Todd Mason wrote:
> Which leaves open the question of when the sales on
GM books started to
> slacken, and when GM stopped paying royalties on
every printed item rather
> than each sold, like most publishers.
********** I'm not sure about that, but both Meaker and
Charles Williams bailed at about the same time, within a few
years of 1960. Williams bailed because he wanted to write
hardcovers, plus he was being pressured into writing series
Gold Medals, which he wanted no part of.
> As for publishing class distinctions...well, even
today ignoramuses can't
> keep the definition of "pulp fiction" straight, and
while it's now
> acceptable slumming material, the nature of the
packaging (all the GM
> seminudes, etc.) ensured the ignorant could feel
comfortable in
maintaining
> their sneer
************* Well, I'll have to admit that I don't exactly
know what pulp fiction is either. Strictly speaking, it's a
certain style of literature found in cheap magazines
inbetween the two World Wars, but I notice it also being used
for modern day stuff that's written in a similar style.
> Mike--I didn't get very far with SMILLA'S SENSE OF
SNOW, the novel in
> translation in English, but I didn't try very hard,
since it seemed the
kind
> of thing the blockheads mentioned above clutch to
their breasts as clearly
> superior to the kind of tawdry trash Anglophone cf
writers churn out, but
I
> did see the movie, with the protagonist's ancestry
now made improbable at
> best by the choice of lead actress, and the protag's
ability to walk over
> several hundred miles of arctic icecap without once
putting up the hood on
> her parka (would muss her hair, doncha know), and
the ridiculous
> science-fictional developements in the last third of
the film...I cannot
> recommend it, sorry to disagree so strenuously, but
it Annoyed me. A lot.
************* I noticed the items you mentioned, but they
didn't bother me much. I thought Smilla was a spectacular
character, I really liked watching her relating to the other
characters and I thought the dialogue was great. It was
refreshing to see such a hardboiled female character in such
an unusual setting.
miker
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