see a historical pulp swashbuckler set in the war between Chinese Gordon and the Mahdi. Some guy looking for a huge treasure while all that crazy shit is going on in the background.

>>24820902
I would read that

Reading Conan actually makes me hate my gay life.

Blood meridian is pretentious pulp

Shout out to Abraham Merritt who is far too little remembered nowadays. I too need to read more from him. Some short stories and the novel "Burn, Witch, Burn!" (which is *really not* about the plight of poor innocent witches like a modern reader would easily assume) got me more than interested. Unfortunately I much prefer reading on paper to reading on screen, so further endeavors into Merritt have met some delays.

>>24822437
Looked him up. And it says H.P. Lovecraft was influenced and liked some of his work. That's all I need. Thanks for info.