The Pulps Are Dead. Long Live The Pulps!

It must be tough to be a “Social Justice Warrior.” Note my use of quotation marks here. This is to designate the difference between any person concerned about social concerns—and frankly, social justice should be a primary concern of any compassionate, intelligent person in this day and age—and those cliché-ridden, self-important types who spend so much time hand-wringing over the sins of the past that they never accomplish anything of value in the present, save to cheapen the entire movement. “Social Justice Warriors” are the same as the PC Police, and as with any microcosm of idiots, the Internet has given them a forum. Fortunately, the SJWs are about as impotent as all the others.

The SJWs hate the Pulps. (I’m trusting that you all know what a “pulp” is. It’s where the title of the film PULP FICTION came from. The Pulps of the 20s and 30s were the precursors to comic books. They laid the foundation for modern pop culture. They are also, by today’s standards, notoriously un-PC. (So are Bugs Bunny cartoons, yet the SJW wankers tend to focus their hate on the Pulps. I don’t know why. Maybe they’re hesitant to pick on a cartoon character.) H.P. Lovecraft. Robert E. Howard. Edgar Rice Burroughs. If the SJW jerkoffs had their way, these authors would be stricken from existence. Erased from history. Yet the works continue to thrive. Pity the poor, useless PC jerkoffs. It must be so disheartening.

H.P. Lovecraft was a notorious racist and anti-Semite (right up until he went and married a Jewish lady). Howard and Burroughs writings feature depictions of other races that don’t wash by today’s standards. They also serve to capture the zeitgeist and ortgeist of America and the world in that time. Are they “dated”? Of course they are. Shakespeare’s THE MERCHANT OF VENICE is dated. But the THEMES explored are timeless. Does that make you scoff, the idea that Pulp fiction could contain timeless things? Howzabout the struggles of humankind against not just an impassive but openly hostile, malevolent universe? That’s the pure existential Horror of Lovecraft. The struggles of a decent man amidst a decadent society, a society in its last stages, succumbing to collapse? Ladies and gents, I give you Howard’s Conan the Barbarian. And then there’s the most timeless of the universal themes offered by these authors” Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes. Don’t think the theme there is timeless. It’s one of the seven basic stories of all Literature: Man against Nature. More than that, it’s about Man learning to live alongside his OWN animal nature. It’s also why Tarzan would never work if it was done PC and Tarzan was made anything other than Caucasian.

Tarzan and Mowgli from THE JUNGLE BOOK are essentially the same character. Their stories are essentially the same. Yet Tarzan is far more effective. Why? Because his fall was farther, the fall that served as his origin. If a child belonging to a Native population was separated at birth, adopted and raised by animals, it wouldn’t be so striking, because that “primitive” society was already somewhat in touch with its “wildness.” But take an infant belonging to the most aristocratic, i.e. pampered, effete, and “civilized,” totally useless where it comes to surviving on an animal level—the English people, in other words–and drop THAT infant off in the heart of the jungle. See the difference?

The SJWs can never erase psychological archetypes or timeless truths, no matter how uncomfortable those things might be for them and no matter how hard they try. Nor should they try. How can the peoples of the present and the future learn from our past if we ignore it or try to sanitize it? I understand that PC-ism is anathema to learning and that all the rest of us can do is ignore their ignorant bleating. I also realize I’m preaching to the choir, here. Even so, I feel it needs to be said. As often as necessary.

By The Evil Cheezman

WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS (www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions), specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 MORTUI VELOCES SUNT!

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