Tuesday 3 January 2006
Trash...
A week or so ago I decided I wanted to read some 'pulp' sci-fi. I went into town to Galaxy Bookshop (just about my favourite bookshop) to buy something, but after half an hour there it became clear that I wasn't going to find what I was looking for. It wasn't Galaxy's fault; not much of the stuff gets published anymore. And what is published is either 'future wars' or 'alternative-history wars', neither a sub-genre to my taste. Overall sci-fi has improved its literary standards over the last twenty odd years. I don't have a problem with that, I love quality sci-fi (now often called speculative fiction) and it makes up around half the fiction I read. But on this day I wanted something more 'down market'. The problem is that the sci-fi market has contracted - partly overwhelmed by fantasy fiction and partly just because fiction reading generally has declined - and doesn't really support much of a 'down market' anymore.
Having failed to find the sci-fi variety of what I wanted, I decided to try crime fiction. Though I don't read much crime fiction these days I used to enjoy detective stories when I was younger. I left Galaxy and went to Abbey's Bookshop, a fine generalist bookshop with a pretty good crime selection. Crime, unlike sci-fi, has managed to preserve a pretty good 'down market' and within minutes I found what I was looking for.
Shark River (2002) by Randy Wayne White. Having never heard of the author, I based my choice on the cover; a legitimate method when pulp fiction is what you're looking for. I was not disappointed. Barely a mystery; it is more a series of encounters with women, beatings (both administered and received) and two cent philosophising. Being written in 2002 it was a little more socially conscious than the pulp 'classics' but it was all clumsy enough to remain thoroughly enjoyable. It was exactly what I was looking for.
These comments are not meant so much as an endorsement of Shark River specifically - though if you're looking for some pulp crime you could certainly do worse, but rather as a reminder of how much fun trashy genre fiction in general can be.
Having failed to find the sci-fi variety of what I wanted, I decided to try crime fiction. Though I don't read much crime fiction these days I used to enjoy detective stories when I was younger. I left Galaxy and went to Abbey's Bookshop, a fine generalist bookshop with a pretty good crime selection. Crime, unlike sci-fi, has managed to preserve a pretty good 'down market' and within minutes I found what I was looking for.
Shark River (2002) by Randy Wayne White. Having never heard of the author, I based my choice on the cover; a legitimate method when pulp fiction is what you're looking for. I was not disappointed. Barely a mystery; it is more a series of encounters with women, beatings (both administered and received) and two cent philosophising. Being written in 2002 it was a little more socially conscious than the pulp 'classics' but it was all clumsy enough to remain thoroughly enjoyable. It was exactly what I was looking for.These comments are not meant so much as an endorsement of Shark River specifically - though if you're looking for some pulp crime you could certainly do worse, but rather as a reminder of how much fun trashy genre fiction in general can be.
