Blog Archives
sRick Stump on the Pulps, the Hero’s Journey, and the Un-imagining of Conan!
Tuesday , 14, February 2017 Appendix N, Comment 16 CommentsRick Stump picks up on a couple of recent topics we’ve touched on here: the abuse of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey template in film, the way the industry relentlessly un-imagines characters from before 1980, and of course… Conan: This is another reason the arc of ‘avenge my father’s murder’ is slapped onto the Conan movies; […]
Embrace The Red Revolution!
Monday , 13, February 2017 Appendix N, Before the Big Three, Pulp Revolution 36 CommentsStrong opinions piss people off. Strong opinions, expressed forcefully, piss people off even more. To those offended, I say this: Campbell, confreres, and successors have—for seventy-nine years—pumped out self-serving propaganda that paints the Pulps as worthless. Constant recitation of a litany of calumnies has succeeded in erasing not only the virtues of the Pulps, but […]
Another Class Read Out of the Meeting
Monday , 13, February 2017 Appendix N, Tabletop Games 7 CommentsYou know, I never really liked it but I kind of understood where people were coming from when they eliminated the cleric from their old school D&D games. Not everyone wants to have a flagrantly Catholic Van Helsing style archetype folded into their bizarre post-apocalyptic science fantasy weird future Mediaeval setting. People just can’t handle that […]
Journey to the West is an astonishing film. It simply couldn’t be made here. In the first place, the Orient lacks the sort of contempt for fairytales that is all too prevalent here. Whatever force it is that impels Hollywood revise them to fit our contemporary anti-morals, fill in touching backstories for the villains, and […]
Over on Slashdot, this recent comment on Scientists Discover Evidence of a ‘Lost Continent’ Under the Indian Ocean is surprisingly reminiscent of the best pulp stories: I am from Tamil Nadu the state on the southern peninsula of India. It is very commonly believed by Tamil people there was a lost continent south of the southern tip […]
You have to see this video. Razör has read all of the Elric books and all of the Elric comics and his excitement for this character is positively infectious. He intercuts interviews with Michael Moorcock, making this even more informative. He puts forward the claim that French comics have actually improved on the original stories. […]
The Great Myth of the Golden Age of Science Fiction
Monday , 6, February 2017 Appendix N, Before the Big Three, Pulp Revolution 65 CommentsHere’s the Great Myth of the Golden Age of Science Fiction: “Science Fiction sucked until the coming of John W. Campbell and the Big Three—Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein. Together they swept away the puerile garbage of the Pulps and brought about Science Fiction’s Golden Age.” This is, not to put too fine a point on it, […]
I’ve nearly finished with the Solomon Kane stories, but there’s still a lot of chew on. My most recent Howard-inspired musing flows from a line in “The Blue Flame of Vengeance.” Please excuse me as I meander a bit; of course I welcome you to join me. “While evil flourishes and wrongs grow rank, while […]
I just get so sick of them: all these “don’t need no man” characters. They are everywhere and in everything, and Rey’s “stop taking my hand” bit in Star Wars is only the tip of the iceberg. And judging from the recent Through the Looking Glass adaptation, this really is the new standard for making adventure […]
I can’t tell if they can’t or if they won’t. Take the Red Queen from the recent film adaptation of Through the Looking Glass. (And I use the term “adaptation” very loosely.) The Red Queen storms around shouting, bossing everyone around, threatening cut peoples’ heads off. Sounds just like the character I grew up with. […]
What is it that sets this book apart from virtually everything else you’ve read and every television show and movie you’ve watched besides…? Well there’s plenty, really. And I do like that they’re are plenty of warrior women here– warrior women that we’ve been told time and again shouldn’t be in the pages of a […]
Humility and the Canon
Thursday , 16, February 2017 Jeffro Appendix N, Comment 22 CommentsI want to talk about humility. And I know that’s going to seem like an odd thing, but the subject does come up extemporaneously even if it’s not a common choice for the subject of a blog post. And it does relate to several other things we spend a lot of time digging into around […]