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BRAIN_PULP
August 19, 2004
I didn't like
"Pulp Fiction" It took a year or so
that much when of thinking about it
I saw it. before I think I
finally got it.
One thing that seemed weird
to me is that it really John Dickson Carr on
wasn't very much like the pulp magazine:
actual pulp fiction.
"Cheap only in
Real pulp was a very being moderately
romantic fiction, often priced it
about vigilante justice, provided
but the framework excitement for
remained one of honorable the youthful or
heroes fighting to right the stay-at-home,
the wrongs of the world. instilling a
morality as rigid
Always "fighting crime", as any Sunday
though the main character School's."
may himself have been
"outside the law".
For them, crime was
not a technical There are crimes
legal category... against Humanity
The film "Pulp Fiction" and crimes
is a story of sleazy against God, and
gangsters being sleazy sometimes the
without much in the way legal system
of good guys being good. itself is one
such crime.
It's a much more
modern kind of (Or maybe: We are
story, having "Pulp" confused raised
little to do with with "Noir"?) on tales
the pulp of the of anarchy...
30s and 40s.
ANARCHY
One touch that did
make sense though,
was the way the
John Travolta
I didn't get it character was
until much, much always reading a
later: "Pulp Modesty Blaise
Fiction" is a novel in the bathroom.
story about
people ruled by Modesty Blaise,
fantasies and now *that's* pulp.
pretentions. BLAZING
Tarentino is
It's not intended supposedly
to be pulp interested in
fiction itself, trying to do a
rather it's about film version of
people with "pulp Modesty Blaise,
fiction" stuck in which would be
their heads, brain interesting to
people who are pulp see...
trying to write fiction
themselves into I'm not holding
stories. my breath. That
seems like one
And there's a of the great
strong suggestion doomed projects.
that the Bible is
just another None of the other
example of Pulp. attempts at
translating it
But the reasons to film have
everyone loved gotten anywhere
this movie (and near the mark.
the reasons I
didn't) have MY_NAME_IS_MODESTY
little to do
with this.
On the surface,
this is a story
featuring
completely
worthless, We used
contemptible to call these
villains as main "anti-heroes".
characters...
I think that's
what people (Well... that and
like about it. the sound track.)
Once anathema,
now contemporary
America laps
this stuff up. Whatever that
means: anathema?
Against theme?
I hate to sound all
goody-two-shoes, but ANATHEMA
this worries me.
An even more prime example
was "The Silence of the Lambs"
I knew people who took the
Hannibal Lecter character as
Well, there have always been some sort of existential
some fairly twisted subtexts anti-hero, demonstrating his
to popular fiction if you superiority to the, uh,
look closely... The formula sheep-like masses.
used to be that you could
write stories about nasty But it seems obvious to me that if
main characters all you want, he were *really* superior he wouldn't
*provided* that they met be playing these stupid games. The
with Bad Ends (however Superior Man does not go around
perfunctory and unconvincing murdering inferiors for fun.
those ends might have been).
The villains have
often been screens on
which to project the
inner desires of the An example of this sort of
audience. thing is "Basic Instinct",
where people couldn't even Sharon Stone
The worrying thing is be bothered to *tsk tsk* claiming that
that it's no longer about the villainess-hero. they tricked
considered a her into
requirement to keep Well, I guess in doing a slit
this stuff under some circles there shot: that
wraps. It's now just was some sort of struck me as
assumed as an obvious controversy about a nice cover
fact that of course it being anti-gay, story.
we'd all really like but that's silly.
to be vicious killers, The next thing
if only we could get She was evil and you know women
away with it. bisexual. So you will be
could try to spin "accidentally"
(Hence, SUV sales.) this as being flashing their
anti-bisexual, tits on
except that television.
everyone seemed
But then, even before this to want to *be* Is it an
trend, it's always been a her. So I think encouraging
puzzle to me how people can they missed the sign that
survive on a staple diet of point. they feel
morality plays of one sort the need to
or another, and then just (Sure, the Michael indulge in
walk away from it and go Douglas character this
back to living their said some nasty hypocrisy?
whatever-I-can-get-away-with things to a lesbian,
lives. but they weren't all Weak props
that nasty really, for slim
There's some sort of and he was a chump hopes...
"don't try this at any way.)
home" label stuck on
all aspects of fiction.
So I really shouldn't
exaggerate the
importance of the
influence of fictional
on the real.
We might be be better off
if it had more influence.
And of course:
TWISTED_PATHS
It doesn't bother me if us
intellectuals feel like in
indulging in anti-social
fantasies and Naked Lunches.
I worry that the
benighted masses
might not be be
able to handle it.
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