Cult Fiction: Popular Reading and Pulp Theory (Popular Reading Cultures of America and Britain)

Here is an exploration of pulp literature and pulp mentalities: an investigation into the nature and theory of the contemporary mind in art and in life. Here too, the violent, the sensational and the erotic signify different facets of the modern experience played out in the gaudy pages of kitsch literature. Clive Bloom offers the reader a chance to investigate the underworld of literary production and from it find a new set of co-ordinates for questions regarding publishing and reading practices in America and Britain, ideas of genre, problems related to commercial production, concerns regarding high and low culture, the canon and censorship, as well as a discussion of the rhetoric of current critical debate. Concentrating on remembered authors as well as many long disregarded or forgotten, Cult Fiction provides a theory of kitsch art that radically alters our perceptions of literature and literary values whilst providing a panorama of an almost forgotten history: the history of pulp. Here is an exploration of pulp literature and pulp mentalities: an investigation into the nature and theory of the contemporary mind in art and in life. Here too, the violent, the sensational and the erotic signify different facets of the modern experience played out in the gaudy pages of kitsch literature. Clive Bloom offers the reader a chance to investigate the underworld of literary production and from it find a new set of co-ordinates for questions regarding publishing and reading practices in America and Britain, ideas of genre, problems related to commercial production, concerns regarding high and low culture, the canon and censorship, as well as a discussion of the rhetoric of current critical debate. Concentrating on remembered authors as well as many long disregarded or forgotten, Cult Fiction provides a theory of kitsch art that radically alters our perceptions of literature and literary values while providing a panorama of an almost forgotten history: the history of pulp. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Front Matter....Pages 1-1 ’Scuse me Mr H’officer: An Introduction....Pages 3-11 Throwing Rice at Brad and Janet: Illicit, Delinquent Pleasures....Pages 12-47 Turning the World Round: The Print Revolution....Pages 48-70 A River So Deep: Literacy, Language....Pages 71-84 Outlaws Against the Law Badge: Readers Reading....Pages 85-103 Smart Like Us: Culture and Kulcha....Pages 104-131 Living in Technicolor: The Rules of Pulp....Pages 132-155 Front Matter....Pages 157-157 The Ripper Writing: A Cream of a Nightmare Dream....Pages 159-177 West is East: Nayland Smith’s Sinophobia and Sax Rohmer’s Bank Balance....Pages 178-191 This Revolting Graveyard of the Universe: The Horror Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft....Pages 192-204 Harry and Marianne: The Never Ending Supernatural Soap....Pages 205-218 Front Matter....Pages 219-219 The Death of Cult Fiction and the End of Theory....Pages 221-240 Back Matter....Pages 241-262 An exploration of pulp literature and pulp mentalities. It investigates the underworld of literary production and from it finds a new set of co-ordinates for questions regarding such areas as publishing and reading practices in America and Britain and ideas of genre Cult Fiction is an exploration of pulp literature and pulp mentalities: an investigation into the nature and theory of the contemporary mind in art and in life.