At 06:14 PM 1/2/01, you wrote:
>Sorry, no pulp expert, just me.
>
>What the devil is mature conflict, anyway? We could work on this forever, and
>when using pulp for the arena of discussion not get much closer than mature
>being conflict over personal interests, and every other kind of conflict being
>at someone's bidding.
Maybe the difference between pulp fiction and fiction for young adults
isn't the type of conflict but the type of detail. Pulp writers look at
the darker side of the story, do they not? The details are grimmer. But
though a young audience may enjoy the stories, the stories contain things
not normally intended for young readers: severe violence, a hint of sex (or
sex), motivations that can be understood by young people but appreciated
by adults, even if the motivations are basically simple.
I just find something mature about the pulp fiction I've read, as compared
to juvenile fiction. It's hard to put my finger on it. Just because there
are mature themes or details doesn't mean an average young reader can't
enjoy the story. I didn't get the social references the first time I read
Burroughs' nonsensical evolutionary theories in the John Carter and Carson
Napier books. But I came to appreciate the subtle jabs at both science and
religion years later, and they didn't spoil the stories for me in the least.
Not that all pulps are written that way, of course. Some are grittier,
more direct. Some are not really subtle expositions at all. They just
wallow in action and adventure in a straight-forward style. But would you
really expect to find a Conan or Kull story in something like Boys
Life? Did such magazines ever print such stories?
Maybe the chief difference is the age of the primary character. Juvenile
fiction is usually written about young characters (or families). The lead
characters in pulp fiction tend to be Men (tm) and Women (tm).
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