science fiction published in the pulp magazines of the early–mid twentieth century; later science fiction reminiscent of such writing
Immediately arises the question, how did the superb craftsmanship and delicate enchantment of current pulp science fiction arise from the earlier sagas of stereotyped characters dwindling into atomic-sized universes amid plots packed with improbably lush coincidence?
So far as this department knows, the writers of pulp science fiction have not exploited the carnivorous powers of the sea anemone, a gorgeously colored marine mammal grouped with the corals as Zoantharia, which means ‘animal flowers’.
The causes were two: directly, my acquaintance with the Mañana Literary Society, which existed in fact precisely (aside from murders) as it is depicted in this book; indirectly, the fact that pulp science fiction had, at that time, just reached maturity both in thinking and in writing and was at a fine ripe stage to make converts easily.
Yet he never sneered at honest pulp science fiction.
That is to repudiate pulp SF entirely, and launch oneself full-blown from the brow of (rarely) Wells, (usually) Huxley, and (increasingly) Lewis (C. S., not Sinclair).
Otherwise, in a rather short time everything we ‘know’ about pulp SF will be secondhand inferences and adumbrations by earnest, painstaking, unempathetic, style-deaf, obtuse people.
Crude, vigorous and imaginative magazine stories from one of the star writers of Thirties pulp science fiction.
There could be no more dyed-in-the-wool veteran of the pulp SF wars than Wollheim.
With utopian plausibility denied to it, this American pulp SF of the Teens became highly imaginative.
antedating 1948
in the New York Times
We are looking for both "pulp sf" and "pulp science fiction".
Last modified 2021-01-21 21:17:48
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.