Introductions
Like a lot of people I have a daddy...only my daddy is a lot cooler than yours.
He also has cancer and not to much more time left on his ride.
So this is kind of dedicated to him...or rather it is dedicated to the things that he instilled in my sister and I growing up. Specifically a love for all things pulp.
But dad would never, ever, call it that.
He'd say "Adventures" and we all translated it to "pulp trash."
And he would say "Mysteries"
And he would say "Westerns"
He would say "crime"
And "Science Fiction"
Occasionally he would throw things up a bit with words like "high Adventure"
But really no matter what he called it my sister and I knew what we ere in for. We knew what kind of book he was going to read us. We knew what sort of story he was going to tell us...and if he went to rent a movie without us, we knew exactly what sort of movie he was coming home with.
Stuff like that has a lasting effect on children. We both grew up to be readers and readers with a love for...well...crap.
And because of it we both developed that personality were...sure...I went to college, but my degrees stay in boxes next to the comic books and pulp "novels" I wrote as a child. And yeah, we can talk about Zizek and Dostoyevsky but really wouldn't you rather discuss Rowling and Cussler?
I mean, aren't Harry and Dirk the more entertaining characters anyway?
The point of it all is to entertain, right?
Catcher in the Rye was great, you can read it multiple times, you can relate to it and its emotional. But The Destroyer, Doc Savage, Conan, you don't have to read more than once because there is always another adventure.
The good guys always win. There is always a MacGuffin worth fighting for. The women are always beautiful and sometimes deadly or just the damsel in distress.
It is all garbage...but it's all fun trash, especially if you're a little kid.
In fact, it's made for the little kids inside of all adults...all good adults.
So, this blog is for you dad, this is the crap you taught us to love.
He also has cancer and not to much more time left on his ride.
So this is kind of dedicated to him...or rather it is dedicated to the things that he instilled in my sister and I growing up. Specifically a love for all things pulp.
But dad would never, ever, call it that.
He'd say "Adventures" and we all translated it to "pulp trash."
And he would say "Mysteries"
And he would say "Westerns"
He would say "crime"
And "Science Fiction"
Occasionally he would throw things up a bit with words like "high Adventure"
But really no matter what he called it my sister and I knew what we ere in for. We knew what kind of book he was going to read us. We knew what sort of story he was going to tell us...and if he went to rent a movie without us, we knew exactly what sort of movie he was coming home with.
Stuff like that has a lasting effect on children. We both grew up to be readers and readers with a love for...well...crap.
And because of it we both developed that personality were...sure...I went to college, but my degrees stay in boxes next to the comic books and pulp "novels" I wrote as a child. And yeah, we can talk about Zizek and Dostoyevsky but really wouldn't you rather discuss Rowling and Cussler?
I mean, aren't Harry and Dirk the more entertaining characters anyway?
The point of it all is to entertain, right?
Catcher in the Rye was great, you can read it multiple times, you can relate to it and its emotional. But The Destroyer, Doc Savage, Conan, you don't have to read more than once because there is always another adventure.
The good guys always win. There is always a MacGuffin worth fighting for. The women are always beautiful and sometimes deadly or just the damsel in distress.
It is all garbage...but it's all fun trash, especially if you're a little kid.
In fact, it's made for the little kids inside of all adults...all good adults.
So, this blog is for you dad, this is the crap you taught us to love.
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