“Pulp fictions pave way for future novel - Berkshire Eagle” plus 1 more

Pulp fictions pave way for future novel - Berkshire Eagle

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 04:33 AM PDT

Friday September 10, 2010

One of the projects on which I'm working, and should finish sometime in about 2050, is a novel set in the 1930s. (I'm kidding about finishing it in 2050; it just seems that way sometimes.)

But one of the things one has to do to write these darn things is do a little research. Actually, more than a little research.

For example, a couple of my characters smoke, because just about everybody did in the 1930s. The problem I had was figuring out which kinds of cigarettes they smoked. Character A, for example, couldn't light a Marlboro Menthol for character B, because mentholated cigarettes weren't invented in the 1930s. So it was probably a Camel cigarette.

When I started out writing this book, I just tried to deal with stuff as it came up, like the cigarettes. Or fudge things, like taxicab rates. But I began to run into all sorts of problems with that. I would write a scene and one of the characters would toss a newsboy a dime for a paper. I looked it up. Ten cents for a paper in the 1930s was a lot. More like three cents or even less. So I had to back off and immerse myself a little in the 1930s.

Anyway, there are actually a few books about life in the 1930s, and they are somewhat helpful.

But what really brought me back there were magazines called pulps. Pulp magazines were made of very heavy, coarse paper. They originated in 1896 and were printed well into the 1950s.

The major advantage in the 1930s was that

the paper was cheap to get, and thus the magazines themselves were cheap to print, usually 10 to 15 cents.

The advantage in 2010 is that this kind of paper was sturdy. In some cases, sturdy enough to last 80 years.

I began collecting pulp magazines years ago, and still have many. Most of the pulps I have talk about life in the 1930s and 1940s.

The exceptions are the science fiction pulps I have, like "Captain Future." It's kind of interesting to read about the "past future" in some of these pulps, when police officers in 1993 have flying belts and stunner-ray guns. In 1933, it must have seemed logical that such things would be invented in the intervening 60 years, as well as interplanetary space travel.

Crooks in the 1990s, according to the pulps, stole robot brains and spaceship plans. No mention of "crack" or Internet pornography.

Anyway, I was transported back into the 1930s by "The Shadow" and "Doc Savage" and "The Phantom Detective" pulps.

I realize that, even in the 1930s, very few folks had a tall, dark, double pistol-wearing mystery man like The Shadow as a boss, but one of his employees interested me.

This was a guy named Clyde Burke, who appeared in a bunch of Shadow novels. He was near and dear to my heart because Burke was an out-of-work newspaper reporter. The Shadow hired him to operate a private clipping service.

Basically, Burke bought a bunch of newspapers every day, and clipped out stories or items that might be of interest to the Shadow and filed them.

The first time I read about Burke, I thought, "Jeez, what a great job. You get paid to read the newspaper every day, and cut out items that interest you, or at least items that might interest your crime-busting boss."

And you know that working for a guy like The Shadow, you were probably paid pretty well. The Shadow couldn't afford seeing you quit and spilling your guts about the operation to bad guys like Shiwan Khan or The Voodoo King.

The only downside is that very few people in New York City in 1933 read that many newspapers that intently every day. So my sense is, when Clyde Burke met the other Shadow operatives (and probably Doc Savage's boys) for a few cold ones at the Cobalt Club on "Half-price Wednesday," he really couldn't bust loose. To wit:

"Hey, fellows, you read about that zeppelin crash in Punjab?"

"Burke, can it. Who's pitching for the Giants tomorrow? You read about that?"

"Well, no, the Boss isn't too interested in that stuff."

"Yeah, well, order me a Rheingold and we'll call it square."

So I'm getting there.

Derek Gentile is an Eagle reporter.

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'Mafia II' a hacky ode to mobsters - Times Union

Posted: 09 Sep 2010 09:02 PM PDT

The reason I've never been enraptured by "The Sopranos," "Goodfellas" or other mob fictions is that the characters always seem too dumb and cruel to care about, and they say boring things that are supposed to "feel real" simply because they're insulting.

The new video game "Mafia II" contributes to such verbal inanity. It's a "Grand Theft Auto" copycat that follows Italian-American mobsters of the 1940s and 1950s who utter things like this:

"I heard about your run-in with the micks." And this: "Drinkin' on the job, huh? When did you turn Irish?"

Now, look. I realize such indelicacies of the tongue are quaint to the ears of we peoples of the 21st century.

But quaint or not, "Mafia II's" dialogue of heritage is hacky -- done a million times already.

So call me "politically correct," but you are wrong. I am saying heritage slurs are played out.

In addition to its often weak dialogue, "Mafia II" is chockablock with cinematic film scenes, but low on action.

You portray a guy named (naturally) Vito who comes back from World War II as a minor hero, then joins his best friend's mafia circle.

For much of the game, you are not playing, but you are watching cut scenes of Vito dealing with friends, family, higher-ups and street punks.

Then comes the action, which is low on the totem pole of "Grand Theft Auto" copycats. For hours and hours, all you get to do is drive around in old cars, learn how to pick locks, punch a few dudes and shoot a few enemies.

The worst thing: Cops ticket you for speeding, which slays momentum.

In short, this is an adequate rental if you're into "GTA" games.

But it's fairly valuable to anyone who longs to see a game presenting the New York of the 1940s and 1950s. Those who designed "Mafia II's" city, cars and music arrangements did fantastic jobs.

In one bar, I found a woman in winter gloves writing notes at a table. I walked up to deal with her, but she wasn't interactive. That's how well-designed the setting is in spots: Background figures seem like foreground characters.

And when I first heard my favorite of the game's great 135 tunes, Peggy Lee's "Happiness is a Thing Called Joe," I had to pull my car over to the side of the road and just listen. Man, that song blows you away.

Then I revved up the engine, killed some cops, and delved into "Mafia II's" artistic nostalgia of brain-dead killers. Sounds like every mafia thing you've ever seen, doesn't it?

Game Dork appears every other week in the Times Union.

Fiction

Jumat, 10 September 2010

“Pulp fictions pave way for future novel - Berkshire Eagle” plus 1 more

“Pulp fictions pave way for future novel - Berkshire Eagle” plus 1 more

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