Just time for my occasional series "ladies who love accordions!"
Squeezy does it...
"They said it couldn't be done!"
I'm sorry, I'll read that again...
"They said it shouldn't be done!"
Actually that's very good for your posture...
I have been to Paris and I can confirm it looks like this. Everywhere. Even in La Dëfence. Everywhere. Like this.
I know which one is going to start a fight first...
Apparently this is the French version of Mr. Ben.
It's on the Blockchain...
After nine martinis even a dropped spoon sounds romantic...
This is awful. Go-Go should be hyphenated!
Basque country music...
No seriously, all of Paris looks like this. All of it. Even McDonalds You know what they call a Big Mac in Paris? Nobody does, because it's full of people playing accordions and smoking. All of it.
What are the pulp archetypes? Pulp novels are usually written quickly and rely on a formula, but do they use different archetypal characters to other fiction?
Let's take a look at a few...
The Outlaw is a classic pulp archetype: from Dick Turpin onwards lawbreakers have been a staple of the genre. Crime never pays, but it's exciting and trangressive!
Some pulp outlaws however are principled...
As Bob Dylan sang "to live outside the law you must be honest." Michel Gourdon's 1915 hero Dr Christopher Syn is a good example. A clergyman turned pirate and smuggler, he starts as a revenger but becomes the moral magistrate of the smuggling gangs of Romney Marsh.
Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?
Let's find out...
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say.
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile.
Today in pulp I look back at the publishing phenomenon of gamebooks: novels in which YOU are the hero!
A pencil and dice may be required for this thread...
Gamebooks are a simple but addictive concept: you control the narrative. At the end of each section of the story you are offered a choice of outcomes, and based on that you turn to the page indicated to see what happens next.
Gamebook plots are in fact complicated decision tree maps: one or more branches end in success, but many more end in failure! It's down to you to decide which path to tread.