Great article. For anyone looking to get into hardboiled or pulp, Richard Stark’s Parker novels of the 60s and early 70s are a great place to start. They’re incredibly nasty in the best sense, totally amoral, heavily procedural stories about an unrepentant professional thief doing jobs. The first one, the hunter, was adapted as Point Blank, the classic lee Marvin movie. There are about 15 books and you could read one in an afternoon with the exception of the last one in the series, Butcher’s Moon. University of Chicago Press has reissued all of them. They’re a great antidote to the much more female-oriented, serial killer obsessed crime fiction of the 80s onwards
It's truly fascinating to read this article now, seeing how much has changed in the indie entertainment space (the successes of Eric July's Rippaverse, ANVIL Magazine, Razörfist & GPrime85's "Ghost of the Badlands"), but seeing the same conversations happening with Con Inc. and the many brains rotted by their punditry. Not to mention going into an election year when people need the chance to decompress, but are more likely to gorge themselves on 24/7 news coverage.
I think the greatest problem is that so many are still wired into the traditional entertainment ecosystem, so everyone keeps expecting to get something from the top-down to fix everything, like Top Gun: Mavericks just grow on trees, and if shows like "Mr. Birchum" is anything to go by, it's not happening anytime soon. But at the same time, it's pulling teeth get people to try something new to them, whether modern indies, or classics.
Either way, I'm quite content to have my own projects like "365 Infantry" stay apolitical in their presentation. I'd rather everyone leave their "based" and "woke" at the door, and just enjoy themselves. People need a chance to breathe.
At a time when the establishment of the Western entertainment industry is poised to collapse in its entirety, it is more important than ever before for independent (conservative/right-wing) creatives to support each other. I think you could do very well to promote independent (conservative/right-wing) literature, movies, comics, animations, etc here.
And most of these pulp fiction works are available in the public domain and online for free. One writer who is still under appreciated was Clark Ashton Smith. Here is a short list of movies that depended almost entirely on Pulp Fiction greats that I thought off of the top of my head.
1. "The Thing" - "At the Mountains of Madness" by H.P. Lovecraft
2. "Alien" - "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombus" by Clark Ashton Smith
3. "Terminator 2" (the CGI metal guy) - "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith
4. "Blair Witch Project" - "Genius Loci" by Clark Ashton Smith
5. "Hereditary" - "The Devotee of Evil" by Clark Ashton Smith
6. Nearly every zombie movie - "Herbert West - Reanimator" by H.P. Lovecraft
7. Nearly every cult movie - "The Shadow over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft.
I thought Sound of Freedom was very good, and appreciated that it stayed so close to the real-life events, but I do get what you mean. I was happy when the island rescue worked out but remember having an almost “oh-no” feeling when they figure out Caviezel needs to go back into another situation. I was already pretty sapped by that point but I was exhausted by the actual end of the movie.
Conservatives still suffer from wanting to fit in with the "cool kids." Just let go of trying to be "high culture" and have fun. The culture will move to where the fun stuff is happening.
Yes, the 80s High T action movies were not try-hard conservative film flicks. They were just cool and fun. They offered an exciting and daring escape that brought people over to many principles that are actually conservative or Right in nature. Imagine a "Predator" movie banked and directed by Conservative Inc.'s Ben Shapiro. It would probably be cringe and coated in that "Hallmark Channel" vibe.
The popularity of pulp may explain why Japanese manga does better than Western comics, manga is basically attractive trash without the pretense of being top shelf. It's all there, blood and violence, fast action, lewd & lovely girls, and all cranked out at a pace that can shorten an authors life, and true gems come out all the time.
Great article. For anyone looking to get into hardboiled or pulp, Richard Stark’s Parker novels of the 60s and early 70s are a great place to start. They’re incredibly nasty in the best sense, totally amoral, heavily procedural stories about an unrepentant professional thief doing jobs. The first one, the hunter, was adapted as Point Blank, the classic lee Marvin movie. There are about 15 books and you could read one in an afternoon with the exception of the last one in the series, Butcher’s Moon. University of Chicago Press has reissued all of them. They’re a great antidote to the much more female-oriented, serial killer obsessed crime fiction of the 80s onwards
I’m a huge fan of pulp fiction in the fantasy and sci fi sense. Thanks for the recommendation!
Since you're reposting this, I will once again link my conservative pulp novel, Ardnora: Insurgency
https://open.substack.com/pub/ardnora?r=z1eyj&utm_medium=ios
It's truly fascinating to read this article now, seeing how much has changed in the indie entertainment space (the successes of Eric July's Rippaverse, ANVIL Magazine, Razörfist & GPrime85's "Ghost of the Badlands"), but seeing the same conversations happening with Con Inc. and the many brains rotted by their punditry. Not to mention going into an election year when people need the chance to decompress, but are more likely to gorge themselves on 24/7 news coverage.
I think the greatest problem is that so many are still wired into the traditional entertainment ecosystem, so everyone keeps expecting to get something from the top-down to fix everything, like Top Gun: Mavericks just grow on trees, and if shows like "Mr. Birchum" is anything to go by, it's not happening anytime soon. But at the same time, it's pulling teeth get people to try something new to them, whether modern indies, or classics.
Either way, I'm quite content to have my own projects like "365 Infantry" stay apolitical in their presentation. I'd rather everyone leave their "based" and "woke" at the door, and just enjoy themselves. People need a chance to breathe.
At a time when the establishment of the Western entertainment industry is poised to collapse in its entirety, it is more important than ever before for independent (conservative/right-wing) creatives to support each other. I think you could do very well to promote independent (conservative/right-wing) literature, movies, comics, animations, etc here.
Is anyone familiar with good books on the "Years of Lead" in Italy? Might be an interesting topic for an article or podcast.
Myth20C did a years of lead podcast. October 3, 2021 episode.
And most of these pulp fiction works are available in the public domain and online for free. One writer who is still under appreciated was Clark Ashton Smith. Here is a short list of movies that depended almost entirely on Pulp Fiction greats that I thought off of the top of my head.
1. "The Thing" - "At the Mountains of Madness" by H.P. Lovecraft
2. "Alien" - "The Vaults of Yoh-Vombus" by Clark Ashton Smith
3. "Terminator 2" (the CGI metal guy) - "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros" by Clark Ashton Smith
4. "Blair Witch Project" - "Genius Loci" by Clark Ashton Smith
5. "Hereditary" - "The Devotee of Evil" by Clark Ashton Smith
6. Nearly every zombie movie - "Herbert West - Reanimator" by H.P. Lovecraft
7. Nearly every cult movie - "The Shadow over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft.
I thought Sound of Freedom was very good, and appreciated that it stayed so close to the real-life events, but I do get what you mean. I was happy when the island rescue worked out but remember having an almost “oh-no” feeling when they figure out Caviezel needs to go back into another situation. I was already pretty sapped by that point but I was exhausted by the actual end of the movie.
Conservatives still suffer from wanting to fit in with the "cool kids." Just let go of trying to be "high culture" and have fun. The culture will move to where the fun stuff is happening.
Yes, the 80s High T action movies were not try-hard conservative film flicks. They were just cool and fun. They offered an exciting and daring escape that brought people over to many principles that are actually conservative or Right in nature. Imagine a "Predator" movie banked and directed by Conservative Inc.'s Ben Shapiro. It would probably be cringe and coated in that "Hallmark Channel" vibe.
Doing a plank the whole time I was reading this changed the atmosphere
The popularity of pulp may explain why Japanese manga does better than Western comics, manga is basically attractive trash without the pretense of being top shelf. It's all there, blood and violence, fast action, lewd & lovely girls, and all cranked out at a pace that can shorten an authors life, and true gems come out all the time.