Pulp: reading popular fiction

Abstract

This book looks at two accounts of the experience of reading popular fiction: one about reading on the train, the other about reading in the airport lounge; but these are just two of the many contexts of a highly varied experience that can be an idle pursuit, a secret joy, a public pleasure, a liberation from the constraints of everyday life or a profound disappointment. Studying popular fiction means getting to grips with every aspect of those experiences. The book defines popular fiction simply as fiction that is read by large numbers of people; but in the context of the late twentieth century that definition needs some refinement. Contemporary popular fiction is the product of a huge entertainment industry. Written fiction is only a part of that industry, which markets and sells popular narratives for film, radio, television and periodicals as well as in book form. The pulp in the title of the book refers to two things. One is the fiction itself, which is cheap and disposable, but can be moulded to our fantasies and desires. The other is the self, which appears to be equally squashy and shapeless, but, equally and for that reason, can take up a multitude of new forms. If popular fiction turns the mind to mush, then that mush is also the fertile compost for new growth

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