In answer to the thread title, I wrote this for a MUX that is sadly no longer open.
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What was Pulp?
Actually, the genre that’s been quietly inserted into the background of Tomorrow MUX is equal measure Pulp and Victorian Adventure Fiction. The theory of Wold Newton evidenced by Phillip Jose Farmer in his series of biographies of fictional characters posits that the great heroes and villains of adventure fiction were in fact related, and in fact descended from a common gene pool. To wit:
“1795 - Wold Newton meteor strike: Eighteen individuals were riding in two coaches past Wold Newton, Yorkshire.... A meteorite struck only twenty yards from the two coaches.... The bright light and heat and thunderous roar of the meteorite blinded and terrorized the passengers, coachmen, and horses.... They never guessed, being ignorant of ionization, that the fallen star had affected them and their unborn.”
Quoted from Tarzan Alive, Addendum 2, pp. 247-248.
“The meteor strike was “the single cause of this nova of genetic splendor, this outburst of great detectives, scientists, and explorers of exotic worlds, this last efflorescence of true heroes in an otherwise degenerate age.”
Ibid., pp.230-231.
The fiction that these individuals starred in was heroic, adventuresome, rough, and often an odd mixture of unrealistic action and gritty realism. Doc Savage, Man of Bronze, whose gold-flecked eyes, insurmountable intellect and penchant for making 1980s technology gadgets in the 1930s would have made him the ideal crimefighter. He was, after all, the inspiration for the later Superman character. What makes the Superheroic genre different and removed from the Pulp adventurer Doc was is evident in his solution to crime. He simply performed unlicensed Brain Surgery on criminals to render them harmless.
This behaviour was by modern standards reprehensible, but no more so than the Shadow. Former master-criminal and psychologist, the repentant Kent Allard stole the identity and fortune of Lamont Cranston, and went about in a cloak, fedora, and scarf to gun down the bad guys in cold blood, laughing creepily the whole time.
Contrast these with the heroes and villains that came immediately before them. Jules Verne relates to us the story of Captain Nemo and his amazing submarine, the Nautilus. Nemo was also a repentant former arch-criminal, and evidence exists (according, at least to the Wold Newton website) that he was none other than the arch-nemesis of the world’s first and greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes. After faking his death at Reichenbach, Professor Moriarty assumed the identity of Captain Nemo and set out to avenge mankind by ending all war the hard way.
What could have persuaded Moriarty to repent? Perhaps the actions of his own daughter. Rebecca Fogg, cousin to Phillias Fogg, the famous adventurer who traveled around the world in 80 days, persuaded his cousin to join him in working to right the wrongs in the world in Her Majesty’s Service. Moriarty might have had a different view of things after becoming a father. And what did his actions and failure aboard the Nautilus do?
Well, just perhaps, they inspired Clark Savage to prepare the world for a different kind of hero. After marrying Rebecca Fogg, he prepared to give the world Doc Savage. The example of the earlier heroes brought about a darker, more ruthless breed. The Shadow was only the beginning, leading to the downward spiral and eventually leading to the current situation. Hard, ruthless men and women, believing they were doing the right thing in the hard, ruthless world they built lead to catastrophe. The world needs a needed new breed of hero. Or, to be exact, a very old one. The world needed the crew of the SeaQuest.
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