#weird menace pulp

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Vintage Pulp - Strange Detective Mysteries (Oct1937)

[thehauntedrocket]

Vintage Pulp - Weird Tales (July1937)

Art by Virgil Finlay

[pulpsandcomics2]

Strange Stories Feb 1839

[browsethestacks]

The Weird Menace Covers Of Doll Man

[esha-isboogara]

perv josuke

it’s been so long since i’ve added to this series and i’d like to sincerely apologize. i know i’m supposed to get my part five characters done but it’s been taking forevvvver :/ here’s this while y’all wait oh so patiently <3

ps. i spelled yandere wrong and only ONE person pointed it out ☹️you guys are so fake

♡he’s a pervert, and totally a yandere, the usual warnings

☆perv!josuke who has an unhealthy obsession with you. he writes in a special journal that he dedicated towards all his thoughts revolving around you

☆perv!josuke who has used his stand multiple times to see your nude body. he’s not weird he’s just curious. plus he always puts your clothes back so it’s not like it really matters.

☆perv!josuke who has wet dreams about you while he takes naps in class. almost every time he closes his eyes he envisions your pretty smile or the way your hips sway slightly when you walk. god you’re the hottest person he’s ever seen. his classmates don’t dare mention the fact he groans out your name while he rests for fear he’ll get angry and beat them to a pulp.

☆perv!josuke who has stolen your uniform from your locket on multiple occasions. it’s happened so many times you’ve had to move your locker TWICE now. josuke always figures out where it is and he will continue to take your things

☆perv!josuke who has tried to bribe rohan multiple times so he’ll draw a few pictures of your naked body. he gets rejected multiple times but that won’t stop him from trying.

☆perv!josuke who walks you home every day after school, scaring off the other boys with his menacing glares. plus he

☆perv!josuke who genuinely gets upset when you interact with other guys. he knows he’s not the only man in this town but he sure wishes he was. why are you talking to another boy at school y/n ? does he not matter to you anymore? are you trying to replace him ? king of gaslighting frl

☆perv!josuke who hates it when jotaro is around. josuke is well aware his nephew would never give into your advances but that won’t stop you from trying from time to time. it gets to the point where josuke asks him to stop coming around the house because “it makes his mother sad” despite it being quite the opposite. he feels you jotaro finds you slutty and wants nothing to do with you. although it made you sad he was glad the competition was eliminated.

☆perv!josuke who takes polaroids of you and covers your body with cut outs of sexy photos he found in a magazine okuyasu gave him. it brings a smile to his face every time he glances over at the pictures.

[sonder-paradise]

Can I request crack h/cs for the ADA playing wii sports pls

— 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐢𝐢 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐃𝐀

— 𝐎𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐮 𝐃𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐢

somehow someway, this man cheats his way to victory. he's a menace that loves to get into the minds of his opponents to win. I'm not sure how he can keep that disgusting smile on his face as he wins for the ninth time today. literally all five games: baseball, tennis, boxing, golf, and bowling

is genuinely good at tennis though. he looks like a graceful ass fairy that has no clue how to fly normally when he smacks that little virtual ball over onto poor atsushi's court. do not let him win at tennis because he will never let it down.

calls himself a wii sports king. kunikida will give anyone permission to absolute rock his shit if they win. dazai also somehow makes it a competition as an excuse to slack off and let some poor soul (tanizaki, atsushi) do his work.

— 𝐀𝐭𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢 𝐍𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐣𝐢𝐦𝐚

leave this poor boy alone. please he doesn't understand sports in real life how is he going to handle swinging a virtual baseball bat into the sky?? but he's probably worried he's gonna drop the controller because he straps that thing onto his hand like it's his only life support. i mean listen if he's against dazai, it sorta is.

not very good at any of the five sports. he just tries his best and is more focused on how strange his mii character looks rather than his game. not because he loves his mii but... did he always have that fucked up of bangs...? (no atsushi we love your weird bangs)

kunikida coaches him when they play golf together. kinda wholesome, kinda kunikida triumphantly trying to get anyone else other than dazai to win.

— 𝐃𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨 𝐊𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐤𝐢𝐝𝐚

a true master at wii golf. but only wii golf. he seems like a golf man, you know what i mean? yeah. but anyway, he's going to be the one that ensures that everyone's playing by the rules. let's be honest here, dazai ain't the only one somehow cheating during this event. but hear me out here: if there was a fishing sport... he would win it every time.

is maybe just a little bit into the idea of turning the event into a competition but certainly not to slack off from work. thinks of it as a good bonding session for the agency. though i don't know much about bonding since everyone's this close to cursing yosano and ranpo for continuously winning tennis games together.

get's a little too into the whole thing and is adorably proud to have won his golf matches. look he had the most strokes out of everyone <3

— 𝐀𝐤𝐢𝐤𝐨 𝐘𝐨𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐨

literally a goddess at bowling. look at her form, she can do no wrong *-* but prefers to sit back and let the others play. lowkey makes atsushi play for her during the golf and baseball ones. but still laughs when he somehow manages to get multiple homeruns for her by some sort of cruel miracle.

okay but she's absolutely terrifying when playing boxing against the others. she's horrifying beaten dazai and tanizaki specifically into a pulp. literally orange juice by the end of it. the only ones she takes it easy on are ranpo, kyouka, and kenji. everyone else is forced to watch her start maniacally cackling at their upcoming demise.

is pretty competitive about it. she's been cooped up in her office all day, let her have some fun on the little wii sports game thing. okay, but her and ranpo are actual monsters on the tiny virtual tennis courts. their teamwork is unmatched.

— 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐩𝐨 𝐄𝐝𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐰𝐚

doesn't try to hard on many of these. most of the time he doesn't truly attempt at all. he's most likely the lowest on the scoreboard and doesn't quite see the appeal like the others. but he's pretty decent at tennis with yosano (primarily because he lets her do most of the work)

but when he does end up scoring pretty high by putting in the hella effort, he does that little thingy where he looks to fukuzawa to make sure he was watching. let him proud of his accomplishments goddammit. also brags about it like dazai will and on the occasion will cause dazai's cheating schemes or his bluffs when he's focused on winning.

has dropped his remote multiple times before. not sure how the agency keeps extras but he goes through at least three every time they do these game nights. they even bought him those covers for the remote but he managed to launch one out the window once still.

— 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐨 𝐓𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐤𝐢

pretty much in the same boat as atsushi. leave the poor boy alone man. it doesn't help much that naomi will make a lot of comments about his form and how he should play. but when he does do well, he's extra proud of himself. looks to naomi as if asking whether or not she saw.

honestly not the best at any of the games except maybe baseball. i could see him being really focused and into the moment but the second he goes to swing naomi will break his concentration. other than that, he's honestly decent at it. everyone's screaming when they watch him slowly start accumulating points.

is usually the designated snack-bringer to these things. it wasn't even supposed to be an actual event or game night before he started doing it. his seniors (*cough* ranpo *cough*) just started asking him to bring snacks so he did. honestly prided himself on that job in particular.

— 𝐘𝐮𝐤𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐅𝐮𝐤𝐮𝐳𝐚𝐰𝐚

doesn't play too often. he prefers watching all his kids i mean employees (who are all essentially orphans so no difference rlly) play instead. sometimes they'll insist that he play a round of tennis or something simple and he just doesn't understand.

he swore he swung right when the ball came into his court and does he move with the mii or does he stand in place?? who threw that ball again? wait he controls the back court mii too?? leave the man alone, he just wants to understand what this magical white box does and where the freaking sensor on this thing is.

and if you're wondering if he does watch ranpo, he does and he's very proud of him when he wins. usually just nods his head sternly in ranpo's direction and continues to watch the rest of them play. seriously though, how does that devil white box work?

— 𝐊𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐢 𝐌𝐢𝐲𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐰𝐚

absolutely joyful to be included. he’s so impressed that these little people can be controlled through the screen by these little white remotes??? “city people are so cool!!” he’s not good at wii or technology in general but he’s more than excited to watch

was very dedicated to making his little mii look as perfect as possible. might have accidentally broken the tv once or twice and then drastically apologized after wards. never gets frustrated when he loses but thanks his opponent almost instantly

— 𝐊𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐤𝐚 𝐈𝐳𝐮𝐦𝐢

doesn’t play too often. she doesn’t find too much interest in it and it’s only when dazai plops the controller into her hand or when atsushi urges her a little that she actually budges. when that happens she’s actually pretty decent at the games and if she does win someone will buy her tofu

atsushi and yosano usually take it easy on her since she’s still getting used to the game. she’s fully aware of this fact but doesn’t say anything still. she does like teaming with kenji though since she has the most fun with him while playing

Taglist: @todorokichills @alittlesimp @greenshirtimaginesii @darlinqserenity @nameless-shrimp @whorefordazai @requiem626k @missrown @rirk-ke @kiyokoxd @jessbeinme15 @starglow-xx @shadyteacup @colourless-cora @scul-pted @kuraxmasha @yochicoz @pompompurin1028 @trashykawahq @swrdemon @life-sus @hanemiso @foolishestchildofchilds @fyodorscello @kur0-kawa @dazaiaiko @chuuyasboots @ruthdied @allisonlol @questioningmyownexistence @sebtomm @nullified-kiss @nathansside @cuteflowers-101 @sigmafied @boombboi @scarletta-ruan @skgch @daz8i @httpsobi @dazaiscum @thekaylahub @luciferspen @dazaisfavgf @thesatanofpizza @yuuotosaka3 @roiizuha @kisara-16reblogs @alice0blog @irethepotato @vinyicryes @monastary

[twsted-princess]

"What'cha you looking at? Wanna get slugged huh?"

(picrew linked here)

Bio

Name: Dillon Snagclaw

Nicknames: Dill, Dillweed (Sue)

Voice Actor: Gakuto Kajiwara

Gender: Male (He/Him)

Age: 17

Sexuality: Bi

Height: 5'5

Race: Dinosaur folk? (Half child of darkness)

Homeland: Can't remember

Birthday: July 6?

Starsign: Cancer?

Family: Tallie and her pack (@fullplaidponydreamer)

Occupation: Student, Menace

Based off: Dilophosaurus

Professional Status

Dorm: Terriauria (@terrovaniadorm)

School Year: Second

Class: 2-B

Best Subject: Gym

Club: Track & Field

Dominant Hand: Right

Favorite Food: Meat (specifically ribeye cooked rare)

Hated Food: Lettuce

Likes: Chaos, Fighting, His dino family, Feeling tall, Eating lots of meat

Dislikes: Being short, Getting scuffed, "Weaklings", Scientists

Hobbies: Running, Getting into fights, Following around Sue and Tallie

Talents: Eating metal spoons

Unique Magic: Not sure if he has one

Backstory

Oh joy another runt. Dill loves nothing more than being a scamp. A beast. A little ankle biter. One who picks fights with people bigger then them, herd them to Sue and play the victim before watching the poor fool get beaten to a pulp and pickpocket whatever's the shiniest. Yeah, life's good when you're the minion of a strong lady five times your height and a mom that can rip steel. Yeah he's not a freaky eye, some weird red gems on his back and a big hole in his memories but eh, potahto potato. No biggie.

[teehee-hoho-teehee]

In another life, Joey Drew would’ve thrived as an artist in the weird menace/pulp horror comic book scene.

[magicwingslisten]

H.P. Lovecraft & C.L. Moore on “The Black God’s Kiss”

Regarding the Moore stories—one has to separate the undeniably hackneyed & mechanical romance from the often remarkable background against which it is arrayed. “The Black God’s Kiss” had a vastly clever setting—the pre-human tunnel beneath the castle, the upsetting of gravitational & dimensional balance, the strange, ultra-dimensional world of unknown laws & shapes & phenomena, &c. &c. If that could be taken out of the sentimental plot & made the scene of events of really cosmically bizarre motivation, it would be tremendously powerful. The distinctive thing about Miss Moore is her ability to devise conditions & sights & phenomena of utter strangeness & originality, & to describe them in a language conveying something of their outre, phantasmagoric, & dread-filled quality. That in itself is an accomplishment possessed by very few of the contributors to the cheap pulp magazines. For the most part, allegedly “Weird” writers phrase their stories in such a brisk, cheerful, matter-of-fact, colloquial, dialogue-ridden sort of style that all genuine sense of shadow & menace is lost. So far, Miss M. has escaped this pitfall; though continued writing for miserable rags like the current pulps will probably spoil her as it has spoiled Quinn, Hamilton, & all the rest. The editors will encourage her worst tendencies—the sticky romance & cheap “Action”—& discourage everything of real merit (the macabre language, the original descriptive touches, the indefinite atmosphere, the brooding tension, &c.) which her present work possesses. Nothing will ever teach the asses who peddle cheap magazines that a weird story should not & cannot be an “action” or “character” story. The only justification for a weird tale is that it be an authentic & convincing picture of a certain human mood; & this means that vague impressions & atmosphere must predominate. Events must not be crowded, & human characters must not assume too great importance. The real protagonists of fantasy fiction are not people but phenomena. The logical climax is not a revelation of what somebody does, but a glimpse of the existence of some condition contrary to nature as commonly accepted.    —H. P. Lovecraft to William F. Anger, 16 Feb 1935, LRBO 229

   Also, since I’m disagreeing with everything today, I’ll have a shot at your dislike for romance contrasted with your love and understanding of fantasy. You don’t have to take Dumas any more literally than you do Dunsany. Of course lots of people probably do look persistently through rose-colored glasses, but then dear, sincere old Lumley believes implicitly in his phantasms. To me it’s just as pleasant to imagine during the duration of the story that there is a lovely springtime world peopled exclusively by handsome heroes and exquisite heroines and life is one long romp of adventure with no unpleasant attributes at all, as it is to believe for the length of the story that time, space and natural law can be elastic enough to permit the existence of a Shambleau or a Cthulhu (have I spelled him right?). Your point, of course, is that to be acceptable as release-literature the happenings must be incredibly outside, not against the phenomena of nature. Does that mean that you can’t with self-respect, enjoy Howard’s gorgeous Conan sagas, which are surely pure romance for the most part?    —C. L. Moore to H. P. Lovecraft, 11 Dec 1935, Letters to C. L. Moore and Others 88-89

[trashmenace]

Web Terror Tales Vol 5 No 1, February 1965

Web Terror Tales Vol 5 No 1, February 1965

Web Terror Tales came as part of a shudder pulp revival mini-wave. The plots don't really follow the traditional, Scooby Doo plotting of weird menace. A little sadism, usually in the form of whipping, but tamer than the original shudder pulps. They have the feel of the text stories shoehorned into horror comics, but even more mediocre.

The Pain Tree by Aurelia Mulhare

The daughter of a Caribbean governor is obsessed with a hougan.

The Angel of Hell by Bursell Bradshaw

A journalist uncovers what a mad reclusive painter has been working on.

Mr. Borealis by Clement Duffy

An experimental cruise ship is hijacked by a supervillain. No ending, so they cut to an "it was a dream...or was it" cop out, repeating over a page of text.

Footlight Vengeance by Ramon Aguilera

A playwright gets revenge on his critics.

Prey on Me by Henry Cranford

A rich explorer is tormented by his cultist servants' savage rites on a secluded island. The

My Love, My Prisoner by Charles Patterson

A corpulent rich man suspects he's being poisoned by his child bride.

The Curse of the Borgias by Christine Crewell

A haunted painting commissioned by the Borgias. Some good imagery in places.

Repent at Leisure by Rip Kelly

A rich sadist finds a better way than divorce to get rid of her husbands.

Come Kiss the Lash by Justin Lamont

Catherine the Great was into whipping.

Murder: Scene One by Denham Kelsey

Cromwell tortures a court musician accused of sleeping with royalty.

Satan's Spawn by Pete Brown

An Indian monk is ordered by a mad hermit to torture a captive devil woman.

Glutton for Punishment by Ernestine Durrell

Tarzan-type actor turned gold digger plots to kill his rich wife. Good old fashioned twist in the tale for this one.

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Vintage Pulp - Clues Detective Stories (Nov1938)

Art by Emery Clarke

Street And Smith

[biblioflyer]

Housekeeping & Mandalorian

It was never my intent that this blog would talk exclusively about Star Trek, indeed my one mildly viral essay is actually about Captain Marvel, but wow I am having a really tough time with The Mandalorian. I see some stuff in it worth talking about, those with an eye for the symbolic would note a lot of heavy religious and messianic symbolism in the early episodes: sacraments, baptism etc.

Which is really neat. It always thrills me to see a very thoughtful approach to cinematography in pulp. Its why I have a weird soft spot for Zack Snyder. His movies are very silly in terms of plot, but they're visually interesting from an art history point of view. I needed a little bit of emotional distance from the high water mark of the Global War on Terror, but even the aggressive patriotism and military fetishism of Michael Bay's Transformers has its moments.

But in most other respects, I'm just not feeling The Mandalorian. The metaplot and the implications of what I think is going to turn into a trinitarian power struggle between Bo, Din, and the Armorer is kind of neat. The world building that is happening on the New Republic side is....something. I'm highly supportive of trying to "do a Clone Wars" on the sequel trilogy. That is to say, remodel the trilogy by creating meaningful links to other pieces of the franchise and reframe a lot of the story and emotional beats by virtue of these connections. Its what Lucasarts did with the prequels.

Yet, I recognize that there was some intentional cognitive dissonance intended in the way that Tim Meadows' scene was filmed. The way it has all of the beats of an office comedy without the laugh track. We are probably supposed to be horrified at how callous this bureaucrat is. Intellectually that's the case, but emotionally? I just didn't feel anything. I figured out that it was going to come down to a beleaguered New Republic lacking the resources or will to help Navarro.

I wasn't quite prepared for there to not be any whiff of sentimentality on the part of the requisitions officer. I'm not really a fan of this "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" kind of approach to the New Republic. I know in both continuities, this is more or less how it turned out, but I'd still rather see some sentimentality, some despair that the New Republic has too many fires and not enough fire trucks. As it is, it just seems to be reaffirming the overall gloomy mood of the sequels that everything the heroes did had turned to ashes long before the First Order opened fire with Starkiller Base.

Then there's the set piece action sequence in "The Pirate." The liberation of Navarro should feel triumphant. But it didn't. From the moment the Mandalorians embarked on Bo's transport, I had a sense that this was going to be a turkey shoot. The Mandos were going to waltz in there and be about as menaced as Chuck Norris assaulting a preschool at nap time. And I was right. Paz Vizla aka the Heavy, even tanks a direct hit from an E-Web, goes down, but gets back to his feet again in no time. After the battle he's walking and talking without even a limp to suggest cracked ribs or anything of the sort.

This isn't even Star Wars action movie logic at this point, Luke, Leia, Han were always on the backfoot and experiencing one or more reversals per fight which is what made their triumphs more interesting. They avoid major injury for the most part, but they also are frequently stymied from achieving their goals and have to find clever ways to persevere.

I get it, these are Mandalorians. The most feared warriors in the galaxy this side of the Jedi, and they were up against a bunch of drunk and disorderly pirates. Narratively speaking, of course it should be incredibly one sided. And that's a boring narrative! If you really wanted to establish how badass these guys are when they're working together in large numbers, sure, an establishing scene would be great for that. But this was kind of silly. Every last one of them is a Captain America right down to the bad guys pouring on a hail of gunfire that never hits anywhere but his shield.

Beskar is plot armor, okay sure. But like Captain America's shield, it shouldn't be abused. It should be used to permit the heroes to do things that nobody else could, up to a point. Yet, like Captain America's shield, there has to be limits. Those limits are clearly visible on every Mandalorian's body. Its the seams in their armor, the places where they don't even wear armor.

Also the capital ship nerd in me is so despondent. This series is leaning into the same beats as Rogue One and The Last Jedi where capital ships are functionally helpless against fighters to a degree that just makes it all the more questionable why anyone would arm them and send them directly into harm's way, let alone build some that are the size of major metropolitan areas.

Am I missing something here? I can see the mold of the emotions that I think I'm supposed to be feeling, but the liquid beskar just hasn't been poured in.

Do I just need to finish Clone Wars or at least watch that Mandalorian saga playlist on Disney+?

Anyway, more Star Trek content is coming. I'm going to watch the latest episode of Picard after I post this. I'm working on some essays pertaining to S1E4 but its getting down into the weeds on some of my thinking on how the show explores different ethical perspectives and uses challenging subject matter to do so and why I think its uncomfortable for OG TNG fans, but I'm trying to exercise the right amount of care and precision when exploring tricky territory while not getting too verbose, and its not going well. What I have isn't lending itself well to chopping it up into smaller, more topical essays. I probably need to be my own harsh editor and make some tough choices about where to cut and just link out to essays that are already saying a lot of the same stuff, just a little differently.

[bookclub4m]

Episode 180 - Pulp

This episode we’re talking about the fiction genre of Pulp! We talk about aliens, Mounties, sleuths, and vigilantes as discuss what counts as pulp and what doesn’t!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jam Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

Zenith Rand, Planet Vigilante by Richard Tooker

The Aliens by Murray Leinster

“All the Colors of the Rainbow” by Leigh Brackett

Republished in The Future is Female! 25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, from Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin edited by Lisa Yaszek

The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction, Vol. I edited by Rakesh Khanna, translated by Pritham K. Chakravarthy

Sally the Sleuth by Adolphe Barreaux - Forward by Tim Hanley

Scarlet Riders: Pulp Fiction Tales of the Mounties edited by Don Hutchison

Planet Scumm - Issue 15: Major Arcana

The Battle of York by James Stoddard

Other Media We Mentioned

Two-Fisted Library Stories on itch.io

Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Writers by Lee Server

Sensuous Science Fiction from the Weird and Spicy Pulps edited by Sheldon Jaffery

McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories edited by Michael Chabon

A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman (Wikipedia)

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (Wikipedia)

Links, Articles, and Things

Episode 179 - Battle of the Books 2023

The Fantastical Pulp Art of 1960s and ’70s Mexico

Two-Fisted Library Stories on itch.io

The Shadow (Wikipedia)

Pulp collections available online:

The Pulp Magazines Project: “an archive of all-fiction pulpwood magazine from 1896-1946”

The Pulp Magazine Archive at Internet Archive

Weird menace (Wikipedia)

Episode 19: Weird Fiction (not “New Weird” as Matthew says)

Sauron (comics) (Wikipedia)

Betty Ross (Wikipedia)

Heritage Minutes: Sam Steele

Canada Vignettes: Log Driver's Waltz

15 Pulp Novels & Anthologies by BIPOC Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Adios Muchachos by Daniel Chavarría, translated by Carlos Lopez

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

Bad Men and Wicked Women by Eric Jerome Dickey

Four Bullets for Dillon by Derrick Ferguson

The Green Lama: Scions by Adam Lance Garcia

The Banks by Roxane Gay and Ming Doyle

A Rage in Harlem by Chester Himes

Blind Corners by Jemir Robert Johnson

It Came from Del Rio by Stephen Graham Jones

The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction edited by Rakesh Khanna, translated by Pritham K. Chakravarthy

Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash by Eka Kurniawan, translated by Annie Tucker

Once Upon a Time in Afrika by Balogun Ojetade

One-Shot Harry by Gary Phillips

Black Pulp II edited by Kimberly Richardson

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, August 22nd when we’ll be talking about books and other media we’ve recently enjoyed!

Then on Tuesday, September 5th when we’ll be discussing the format of Lyric Poetry!

[lowkeynando]

superior to the first, but it was unable to compete with the new higher-quality magazines that had appeared in the interim. Although science fiction (sf) had been published before the 1920s, it did not begin to coalesce into a separately marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories, a pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback. [1] After 1931, when Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories was launched, no new st magazines appeared for several years. In 1936 Abraham and Martin Goodman, two brothers who owned a publishing company with multiple imprints, launched Ka-Zar, an imitation Tarzan magazine with some borderline sf content. [2] It lasted for three issues, with the last issue dated January 1937.

[3] In addition to this marginal sf magazine, in 1937 the Goodmans began publishing several

"weird-menace" pulps. These were a genre of pulp magazine known for incorporating "sex and sadism", with storylines that placed women in danger, usually because of a threat that appeared to be supernatural but was ultimately revealed to be the work of a human villain. The Goodmans' titles were Detective Short Stories, launched in August 1937, and Mystery Tales, which published its first issue in March 1938.

These were followed up by Marvel Science

Stories, edited by Robert O. Erisman, which was not intended to be a weird-menace pulp, but rather an st magazine. The influence of the "sexs CLONES

[wildcards1407]

Travel Documents 117

We really need a good read right now. Here's one.

The Great Cities Series

 

by N. K. Jemisin

Genre:  contemporary, urban fantasy, social change

The Dust Cover Copy

The Scene

Worldbuilding

Technically, I’m breaking my own rules here by reviewing a contemporary urban fantasy instead of a near future work of some kind. But we need these stories right now. Badly. So I want to tell you about them.

The place is New York. But the story is about souls, not places. So this is about the soul of New York: its shine and its beat, its magic and its menace, its get to the point bluntness and its shirt off your back kindness. And in Jemisin’s hands, New York gleams in every facet, a place of power, potential, and bone deep magic.

And all of it is under an existential threat. There are forces that want New York to be less. Less weird. Less full of ‘strange people’ (dog whistle, yep I hear it). Less ‘dirty’. Less…human.

There’s a force using the nastiest xenophobic tendencies of humanity to gain power and a foothold. A force you’ll recognize if you’ve read Lovecraft. A thing with tentacles. And teeth.

The Crowd

Characterization

The story of the city and its struggle to be born as a soul is told through the seven people who make it up: Bronca, the done-with-your-shit LGBT Lenape soul of the Bronx. Manny, the politely smiling and deadly spirit of Manhattan, has a platinum debit card and a switch blade in his back pocket. Padmini, the driven grad student soul of Queens has one eye on her course work and one eye on her family in India. Brooklyn of Brooklyn, savvy and steady. Veneza is the mix-race soul of Jersey City, a woman with hope for tomorrow and a spring in her step. Neek is the heart of them all, wary and wild and sharp-edged, but with a delight to warm the world. And poor Aislyn embodies Staten Island in all its self-doubting and other-fearing quiet desperation.

Writing Style

With a back-beat style and a magical way with words, this series has a bit of song to it. I listened to the audiobook, and in that form the harmony of the words are accentuated. The story also has sound effects, which is just awesome. It’s a perfect fit for a story that is equal parts love letter to New York, indictment of the forces that try to force us into bland colonized well behaved boxes, and self-aware pulp movie adventure in the best sense of the moniker.

The Moves

Plot

Oh boy, is this work a wonderful rollercoaster of a plot. By seeing through seven pairs of eyes and seven points of view, you’re allowed all the confusion of dawning realizations, but you’re also able to enjoy the literary thrill of putting all the pieces together. By the middle of the second book, a lot of what you thought you knew gets tossed out and you have to rethink a lot of assumptions. And it is glorious!

The book is polarizing because it pulls no punches about solipsistic attitudes: people and things who want to ‘put people in their place’, who want everyone to be ‘nice’ and match their expectations and behave in a subservient manner if they get to survive at all, are the enemy. And a lot of the people acting that way in our current world are white. Jemisin calls that out, and that freaks a lot of white folks out. So yeah, there’s that.

I did have a couple moments in Book 2 of going ‘wait…what the…how does this work?’ but the next battle with Tentacles From Beyond fixed that. And oh man, would this series make good movies. There are so many cinematic scenes in here.

Overall Rating

A soaring song of soul and triumph with a boom-car backbeat, this series rocks the street!

[pulpsandcomics2]

“Sinister Stories”  May 1945