/lit/ - Literature

I'm gonna dump a little bit of pulp art to stir your imaginations.

Last one.

But who is going to make properly pulp covers?

Do people still read TAR? Why?

>>3250713
I dunno. /co/ could get in on it.

>>3250714
I have no idea whether they do or not.

You know one of you all can call dibs on Conan the Barbarian, right? As long as you base all your work on stuff that was written in his lifetime + your own original ideas, and don't blatantly draw from any of the unfinished stuff or stuff written by other authors.

>>3250658

I think it's a pretty good idea, although I don't know if there's any market at all for pulp fiction anymore. It was traditionally aimed at men, and men rarely read anything more involved than pic related these days.

I also wonder about the copyright - I suspect a lot of the old pulp heroes are far from public domain. Things like The Shadow and Doc Savage are well-overdue a Hollywood remake.

This sounds like it could be fun. Dunno how many people would actually read it, though.

>>3250730
Conan is PD. I think the Spider's first twelve books are. The Domino Lady is. Plus people can just make new characters.
>>3250736
We'd all read each other's. It would at least be a good way to help each other improve.

I find it hard to believe that anyone among the /lit/erati could write a sincere piece of pulpy fiction. I think we're too heavily into that there postmodernism and irony and self-deprecation and whatnot.

>>3250730
/co/ would probably dig it. Especially with Dynamite Entertainment currently releasing Green Hornet, The Spider, The Shadow, and Masks (which is a crossover story involving Green Hornet, Kato, Spider, Shadow, Zorro, and others). Plus I asked a while back and quite a few said they'd subscribe to some if pulp magazines made a comeback.
>>3250753
I could. I love it.

>>3250749
>Conan is PD

I'm not saying it's not, but how can that be? Surely Marvel and Lionsgate and about half a dozen other people own some kind of license or copyright on Conan?

>>3250753
>I think we're too heavily into that there postmodernism and irony and self-deprecation and whatnot.

Speak for yourself. I finished with that nonsense about five years after I got out of college.

>>3250760
None of the stuff that was written during Howard's life was handled properly to stay out of the Public Domain.

Marvel, Lionsgate, etc., have all done their own interpretations of the characters, and basically you should be good as long as you avoid drawing from their versions and draw solely from your own imagination and the original source material (which was published during the author's lifetime).

tl;dr there's copyrighted Conan and PD Conan, and as long as you're reeeeally careful to stick to the latter, you're good.

>>3250771
>about five years after I got out of college

Hence why I find it difficult to believe that most of /lit/ could write sincere pulp. /lit/ is mostly composed of undergrads, after all.

I think it's a good idea OP.

How long are pulp style stories?

>>3250777
Oh! Forgot to say that there have been re-publishes of the original material with slight changes in addition to grammatical fixes. If you go with the slight changes they can try to catch you on that and have a decent chance of winning. So there's that.

>>3250785
Anywhere from a short story to full novels. Just depends.

>>3250753

Pulp is heavily ironic though.

I want to write a story about a down and dirty detective who is hired to solve a series of suspicious male deaths. Turns out it's a band of feminists or something. Brain-storming here.

>>3250791
Regardless of your stance on feminism, please don't make them a strawman for all feminists. You'll just make yourself look dumb.

>>3250805

Of course not. I was kind of joking. Using stereotypes is pretty much what pulp is about though. In no way would I think i'm making a well-constructed statement about anything.

>You'll just make yourself look dumb.

To be fair that is kind of the essence of pulp.

>>3250812
>To be fair that is kind of the essence of pulp.

Not true, or fair.

Your feminists should really be a tribe of amazons from the jungles of costa rica, trained in the mysterious martial arts of the ancients and unleashed on the world by a shodowy, inimical power, who's probably a chink into the bargain.

Now that's pulpy. Especially if the hero saves the world by fucking one of them and automatically turning her into a placid housewife as soon as she take his seed inside her.

>>3250817

I like it

Hey, I know it's a comic but with it being centered around pulp heroes, would you all like a storytime of the first issue of Masks?

>>3250827
Screw it. Let's do this.

By the way, anyone reading?

>>3250860

yup

>>3250864
Cool.

>>3250879

I think if I were lamont, I'd put the mask over my rather distinctive schnozz to maintain my incognito.

And that's that.

I like the idea for the most part but think it might be better to make our own pulpy heroes than use public domain ones that already exist.

Sounds fun OP.

But I just can't see enough people contributing on a regular basis. TAR struggles to get enough fiction pieces already.

Just remember, OP, you're going to need to get this whole thing sorted out in some way. Nobody else will, 4chan as a whole is really lethargic when it comes to actually doing something. We'll do stuff once you get us involved with it, but we're not going to act on our own. It's just how it is.

Kickass Stories: Modern Pulp for a Modern Audience

Y/N?

>>3250899
Change "audience" to "world."

I'd be willing to contribute in any way I could, if this gets going

>>3250899
>>3250903
Need confirmation that you want this to be the title, /lit/. Or more suggestions.

Once we settle on a decent name, we can make a wordpress or something like TAR has.

>>3250922
Well, "______ Stories" or "______ Tales" seems to be the pattern.

>>3250817
I would read the fucking shit out of that man.

>>3250899

Lose the Kickass.

And I'd suggest the subtitle be "two-fisted fiction for a modern world"

>>3250893
I like this better. Like someone said previously, Pulp is about making an ass out of yourself and shamelessly using stereotypes. Most pulp heroes are cliches, caricatures of action heroes. Completely ripping off Conan the Barbarian or Doc Savage but creating a different character would fit perfectly in the whole theme.
>>3250899
Dubs confirm.

>>3250948
What about "Storied Stories: Two-Fisted Tales for a Modern World?"
>>3250955
The stereotype thing is a bit iffy. That's not what it's -about- so much as what happens when stories from the 30s and 40s are read today.

Shitty Stories: Tales from the Heart of /lit/

Today: excitement
Tomorrow: nobody even remembers the thread

Give up OP ;_;

>>3250973
I think it should have the most pretentious name possible.
There was a tripfag on /mu/ who recorded an album when he was 12 and then had /mu/ name the tracks. Track 14 was called "we need long ass track names for this album...its the only way it would be ever be acceptable as a /mu/tants album, so i vote that this entire sentence be the name of track 14, every word, including these, and these."
We need something like that.

>>3251002
You don't understand pulp at all, do you?

>>3251006
No. But I understand 4chan.

>>3251002
While that's funny, this idea the eight or so people in this thread are discussing is more about irony than humor.

Action Junky: Two-fisted Pulp Tales for a new Century.

>>3250897

This. Make a shitty ass blog just to remind people this idea exists. Lay down some ground rules and a contact address. Throw the stories on there until you know what you want to do with them.

Post reminders about it here every week or so. Trying to organise things solely on 4chan is a baaaaad idea.

My suggestion.

>>3251031

Oh and have rules written down so people know what to do. Something like every writer must use a pseduonym (implying i won't just do that anyway) and how many words each story should be or something.

>>3251038
>every writer must use a pseduonym

I'm going to call myself Torc Badger.

>>3251031
Seconding. Just call the blog something basic , essentially as a placeholder. You've got to egg us all on or the lazy masses of /lit/ will just sit here arguing about DFW and Pynchon instead of helping with it.

>>3251038
Should we go full Shadow with it and not only use a pseudonym but imply that the main character wrote letters to you and you compiled it into a novel?

>>3251044
Shouldn't that just be down to the author? That'd get a little repetitive if everybody did it.

>>3251046
Good point.

I want it to happen but I just don't think it will.

You know, "Adventure Stories" is surprisingly not taken.

Why not have everyone who actually wants to be involved share throwaway email addresses, then use those email addresses to get in contact via Skype or something?

Moving this off 4chan ASAP seems like a good move.

I've had an idea running through my head for a few weeks and I'd like some feedback, since this seems like a great thread for it. There's a guy, a writer losing his sanity, who begins to see the past, present, and future all at once. So, he documents these time-hopping visions. The crazy writer acts as a frame device for the real story: his visions. His visions, the actual story, are kind of a cluster-fuck of Pulp and Cyberpunk. There are Cyber Greasers (their hot rods are computers), cops with revolvers fighting robots with lasers, and people who can access the internet without any technology (I base the last part off of the fact that few cyberpunk authors really understand basic technology). Like cyberpunk and, in many cases, Pulp, you have these odd match-ups of technologies and cultures, reflecting the past, present, and future all at once. Basically, the story is a cluster-fuck of anachronisms, with the setting part noir, part cyberpunk, and part 1950's America.
>>3251031
>>3250897
These. Just start a Tumblr and when some of us actually contribute, we just post it there. Seriously, if /mu/ can do the Dicklick Brigade, I think we can write a couple of stories.

>>3251058
>Throwaway e-mails
What the fuck is this, the Deep Web? We aren't hiring a fucking hitman, dude. Otherwise, you're right.

>>3251062
>I've had an idea running through my head for a few weeks and I'd like some feedback, since this seems like a great thread for it. There's a guy, a writer losing his sanity, who begins to see the past, present, and future all at once. So, he documents these time-hopping visions. The crazy writer acts as a frame device for the real story: his visions. His visions, the actual story, are kind of a cluster-fuck of Pulp and Cyberpunk. There are Cyber Greasers (their hot rods are computers), cops with revolvers fighting robots with lasers, and people who can access the internet without any technology (I base the last part off of the fact that few cyberpunk authors really understand basic technology). Like cyberpunk and, in many cases, Pulp, you have these odd match-ups of technologies and cultures, reflecting the past, present, and future all at once. Basically, the story is a cluster-fuck of anachronisms, with the setting part noir, part cyberpunk, and part 1950's America.

so you're just going to write everything philip k dick ever did

>>3251062
>>3251079
>so you're just going to write everything philip k dick ever did
I'd read that

>>3251082
i have read it already

>>3251079
Wasn't PKD just a more confusing kind of pulp fiction? I appreciate the criticism, but it's more of a parody of cyberpunk, something I love a lot, than me trying to emulate PKD.

>>3251086
I'd read it again.

>>3251087

Dick was as pulp as fuck. He epitomises the driven hack.

Anyone who wants to be involved:

talesofexcitement at gmail

>>3251115
d00rm0n@gmail.com

>>3251138
Drop me an email with your Skype or something. We can make a group and figure out an official name, try and cover the bases and make sure no two people's ideas are too similar, etc.

>>3251002
You don't want pretentious, you want "Easily captures the imagination of a 12 year old boy from 1925".

DAMES & CAPERS would be better.

>>3251181
>DAMES & CAPERS

DAMES & CAPERS: Two-fisted Pulp Tales for a new Century.

You're on the money there, Anon.

>>3251189
"Two Fisted Tales" would be better.

>>3251181
>____ & _____
Carlson & Peters!

Two Fisted Tales sounds like there's only two stories about fists.

>>3251115
>>3251138
wait, which one am I supposed to contact?

also, should I post the cover Idea on /co/?

>>3251207
Contact the "talesofexcitement@gmail". The other one was just me posting my dummy email.
>>3251175
Well, fuck, I guess I have to make a Skype.

Jeeze, this thread brings me back. The first steps towards organizing a project is always exciting like this. I just hope this turns into something instead of sputtering out.


If you want some help, I'd be to happy to assist. TAR can help advertise for you, and possibly send resources and writing your way. I'll email you about it

I was drinking the second half of my breakfast when the intercom on my desk buzzed like a fly hanging around the shit of my life.

- A Mister, um, Neatkuh to see you, Torc said my secretary over the wire. He doesn't have an appointment. Shall I tell him you're out?

I knew that the guy was standing next to her, so he'd never walk away from that excuse happy. Besides, I needed the money. I told her to send him through.

He was a strange looking bird - black suit, black tie, a face that looked like it had been lived in, and not by good tenants. I could see looking at him that he was a sensitive type - not a pansy, just the kind of guy who'd watch a horse pulling a streetcar and start in on how the beast was suffering.

I told him to sit down, offered him a drink. He refused and sat there playing with his hat.

- So, Mr Neetsky, what can I do for you?
- I have a case for you, he said. His accent was European, maybe German. I'd seen about all I needed to see of Germans back in Flanders, but like I say, I needed the money.
- So tell me about it
- I don't know where to begin, he said as he stared at his hat.
-The beginning's usually a good place, sir.

He laughed, sardonically, like a doctor at an inquest.

- The beginning is far to long ago, and too difficult to think about. I'll start at the end, if you do not mind.
- Sure, tell me.
- There's been a murder, I think.
- You think? Usually a murder is the easiest crime to detect, with all the dead bodies and all.
- Not this time, Mr. Badger, you see, I can't find the body. I can't find the killers. Neither can you.
- So who's dead, Mr. Neetskuh?
- God is dead, Mr. Badger. And I want you to find the killers.

[continued for money]

Not OP, but since he doesn't want to do it, is it cool if I start a Tumblr for this? Dubs choose name, though I might go with ( >>3251181 ) "Dames & Capers".

/co/ here, we were cross posted.
So what /lit/ is planning is a genere fiction equivalent of TAR?

BTW getting an artist to draw the covers will be beyond easy, ask /ic/ and mention money.

>>3251251
just go with dames an capers

>>3251258
Okay

>>3251256
OP wants to make a magazine for pulp fiction. TAR just happens to be the name of a /lit/-based magazine

>>3251181
>DAMES & CAPERS
Bitches & Balrogs
Claws & Cunts
Give me a second, I'm thinking of one with "Escapades"

>>3251251
>>3251264
>Astonishing tales
>Amazing fiction
>Great adventures
Do you even...

>>3251263
I know what TAR is, but how will pulp be any different from modern or any other genere fiction?

>>3251264
Salty Shenanigans
I think I'm just stroking my alliterative cock.

>>3251272
Gaudy Gest

>>3251266
>how will pulp be any different from modern or any other genere fiction?
Over the top. Fantastical tales that stretch belief. Silver age shenanigans mixed with 90s extreme violence. You ever read the Spider? Kinda like that.

>>3251275
Pulp: Precocious Preachings of Pretentious Philistines

>>3251285
I see...
OK remember to ask /ic/ about who is willing to daw covers, remember they don't do free jobs.

Also there were romance pulps, what do you guys have in mind about that?

>>3251297
Some of the most successful pulps were cowboy romances. Basically the only ones that were able to pull in a significant male audience and a significant female one.

Maybe someone would want to take that on?

>>3251300

I'm only writing something if it can have spaceships and space babes with four boobs

>>3251264
Exotic/Erotic Escapades

>>3251303
...Do it.

>>3251305
Exotic Escapades. This isn't old-timey porn (though it would be cool to have an old-timey porn story in this theoretical collection).

>>3251285
>The Spider
What's a great place to start with The Spider?

>>3251303
Please man, I fucking beg of you. Write this immediately.

>>3251303
can the space babes have purple skin and blue nipples?

>>3251308

If porn is OK then I'm in, it's all I can write.

>>3251322

...blueberry anon?

But regardless purple skin and blue nipples are fine too.

>>3251322
I would like different kinds of space babes.
Vanilla Astronauts
Four-Boobed Purple Aliens
Green-skinned futas with three tits
And giants. Fucking giant alien space babes.

>>3251323
I always thought a noir-style porno would be cool. Do that, like "The Third Man" with titties.

>>3251310
The Black Police trilogy (a.k.a. The Spider vs. the Empire State) is good.

Basically everything after they changed writers and he went from mediocre Shadow knockoff to hardcore vigilante who makes Punisher look like a bitch.

I think that for a proper SF story, you should combine four-breasted alien chicks with some sort of infodump about some popular science facts.

You can have as many tits as you want, but the plot has to hinge on our plucky protagonist being the only person who knows what a Lagrange Point is, and he explains it to a pneumatic young girl.

>>3251334

And also space robot babes?

>>3251334
and a giant, fat king with skinny legs and a trunk shaped like a dick named "orgas-mo"

>>3251347
How did I forget robots? Those are probably the best ones because of their built-in vibration.

>>3251350
Sure, why not.

>>3251334
>Vanilla Astronauts
And chocolate ones.
Space Babes with afros who don't need no captain.

>>3251336
if /lit/ can pull their collective shit together for this, it could be a hit.

You know what we also need? A serialized novel. Someone should write just Part 4 of a serialized novel, with the previous parts having obviously been published in previous issues of Dames & Capers magazine.

With maybe a little editor's note to remind the reader of where the last week's instalment left off.

>>3251207
Post the cover idea here if you want.

For anyone who missed it, the email is talesofexcitement@gmail

>>3251411
I've sent you an email. I'd love to participate. Sounds great.

>>3250658
Would contribute and read.

>>3251411
I'm in as well.

I've actually wrote a small number of pulpish stories over the past year and a half. Nothing serious. Just stuff for fun written when the power was out. They need a serious polishing and fixing before anyone reads them.

It stars radical scientific adventurer Professor Nigel Powers on a quest to discover the secrets of the ancient city of Yaxk'in Xul in the heart of the jungle which has claimed many adventurers before him. On his journey, he encounters his old college rival Xander Chesterfield who years ago had become lost in the jungle and driven insane. He had become the leader of a tribe of cannibal voodoo practitioners. During their battle in the city, they accidentally enact an ancient spell that sends them back thousands of years to the glory days of the city.

From there it's your typical 80's cartoon plots. They continue their battle summoning and battling giant monsters, and encountering ancient aliens and such. Mostly just reliving my Saturday morning cartoon days

>>3251500
send them to >>3251411

also join the group, we want to get an issue out ASAP

>>3251503
Sure. I'll try and write out the introduction story tonight, but actually good

Oh how I hope this works out

ATTENTION ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED

PLEASE EMAIL >>3251411 TO GET INTO THE SKYPE THING

>>3251591
What if you're interested but you have nothing to contribute?

>>3251595
you can edit or help with the publishing

There are three high quality science fiction and fantasy magazines that still exist and struggle to survive
Analog
Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy
Asimovs Science Fiction

>>3251195

Ornstein & Smough

>>3251670
>high quality science fiction and fantasy
That disappeared in the 1980s.

>>3251500

Sounds like the right sort of material to me.

Are you guys still doing the skype thing? I might jump in for a few minutes.

Can I contribute tomorrow? I can't tonight.

>>3251989
yeah, just email it to >>3251411

also, you should join the skype thing tomorrow too

Sounds fun to me. I'd do it, but I'm a sort of shitty writer. Here you go:

http://pastebin.com/g2SFCRQn

Any details on this project yet?

What are you going to discuss in the skype thing?

>>3252126
>>3252160
We're just working out ideas for our stories, when the first one will come out (we're thinking New Years Eve or a couple days before), and stuff like that.

>>3252469
Can you share any of the ideas

>>3252485
I don't really know anything concrete about anyone else's, but as far as I can tell there will be at least one science fiction story, one comical detective story, and one old school masked pulp hero story.

>>3252485
I'm writing a space nazi one

It's just going to be mindless entertainment

>>3252492
wait. Your editors are also your authors?

I'm not against the concept, but it is certainly unusual to say the least

>>3252554
I imagine that it would depend on the level of participation. Hopefully not, though.

Is this still going on?

Sent an email. How long before I expect a reply?

This should be a quarterly. Make sure to aggressively advertise, like TAR does, so that you can get stories.

>>3252606
Actually, if you advertise too regularly you'll get backlash. We try and keep ourselves confined to only a handful of threads a month on /lit/ so as to avoid spamming

But when you're starting out this would be an effective strategy

>>3252624
I guess. This is a great idea. I'll try to contribute when my schedule clears up.

Bump

>>3251704


Oh fuck, it's my grandfather. Go to fucking bed, pops.

So is the goal to make modernized pulp stories, or full on old school, filled with all the racism and what not?

>>3254152
all of the above

>>3254152
I think some of both is being written.

don't mind my bump. I just think this deserves some lovin

Not letting it die

http://premierpulp.wordpress.com/ It's already been done by /co/ lol

Just work with premier pulp they're good at taking stories!

>>3257483
no, that's a comic book

still good though

>>3252586
Same as this guy.
I'll definitely write once I get a reply, but if whoever's running this is going to be as generally efficient as he is in replying to emails, then this project is a no-go.

bamp

email: talesofexcitement@gmail

whats the skype deal? still haven't heard from the email accountant

>>3257483
Speaking of which, one of the editors of Premier Pulp! here, if this gets off the ground and you need someone to handle the production/design side of things, email me. I'd have time to handle it if it were quarterly and the other parts of editorial were all handled.

>>3262303

I like what I've seen of Premier Pulp! so far. If they accept prose, then this subject is over - anyone who wants to submit pulpy fiction should send it there. There's enough arse-ache in the world without setting up a duplicate 'zine that no-one's interested in.