Pulp Books

The benefit for Little Sister's Defense Fund catalysed following the persecution of a Vancouver bookstore in the 1980s. But the array of talent commanded by this commission shines alone and intersects collectively, each to be a series of embryonic cartoonic zeitgeists in utero... drivels someone somewhere.

In What's Right, Talbot's superb cover of a masked skull scissoring a book into confetti is matched by many clever and funny cartoons including the brilliant salvo against banality Fetus-X by Eric Millikin and Casey Sorrow. In Boneyard by Richard Moore, cartoon porn-stars find their language bleeped by the general nemesis. Yes you've guessed - it's that poxy and voyeuristic Canadian law. What's Right is the more thoughtful of the two books, resulting sadly in a lot of didactic strips of pontificating characters amidst a few gems of political lampooning. Still it's all stuff good enough to cause much more scratching of foreheads (and trouser pockets) down at the Canadian Customs offices, and the various bureaus behind the persecution of the Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium in Vancouver.

In the sister volume, What's Wrong? Explicit Graphic Interpretations Against Censorship, the quality of the talent , storytelling and graphic, are of a higher standard than What's Right?, the latter focussing on the moral side of the debate. Richard Moore's A Bet's A Bet stands out for it's drawing, with your next door animal-guy types getting it on. Art laurels too go to Robin Fisher and Donald King's Vespa Erotica, a girl's daydream of the erotic possibilities to be had by owning a two wheeler. And Creepy Snuff Porn by Howard Cruse, which is equally cute and violent. Union Dues by Taylor gets special mentions for their graphics. Fancy Pants by Michael Noonan is direct enough to be as real as life. In Satan's Free Country, a boy has his mind blown and is seduced by the Lord Pan. Dave Coopers Cartoon Abominations is a brilliant take on Crumb-influenced portraits of comedy mutants.

Should what's right and wrong with them enter into it when the project comes with such political credentials? I would say so. As political cartooning it is disarming just enough to avoid polemics, working best as simple tales of people, couched in a long array of never less than distinctive talents. Whatever you view of the politics of thoughtcrime - and if you can find the time for strips desqueamished, deheroised and humanly intense - then this book or it's companion volume should belong to you.

Maybe I'm out-growing erotica? There was something missing from the stories, that wasn't coming across. Excuse the punz.

A Science Fiction Story


Prison authority hostage escape.

3 out of 5

A Science Fiction Story

Old religion end.


2.5 out of 5

This sounds like fun: some ancient massive reptile still slinks about the British countryside, seeking blood! Well, Stoker's paper-thin characterizations and clock-work plotting ruin an amusing premise. Turgidly written and nonsensically blocked out (characters seem like marionettes who move without reason from scene to scene), this is useful only as a look at Stoker's odd thinking toward the end of his life. As Victorian romance, it's barely passable, but it's a sad last effort from Stoker.

See the movie! As usual with Ken Russell's films, it's cheerfully vulgar and over-the-top. And Amanda Donohoe makes a lovely "White Worm."

You must remember several biographical things about the book's author Bram Stoker and his last novel `The Lair of the White Worm' before reading it. By the time he wrote the book in 1911, Henry Irving, renowned actor for whom Stoker worked as business manager, had died in 1905. Stoker himself had suffered a stroke which nearly killed him, and in 1912 he died, about one year after the publication of `White Worm.' There are shadows of death hanging over the book, which shows the clear sign of deteriorating health of the writer.

`The Lair of the White Worm' can be rephrased as `The Lady is a White Snake.' The book is about Adam, one young man coming back from Sydney, who finds that an enormous white snake dwells in the cave (in the basement of a mansion near the house where Adam lives with his grand-uncle). Moreover, the evil snake can transform into a noblewoman Lady Arabella, who is beautiful, cold, seductive, and calculating.

The story is muddled at best, and the outrageous behaviors of the characters are all beyond belief. We meet Mr. Caswall, who is obsessed with the idea of flying a kite up in the sky. There are several sequences in which he tries to `conquer' the will of two ladies using mesmerism. Lady Arabella always carries a gun (just in case when she is attacked by a mongoose, I am not joking). Nothing makes sense here, and Adam and others, who should have known better, act as if nothing unusual happened after witnessing these weird things.

It is often pointed out that the text of `Dracula' is full of sexual innuendo. In `The Lair of the White Worm' the hidden meanings are more obvious, but written with less subtlety. The book is sometimes criticized for its misogamy (seen in the characterization of Lady Arabella), and the criticism is mostly justified. The book's conclusion is extraordinary in its sickly descriptions, which easily beat Lucy's staking scene in `Dracula.'

In a sense, Ken Russell did an incredible job in making a film out of this mess. If you're looking for some hints as to the mind of the creator of Dracula, you might be rewarded, finding some creepy images among the feeble and incoherent story. Otherwise, stay away, or read some other Gothic novels instead.

The Lair of the White Worm, which is also known as The Garden of Evil, is a classic horror novel by Bram Stoker, who is most famous for Dracula (1897), regarded as the greatest horror novel ever written. It was published in 1911, the year before Stoker's death. In 1988, Ken Russell adapted the novel into a film starring Hugh Grant.

The plot of the novel centers around Adam Salton, originally from Sydney, Australia, who receives a letter from his grand-uncle, Richard Salton, in England in 1860 for the purpose of establishing a relationship between these last two members of the family. Richard Salton plans to make Adam his heir. Adam arrives at Southampton and travels to Richard Salton's house in Mercia, the estate called Lesser Hill, and quickly finds himself in the center of mysterious and inexplicable occurrences.

He meets Sir Nathaniel de Salis who is a friend and associate to Richard Salton. He tours the countryside and visits Liverpool and becomes familiar with the terrain and its history. He learns that the area has an ancient history going back to Roman times and the time of the Druids. He discovers that Romans had settled the region and had built structures there.

The new heir to the Caswall estate, Castra Regis in Latin, the Royal Camp, is Edgar Caswall who is obsessed with mesmerism. Lady Arabella March is a mysterious widow whose husband was found with a gunshot wound to the head. She is haughty and domineering wearing tight white clothes that give her a snake-like appearance.

Adam Salton discovers black snakes on the property and buys a mongoose to hunt them down. He then discovers a child who is bitten on the neck. The child barely survives. He learns that another child was killed earlier while animals were also killed in the region. The mongoose attacks Arabella who shoots it to death. Arabella tears another mongoose apart with her hands. Arabella then murders Oolanga, the African servant, by dragging him down into a pit or hole. Adam, who is shot at, witnesses the murder. Adam then suspects Arabella of the other crimes.

Adam and Sir Nathaniel de Salis plot to stop Arabella by whatever means necessary. They suspect that she wants to murder Mimi Watford, who is half-Burmese, whom Adam marries. Mimi's half-sister is Lilla Watford, who is terrorized by Caswall and subsequently dies. Nathaniel is an Abraham Van Helsing type of character who begins tracking down the human monster, Arabella. Arabella assumes a Dracula-like menace as Adam and Nathaniel track her down to destroy her.

The White Worm is a large snake-like creature that lives in the hole or pit in Arabella's house. Like the black cat in "The Squaw", the White Worm has green glowing eyes and feeds on whatever is thrown to it in the pit. The giant White Worm eats Oolanga when he is thrown down the pit. The White Worm ascends from the pit and seeks to attack Adam and Mimi in a forest.

Adam plans to pour sand into the pit and to use dynamite to kill the giant White Worm in the pit.

Edgar Caswall is a slightly pathological eccentric who has Mesmer's chest which he keeps at the Doom Tower, in the turret-chamber. Caswall wants to recreate mesmerism, associated with Anton Mesmer, which was a precursor to hypnotism. He has a giant kite in the shape of a hawk to scare away pigeons which have gone berzerk and have attacked his fields.

In the final scene, Adam Salton, Mimi Watford, and Nathaniel de Salis confront Arabella and Edgar Caswall. A thunderstorm and lightning destroy Diana's Grove by igniting the dynamite.

The Lair of the White Worm is a surreal horror fantasy novel by one of the greatest horror writers of all time. Dracula is arguably the greatest horror novel ever written in any language. It inspired the German horror classic Nosferatu and the 1931 Universal seminal classic Dracula starring Bela Lugosi. That movie started the horror genre in the US and around the world, being Universal's first horror movie. Dracula proved to be a huge success which convinced Universal to release other horror movies.

Most readers only know Bram Stoker for one work, Dracula. He wrote other novels, however, such as The Lady of the Shroud, The Jewel of Seven Stars, The Lair of the White Worm, The Man, non-fiction books such as Famous Impostors (1910), and short story collections such as Dracula's Guest (1914) and Under the Sunset (1882). The Lair of the White Worm is a short novel, approximately 120 pages in length. It is highly recommended. It has unforgettable surreal images and fantasy horror. It is a page-turner and a book difficult to put down. It is well-written and recaptures some of the menace and terror of Dracula.

The Lair of the White Worm is a must-read and a must-own horror novel for anyone interested in the genre by the foremost horror writer, Bram Stoker. The novel was published one year before Stoker died. He managed to get in one more shocker and thriller.

Allegedly written while the author was going insane, "The Lair of the White Worm" is a fantastic, dream-like narrative whose only saving grace is that there's nothing else like it out there. The plot, if one can call it that, is a maze of myth and pseudo-gothic imagery that, while never the least bit convincing, is somehow irresistible. It is to Stoker's credit that he was able to infuse even a total failure with a mesmeric readability--perhaps he had taken lessons from one his own characters (read the book and you'll get it)! The whole has shades of "Dracula," though none of that work's macabre artistry. Whereas "Dracula" is a frequently subtle, carefully crafted piece of literature which defies the reader to refute its horrors, "Lair of the White Worm" requires so many leaps of faith that it's impossible to achieve any suspension of disbelief. But again, despite its literary deficiciencies, the book inexplicably entertains on a minor level. Amidst the decaying estates through which his characters stumble, the hackneyed romance, the stupefying telepathic duels, the clouds of protective pigeons and the malevolent kite (!)and the gross-out climax in the midst of a raging storm--between all these things are glimpses into a great writer's mind that, to the true devotee of classic horror, might make this book worth buying. Caveat Emptor!

It has been said that Ken Russell's 1980s cinematic adaptation of Bram Stoker's "classic", "The Lair of the White Worm", is a travesty of the original, a betrayal of the source material. However, a read of the book in question will in fact reveal that Russell must be some sort of genius to rewrite this thing so that it makes any kind of sense at all.

Our story begins in rural England, though I must say that it's not much like the rural England I remember from my childhood. For one thing, every landmark and citizen appears to live within one hundred feet of each other; this almost claustrophobic aspect of the Less Than Great Outdoors proves a plot point later on when not one, but two, places of residence are blown to smithereens by the same bolt of lightning. Still, they were evil places of residence, so let's not trouble ourselves too much about it.

Our central characters are young Adam Salton, an allegedly dashing Australian, and his pal Sir Nathaniel de Salis, the kind of individual whose immediate reaction upon hearing that a young lord of the realm was staring at a young woman is that this is "a matter of life and death".

The rest of our merry band includes Edgar Caswall, said young lord, whose primary delight in life is flying kites through thunderstorms in a manner that can only be described as Darwinian; Mimi and Lilla Watford, shy blushing young country lasses straight from Central Casting, whose primary role in the proceedings is to engage in inadvertently hilarious staring contests with Edgar; Oolanga, a jaw-droppingly racist caricature of a black man who, since Stoker wants to have his Ku Klux Kake and eat it too, is both manipulative AND stupid; and, last but certainly not least, Lady Arabella March, the White Worm herself, although Stoker can't seem to make his mind up as to whether or not she was originally human and is now possessed by the Worm's spirit (as a flashback by Sir Nate would indicate), or is actually an ancient serpent who has evolved the ability to shape-shift (as everyone eventually concludes).

Evidently, when the forces of Good and Evil are collectively as effective as, well, flying a kite in the middle of a thunderstorm, you can immediately see how the story is going to be problematic. This, however, does not do the book justice. Independent of the characters, Stoker manages to cram in such enormous plot holes that the Worm, were it to really exist, could comfortably dwell inside one of them for many centuries to come. This is a novel where, after the battle lines have been clearly drawn, the deadly enemies STILL keep inviting each other to tea; where two entire chapters are dedicated to a chest that belonged to Mesmer, which turns out to have absolutely no further role to play in proceedings whatsoever; where a villain murders a victim right in front of the hero and then does nothing to stop him telling anyone other than writing him a sternly worded letter. Clearly, we're not in Kansas anymore. I understand they have editors there.

In addition to all this, we're treated to Stoker's thrilling theories about such matters as gender (women are either evil or stupid), mental illness (mad people are just being selfish), and, especially, race relations, upon which everyone in the novel, good and bad, can agree that black people are just naturally inferior. Isn't it nice that they can all put aside their differences in the face of a common cause?

So, yes, all of this contributes to make "Lair of the White Worm" a less than urgent addition to one's book collection. However, I hasten to add that the book, if read as a comedy, is an absolute laugh riot. Keeping that in mind, I shall leave you with my own personal favorite exchange from the novel, one which, I hope, will afford you as much mirth as it did me:

"'...God alone knows what poor Captain March discovered - it must have been something too ghastly for human endurance, if my theory is correct that the once beautiful human body of Lady Arabella is under the control of this ghastly White Worm.'

"Adam nodded.

"'But what can we do, sir - it seems a most difficult problem.'"

Fascinating in juxtaposition to the highbrow shocks at Weird Tales, these pulp yarns are long on sadistic violence and implied sex while they generally eschew supernatural explanations in favor of all too human depravity (the endings are like those in the Scooby-Doo cartoons, where the phantom always turns out to be the caretaker in a rubber mask and phosphorescent paint). Some of the conceits are shockingly grotesque and were the writing better or the characters more human the brutality would be tough to stomach. As is, this is a complete reproduction of a vintage shock-sheet, right down to the sleazy ads in the back. Worth reading for anyone interested in the evolution of mass media horror or a fan of pulp magazines in general.

You think that's bad, I ordered on June 20 and have actually had it reordered on July 17, and they said I would have it by the 22...it is now July 28 and still no book in sight? Is this a cursed book? I am trying like hell to be cool about this...but...

It was supposed to have shipped July 15 - UPS 2nd day but, it's the 27th now and UPS still hasn't been contacted to pick it up and, if that's not frustrating enough, I can't find an Amazon customer service email address to make an inquiry to.

Please be advised that this book is available via Budplant.com. Go to http://budplant.com/product.asp?pn=SINI . I am not an affiliate of Budplant, but just wish to give people something to read.

I had this book in my cart and ready to buy for months! Amazon kept sending me emails saying that the shipment was going to have to be postponed another week or two and to update my account that this was OK. This kept up for about 4 or 5 emails. Needless to say I eventually gave up. The book obviously isn't available.

"Pulp" stories/fiction/magazines are defined by a specific era and form of American literature. In the Introduction, the editors state this, that the period was from about 1920 to about 1950, then proceed to say most of the stories were cliched and godawful. OK, that's fine, but surely you've collected some of the cliche-lite, not-so-god-awful ones, right? Wrong! The collection of stories is from the 50's to the late 90's, AFTER the pulp era. Are there Victorian novels written in the 60's? Surely there were many that appeared Victorian, but that is after the period is defined. I was looking for stories from that era, the godawful and the brilliant.

Look at this quote on Amazon...

"Ingram
Collects the best American crime stories ever published, culled from the pulp magazines of the thirties, forties, and fifties and featuring such titles as ""Dime Detective,"" ""Black Mask,"" and ""The Shadow."" Original."

What the hell?!?!? This has NOTHING to do with this collection. There a handful of stories from the 30's through the 50's, and a ton from the 80's and 90's. Totally misleading and disappointing - not the collection I had hoped for.

Would it have been detestable to gather up a few dozen great stories from that era and actually publish a definitive American Pulp collection?

This anthology has a number of stories from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, which are well outside the range of time when anything which could reasonably be called pulp fiction was published. Some of these stories are bad beyond belief. The editorial introductions lack all discernment, and the editors can't seem to tell the good from the unbelievably horrendous. Some of the stories are good, notably the one by David Goodis, but overall the quality is low. The book seems to have been thrown together to capitalize on the movie Pulp Fiction. You'd be well advised not to waste your time or your money on this.

Excellent introduction to the pulp fiction writers of the middle third of the 20th Century. This has a nice variety of authors and an excellent blend of styles and stories. Well worth the price of admission.

"Desilicious" shows that despite the threat of excommunication, the tabooed subject of sexualities can be presented and debated in the South Asian community. Appreciation of such matters can be felt especially when one has been restricted because of opposition, especially due to a monolithic idea of moralistic identity. Day-to-day narratives also contain issues that a reader must have the discertion to appreciate. Good things do not come in blatant ways; noticing them in the ordinary show a critical eye.

One of the most boring books that I have ever read...left you limp and bored. Especially, since it comes from the land of Khajurao and the Kama Sutra. India and it's women are highly sensual and sexual, as I have encountered. And, if you get a "Tantric"...woe betide the hours of fun.

The Desi women and men in this book, had sad lives and their repressed sexuality reflects that of a damp squid...not real Indians.

Ughh !!! What a quick read and waste of money. I threw it the same day in the garbage - where it belongs.

cause68usa@netscape.net

The Masala Trois Collective (eds.), Desilicious (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2003)

I will say right now that it's possible my reaction to this book has something to do with the fact that it was marketed to me as a straight poetry anthology, leading me to almost immediate disappointment. I could have handled, even, a mostly-poetry anthology with some prose thrown in for good measure. Instead, it's the opposite. Quite a letdown.

Not that the short stories are bad, all of them. As is to be expected with any anthology, especially one with such a narrow focus as this (South Asian writers exploring sexual themes), there's a wide range of craft and artistic ability here, and that keeps the stories interesting, in its own odd way. However, ironically, also because of the exceptionally narrow focus, the stories quickly develop a sameness to them. Heterosexual, homosexual, male, female, one of the things you'll take away from the prose pieces in this book is that sexual awakening is, well, sexual awakening. As profoundly individual as it seems to each person, well, we tend to draw the same conclusions.

The poetry here is surprising-- for the most part because some of it is so very exceptional. A few of the poets in this anthology should have published single-poet collections with major presses long ago. The opening poet, Shompaballi Datta, is someone you need to know, because this woman is going places. Which makes it all the more depressing to come upon something like Salacious Sister's "Snake Poem," which should be taught in schools as an example of how not to write poetry:

"Colorful Goddess images on the wall
Inspire her to delve and deepen."

My heart bleeds for a generation that would call such a juxtaposition of vague, unpoetic words "poetry."

There is some good stuff here, but pick it up only if you feel like wading through a lot of swine to get to the pearls. **

Schulman, Sarah. "Rat Bohemia", Arsenal Pulp Press, 2008. (reprint)

Dealing with Loss

Sara Schulman first published "Rat Bohemia" in 1995 which was right in the middle of the AIDS crisis and people took notice. Rat Bohemia is part of New York City where the members of the GLBT community come together to deal with the losses they feel. Here is a story that hurts in its boldness and honesty. Roaming the city is Rita Mae, a rat exterminator by profession and she is an optimist like all bohemians claim to be. Bohemians are those who stand outside of the acknowledged social structure in which we live. Rita and friends look for new ways and avenues to truth and honesty--not just about their own lives but also about the lives of those that live around them because others cannot seem to be bothered.
The book engenders grief because it means we have to return to that awful period when so many died needlessly. We also lost the sense of Bohemia.
In the new introduction to "Rat Bohemia" Schulman tells us that at least 75,000 New Yorkers died to AIDS and that is about twenty percent of the total losses in America. New York has changed because of AIDS and gay neighborhoods became gentrified as residents died. Gay people, at that time, in many cases, left their unsupportive families and when they were gone, their families rarely intervened and therefore many were buried under terrible conditions. Those who had AIDS were risk-takers who lived among people who did not want them in society and they paid very heavily for being "out".
Are we allowed to forget? I certainly hope that no one ever forgets because this was out holocaust and Sarah Schulman reminds us of it.
She brilliantly looks at how our disenfranchisement is found as a political evil in every aspect of life and it hurts to read it but IT MUST BE READ. It is a part of out lives as incendiary as this book is, it is above all honest.
I am not sure that "Rat Bohemia" is even a novel, it is more of a remembrance and a hurtful nostalgic look at a world, people and a counterculture that is lost forever. It is also somewhat of a manifesto for those that demand that their families accept them. "Rat Bohemia" is "a dispatch from real life" and is perhaps one of the important books that deals with the way we lived and live now.

Rat Bohemia articulates one of the simple truths behind the complexity of lesbian and gay experience - the overpowering need for parental acceptance and the lifelong pain and coping necessitated by its absence.

Interesting blurb and sale price helped me decide to buy this book. It was boring and did not live up to the hype. Not wirth more than $2, so if you see it in the dollar bin, then that's the only time to buy it.

Very cheesy. The Green Lama's chant is not a patch on Green Lantern's oath, I am sorry. He is pretty annoying, so much so you are likely to be barracking for the Crimson Hand to win! No such luck with his mysterious orient tutors in his powers and abilities keeping him away from us, either.