Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Grade the Savage Worlds System
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Bacon Bits" data-source="post: 9119516" data-attributes="member: 6777737"><p>I would say it definitely does. In literary circles, "pulp" has the same pejorative connotations as "penny dreadful," "dime novel," "genre fiction," "comic book," and even (if you search hard enough) "paperback."</p><p></p><p>I don't think people who might play games like D&D or happily read genre fiction are as likely to take the claims seriously, but the literary and critical world has always looked down it's nose at low cost, mass produced stories.</p><p></p><p>It's not hard to find it still being used:</p><p></p><p>"Pulps were the successors to the penny dreadfuls, dime novels, and short-fiction magazines of the 19th century. [...] The pulps gave rise to the term pulp fiction in reference to run-of-the-mill, low-quality literature. Successors of pulps include paperback books, such as hardboiled detective stories and erotic fiction."</p><p></p><p>-- <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine" target="_blank">Pulp magazine - Wikipedia</a></p><p></p><p>"Pulp fiction was often low-quality, cliché-stormed, and short (the magazines had about 128 pages). That's why only the very few people involved in their crafting thought the fiction created for the pulps had real value the way, say, novels often try to."</p><p></p><p>-- <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PulpMagazine" target="_blank">Pulp Magazine - TV Tropes</a></p><p></p><p>Like there's a reason <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_fiction" target="_blank">literary fiction</a> is described as the opposite of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_fiction" target="_blank">genre fiction</a>. And pulp wasn't just genre fiction. It was <em>really cheap genre fiction</em>.</p><p></p><p>I would say that the pejorative association is largely dying out, but I don't think [USER=50987]@CleverNickName[/USER] is remotely out-of-line by saying that pulp is or at least was a generally derided form of media.</p><p></p><p>It's like Roger Ebert saying -- and doubling down on saying -- that <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/video-games-can-never-be-art" target="_blank">video games can never be art</a>. It doesn't mean he's right, but it's definitely the same kind of respect these works got. That's why theater is traditionally held in higher artistic merit than the movies. That's why movies are traditionally held in higher artistic merit than television. That's why television is traditionally held in higher artistic merit than YouTube. It wasn't that long ago when "professional YouTuber" was something people were ashamed to use to describe themselves.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bacon Bits, post: 9119516, member: 6777737"] I would say it definitely does. In literary circles, "pulp" has the same pejorative connotations as "penny dreadful," "dime novel," "genre fiction," "comic book," and even (if you search hard enough) "paperback." I don't think people who might play games like D&D or happily read genre fiction are as likely to take the claims seriously, but the literary and critical world has always looked down it's nose at low cost, mass produced stories. It's not hard to find it still being used: "Pulps were the successors to the penny dreadfuls, dime novels, and short-fiction magazines of the 19th century. [...] The pulps gave rise to the term pulp fiction in reference to run-of-the-mill, low-quality literature. Successors of pulps include paperback books, such as hardboiled detective stories and erotic fiction." -- [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine"]Pulp magazine - Wikipedia[/URL] "Pulp fiction was often low-quality, cliché-stormed, and short (the magazines had about 128 pages). That's why only the very few people involved in their crafting thought the fiction created for the pulps had real value the way, say, novels often try to." -- [URL="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PulpMagazine"]Pulp Magazine - TV Tropes[/URL] Like there's a reason [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_fiction']literary fiction[/URL] is described as the opposite of [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_fiction']genre fiction[/URL]. And pulp wasn't just genre fiction. It was [I]really cheap genre fiction[/I]. I would say that the pejorative association is largely dying out, but I don't think [USER=50987]@CleverNickName[/USER] is remotely out-of-line by saying that pulp is or at least was a generally derided form of media. It's like Roger Ebert saying -- and doubling down on saying -- that [URL='https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/video-games-can-never-be-art']video games can never be art[/URL]. It doesn't mean he's right, but it's definitely the same kind of respect these works got. That's why theater is traditionally held in higher artistic merit than the movies. That's why movies are traditionally held in higher artistic merit than television. That's why television is traditionally held in higher artistic merit than YouTube. It wasn't that long ago when "professional YouTuber" was something people were ashamed to use to describe themselves. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Grade the Savage Worlds System
Top