Pirates of the Gorm - an initial response leading to a rambling thought
Pirates of the Gorm by Nat Schachner sees a detective/agent go on a dangerous mission, fall (literally) into an enemy stronghold, beat overwhelming odds and win the girl who has no logical reason for being there in the first place. In short, it gave the pulp readers of the time what they wanted. The tropes Schachner employs are really the genre dressing and the method of delivery; the heart of the story is the pseudoscientific concept he wanted to show off – the Gorm.
The Gorm is a beam which can manipulate gravity, allowing interplanetary cruise liners to be captured and pulled in safely and for people to ‘fall’ through space in a direct line without gaining velocity etc. By today’s standards it’s not much of a concept but as the beam was in the hands of alien pirates it made for a fairly exciting story for its time I imagine.
Looking at it like this now though, it raises an intriguing observation. Much of the pulp fiction I read is very similar – be it science fiction, fantasy or horror. It uses a selection of tropes relative to its field to create a story around a ‘concept’. The concept might be a future technology, a fantastic being or a mysterious thing that terrifies and confounds, but it is always an intriguing concept. The hero, the girl – occasionally one in the same but not often – even the plot itself are secondary to this concept.
I think this is where criticism of pulp fiction, at least in Speculative Fiction, goes awry. It looks at the plots and the characters and shows how ridiculous, two-dimensional, clichéd etc they can be. It points out the overuse of tropes, it finds flaws in the literary style, it points out the bleedingly obvious. But it doesn’t consider the ‘concepts’.
Yes, this fiction had to appeal to its audience and at the time they made certain demands we now call ‘juvenile’ and many of them are indeed chauvinist. The stories also suffer from the prejudices of the age – ie if race is involved they’re disgustingly ignorant and racist. That last point can be hard to deal with at times and I know I say that from the position of white privilege. I can’t imagine how anyone of any other ethnicity could deal with some of the stuff these stories say.
I’ve become sidetracked there – but it is a truth that needs to be acknowledged. Fortunately, not all the stories feature such bigotry, although the ones that don’t also don’t feature anyone not white so I guess it amounts to the same. The sad truth is, in being like this the stories simply reflect the general attitudes of the day. Which doesn’t really cut it I know, but as formative elements in today's SF can we just ignore them? I hate the history of our treatment of each other, it really shouldn't be an issue and the stories shouldn't have this problem.
But, back to my point, I think looking at the pulp stories in light of presenting concepts through generic storytelling methods and tropes could explain their appeal and how they went on to forge the SF genre of today. And that is my newest Masters research idea.
The Gorm is a beam which can manipulate gravity, allowing interplanetary cruise liners to be captured and pulled in safely and for people to ‘fall’ through space in a direct line without gaining velocity etc. By today’s standards it’s not much of a concept but as the beam was in the hands of alien pirates it made for a fairly exciting story for its time I imagine.
Looking at it like this now though, it raises an intriguing observation. Much of the pulp fiction I read is very similar – be it science fiction, fantasy or horror. It uses a selection of tropes relative to its field to create a story around a ‘concept’. The concept might be a future technology, a fantastic being or a mysterious thing that terrifies and confounds, but it is always an intriguing concept. The hero, the girl – occasionally one in the same but not often – even the plot itself are secondary to this concept.
I think this is where criticism of pulp fiction, at least in Speculative Fiction, goes awry. It looks at the plots and the characters and shows how ridiculous, two-dimensional, clichéd etc they can be. It points out the overuse of tropes, it finds flaws in the literary style, it points out the bleedingly obvious. But it doesn’t consider the ‘concepts’.
Yes, this fiction had to appeal to its audience and at the time they made certain demands we now call ‘juvenile’ and many of them are indeed chauvinist. The stories also suffer from the prejudices of the age – ie if race is involved they’re disgustingly ignorant and racist. That last point can be hard to deal with at times and I know I say that from the position of white privilege. I can’t imagine how anyone of any other ethnicity could deal with some of the stuff these stories say.
I’ve become sidetracked there – but it is a truth that needs to be acknowledged. Fortunately, not all the stories feature such bigotry, although the ones that don’t also don’t feature anyone not white so I guess it amounts to the same. The sad truth is, in being like this the stories simply reflect the general attitudes of the day. Which doesn’t really cut it I know, but as formative elements in today's SF can we just ignore them? I hate the history of our treatment of each other, it really shouldn't be an issue and the stories shouldn't have this problem.
But, back to my point, I think looking at the pulp stories in light of presenting concepts through generic storytelling methods and tropes could explain their appeal and how they went on to forge the SF genre of today. And that is my newest Masters research idea.
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