Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Sep 29, 2020 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
I do like the pithy summaries of the Bard's plays by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (shakespeare.org.uk)

Here's a few favourites... Image
A Midsummer Night's Dream: "People get lost in the woods. Puck manipulates their romantic affections and (in one case) anatomical head shape. They put on a play." Image
Twelth Night: "Viola thinks her brother is dead. He thinks she is dead. Everybody thinks that she is her brother. Everybody thinks that her brother is her. Shenanigans ensue." Image
King Lear: "King divides kingdom snubs daughter, goes mad. There's a storm and everyone dies." Image
Troilus and Cressida: "Troilus loves Cressida, but she betrays him. Achilles loves Patroclis, but he is killed. The Trojan War goes on. No one is happy." Image
The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Falstaff tries to pursue two married women. The women are smart; they put him in a river, dress him as a woman, and bring him to a haunted forest. Everyone is happy." Image
As You Like It: "All brothers hate each other for some reason. Rosalind dresses up as a boy and convinces her crush to hit on her while she's a boy. Everyone is married by a Greek God." Image
Henry VIII: "Cardinal Wolsey is shifty. Henry divorces Katherine and marries Anne. Queen Elizabeth is the most extraordinary being ever to be been, praise her." Image
More #Shakespeare another time.

Exit, pursued by a bear... Image

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More from @PulpLibrarian

Nov 17
Shall we take a look at some classic pinball table backglass art?

I think we should... Image
"Do you like gladiator movies?"

Mars: God of War pinball (Gottleib, 1981) Image
Dr. McCoy has been seriously working out!

Star Trek pinball (Bally, 1979). Image
Read 14 tweets
Nov 12
Today in pulp I'm looking back at a very popular (and collectable) form of art: Micro Leyendas covers! Image
Micro Leyendas (mini legends) are a Mexican form of fumetto, small graphic novels normally pitting the everyday hero against the weird, the occult and the unfathomable. Image
The art of Micro Leyendas is bold, macabre and very funny. The books often tell a cautionary tale of revenge or humiliation, much like a modern folk tale. Image
Read 9 tweets
Nov 9
Today in pulp: what makes a good opening sentence for a pulp novel?

Now this is a tricky one… Image
The opening sentence has an almost mythical status in writing. Authors agonise for months, even years, about crafting the right one. Often it’s the last thing to be written. Image
Which is odd, because very few people abandon a book if they don’t like the first sentence. It’s not like the first sip of wine that tells you if the Grand Cru has been corked! Most people at least finish Chapter One. Image
Read 17 tweets
Nov 7
The Time Machine, Brave New World, 1984: these weren’t the first dystopian novels. There's an interesting history of Victorian and Edwardian literature looking at the impact of modernity on humans and finding it worrying.

Today in pulp I look at some early dystopian books… Image
Paris in the Twentieth Century, written in 1863, was the second novel penned by Jules Verne. However his publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel rejected it as too gloomy. The manuscript was only discovered in 1994 when Verne’s grandson hired a locksmith to break into an old family safe. Image
The novel, set in 1961, warns of the dangers of a utilitarian culture. Paris has street lights, motor cars and the electric chair but no artists or writers any more. Instead industry and commerce dominate and citizens see themselves as cogs in a great economic machine. Image
Read 25 tweets
Oct 31
Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"

I assume everyone's doing it this #Halloween ? Image
The Legend Of Crownpoint, by Monica Heath. Signet Books, 1974.

A lot of moss on that heath... Image
The Legend Of Holderly Hall, by Kate Cameron. Leisure Books, 1974.

This is number one in a series of four novels, proving that nobody really reads Trip Advisor hotel reviews... Image
Read 11 tweets
Oct 28
In January 1919 a new magazine heralded the dawn of the Weimar era. Its aesthetic was a kind of demented Jugendstil, and its stories were dark gothic fantasies.

This is the story of Der Orchideengarten... Image
Der Orchideengarten: Phantastische Blätter (The orchid garden: fantastic pages) is probably the first ever fantasy magazine. Published in Munich by Dreiländerverlag, a trial issue appeared in 1918 before the first full 24 page edition was published in January 1919. Image
"The orchid garden is full of beautiful - now terribly gruesome, now satirically pleasing - graphic jewelery" announced the advanced publicity. It was certainly a huge departure from the Art Nouveau of Jugend magazine, which German readers were already familiar with. Image
Read 12 tweets

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