Sidney wrote:
"But I rather think they were written after by authors who
had graduated from the ranks of freelance writers who started
by cranking out hardboiled tales for Black Mask and similar
pulp magazines of the era. After practice borne of a few
million words written against deadlines to put bread on the
table, a certain style could eveolve, enabling some of the
best to evolve as writers of novels with a more serious
intent."
Aren't we playing chicken or egg here? "Black Mask and
similar pulp magazines" published a certain kind of story. In
order to be published there, these authors had to conform to
the guidelines and demands of those magazines. By
concentrating much or most (depending upon the particular
writer) of their output in that particular segment of the
pulp market, they were choosing to work within a specific
style which would become genre. I think that simple choice of
market shows a consciousness of the specific boundaries of
that evolving genre. It doesn't really matter if they saw
themslves as artists or craftsmen, they saw themselves as
making a particular type of product. And how could they not
see it as different from other pre-existing genres?
Mark
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