Yeah, the pulps kept him pretty busy, but he was also heavily
into radio. Even after Dark Passage was optioned, Goodis
turned down the chance to adapt it cause he was too busy with
Hop Harrigan, etc. He quite possibly didn't have any time or
energy to write novels (he'd have been writing and editing
scripts all day). I also get the impression that he wasn't
particularly comfortable switching between different forms,
but I may be reading too much into that. Here's Goodis
speaking about what had been occupying him up until the
cinematic release of Dark Passage (from the New York Sun,
Sept 16th, 1947):
"You have to do that for radio, keep explaining everything as
you have no visual help. You get into a habit of
simplification when you write too much radio. When you write
too long for pulps you get into other habits. You stick too
long with one character, show everything in the story from
his viewpoint. I used to try to dig pretty deep but I think
writing for pulps keeps you from writing subjectively."
Incidentally, Retreat From Oblivion was published when Goodis
was a mere 22, and yet it already contains many of his
obsessions. He'd written at least two novels before that,
both of which were binned. And by 1947 he'd also written
Nightfall and Behold This Woman.
Al
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Vorzimmer" <
jvorzimmer@austin.rr.com> Subject: RARA-AVIS: David
Goodis in the pulps
> I'm about half way through David Goodis' Retreat
from Oblivion and
> wondered why there was such a big gap between his
first and second novels.
> These years correspond to the Second World War and
wondered if he served
> in it, but then I did a little research and found
that he actually started
> cranking out stories for the pulps--over 40 in all,
including 12 novellas
> during that time period. He wrote for a wide variety
of different types of
> pulps--crime, western, aviation, sports and under a
variety of pseudonyms.
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