Live-tweeting my reading of this book about golden age sci fi (~1930s-50s) here, which strikes me as very similar to blogosphere in aughts and 10s. But now meta-wondering about other pillars of modern mainstream culture that grew out of pulp magazine genres in that period.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1233210973793574912 …
Detective fiction, romantic fiction are 2 others that grew in that era. Others have done less well I think — westerns/cowboy fiction has had declining appeal since then. Adventure/exploration fiction/non-fiction has become obsolete. It was already retro-colonial chic by then.
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Why 1930s? Depression psychology/sociology. The technology of cheap pulp printing dates to 1890s, but the demand exploded in the 1930s. Also took a generation of early writers to create culture, like 80s/90s internet for blogs. Also WW1 was a damper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine …pic.twitter.com/cqLUwKylzQ
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Yep I’m increasingly convinced blogosphere is the new pulp magazines. Analogy works great: volumes, unit economics, audience interactivity, community, reliance on communication media....
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Note that these were “magazines” in a very different sense than today’s thin, color-photography-laden 8.5x11s with max 4K-6k features. We’re talking 7x10x0.5 all text. This is basically a paperback novel sized volume a month.
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They were reduced to digest size by WW2 paper rationing. That’s the size I’ve read. Old Reader’s Digests from the 1950s/1960s. Ellery Queen mystery magazine, etc. I’d say each digest = 2-3 months of ribbonfarm in word count. If ribbonfarm were a pulp digest it’d be a quarterly.
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2020s of blogosphere will be like 1950s of pulp magazines. Greatest decade as well as last decade. Okay, now gotta go read about the glossies.
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End of conversation
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