- About a year ago, Massachusetts architect David Handlin embarked on an experiment to give his reading “purpose and focus.” He committed to reading only American novels and decided to compile a list of the 100 best that were published between 1770 and 1985. He shared that list with The American Scholar and called it a “draft.”
As compiled by "some dude" and "some retired English teacher." I dunno. I've learned to really hate these lists. I've attempted three Man Booker Prize books and I've fucking hated them. Stephen King argues in On Writing that narrative fiction is telepathy, the bridging of two minds across time and space. If that's so, I don't feel at all bad shitting all over pulitzer-winning books because that just means the telepathy failed. I also think there's way too much emphasis placed on early American literature. "Best American novels from 1791-1836" might as well be "Best South Dakotan novels from 1922-1945." It's not like there was a lot of competition.
I don't disagree with any of that. Posted, more or less, as a stimulus for conversation about favorite American novels after making that Gatsby post recently. Any of them listed jump out at you as particular favorites?
I've read and enjoyed all of those except for Connecticut Yankee and Neuromancer, which I have not read.
Neuromancer defined cyberpunk. It is probably one of my favorite novels of all time. That does not mean it is good. It just means it is a keenly refined flavor that I have an acquired taste for. Connecticut, meanwhile, is a Bing Crosby musical from 1949 that I was required to watch far too many times.
Read the other two books in the Sprawl trilogy. They're pretty damn good and the only character they have in common is Molly. Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling is a classic, albeit dated, but the whole genre is dated so that's okay. Mirrorshades is seminal. Hardwired isn't as good, but it sure is cyberpunk as fuck. Variation on a theme: The Difference Engine is Patient Zero of Steampunk and, in my opinion, the only book worth bothering with. I kinda feel like Paolo Bacigalupi picked up the torch where Gibson dropped it; Windup Girl is every bit as cyberpunk as The Sprawl, only the gadgets are biological, not cybernetic.
It was strange, the level of interest generated by the novel at the time. People would turn up at the door of the house he built hoping for some sort of insight from him. I was a Heinlein completist, way back when. I bought everything he ever wrote (including a collection of published letters). Looking back, I did enjoy his harder stories more. There was something essentially hopeful about Stranger, though, along with all those thick books: Friday, The Number Of The Beast. Although the latter did have a breathtakingly unfortunate turn of phrase which, even in jest, drew me up as I read.
I think it was one of the memes of the 60s. It's not like Pulp Fiction is that great a movie, but people of a certain age were all watching it at the same time. Personally, I think Heinlein was waaay done by the time he wrote Number of the Beast. It's just not good.
'K. So the first thing about Pulp Fiction is that it's an insipid and flat story in which nothing really happens... but you only notice that if you consider it in linear time. Film Theory 101 will teach you that if your story is boring and nothing's really happening, you re-cut it in non-linear time. Broken down this way it's basically Jackie Brown. The next thing to consider is that A) all principal actors commit some sort of crime B) those that seek redemption find it C) those that don't die. It's about as monosyllabic a morality play as you could hope to find. Finally, the whole thing is basically brief interludes of shockingly unjustified violence to separate grandstanding profane monologues. People love the quotables from Pulp Fiction because the whole thing flows like one long sketch comedy. "Royale with Cheese." "Does he look like a bitch." "Zed's dead, baby." "Ezekeil whateverthefuck." Okay, fine. Quentin Tarantino grew up with this: He grew up with this: he grew up with this: Shit, he WROTE this: Pulp fiction is not that great of a movie. It's not even that great of a tarantino movie. But it's got John Travolta dancing to your parents' music in an awkward sort of way and there's so much cussing and drugs that they still hate it, so it must be good, right? In 1994, every college freshman male had a Natural Born Killers poster and a Pulp Fiction poster. The girls, bless their hearts, skipped the NBK. Pulp Fiction is not a bad movie, but it's not a good movie. Everybody loved it then and loves it now. NBK is a bad movie, so nobody really remembers it now. I'll bet you can sing "double rainbow all the way" even now. "Chocolate rain?" You'd have to look it up. Both were memetic, only one of them stands (sort of) on its merits.
Bet you've seen this one too. It's bizarre how when dorm posters become a thing, they never stop being a thing. It's like all the things that looked cool to kids seeing or hearing stories about their older siblings' dorms just keep accumulating. At some point no one will remember who Bob Marley was, but students will still buy the posters.
So I shot this video for Converse. It was 2009, 2010. We needed to get some skate punks for it. Back in my day, skate punks listened to a lot of Slayer, some Peter Tosh, some Anthrax. Know what they listen to now? Some slayer, some Peter Tosh, some Anthrax. Back in 2012 I went and bought me an Arbor. The shop I bought it from had skate videos playing. I recognized the music. "Is that Dinosaur Jr?" "Close. J Mascis." It's almost like teen culture pressed the "pause" button in the '90s in some ways. But fuck. Legend came out in '84 and that album f'n never goes away.
Okay here we go. Why Pulp Fiction is a good movie and I will continue to defend it. Let's first get the whole non-linear story line stuff out of the way. Is it a gimmick? Yes, is it a gimmick used by great film makers? Yes. (I am sure you, kleinbl00, know most of what I am about to present here, but I'm spelling it out a bit for the sake of having others be able to see where I'm coming from) Okay so Tarintino's production company "A Band Apart" is a play on the Godard film "Bande à part" a dark French New Wave film. The reason I bring this up is because of Godard's quote: "A story should have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order." So obviously, Tarintino is going to play with this idea of non-linear story telling because French New Wave is awesome and pretending to be a French New Wave director is fun. If I could get people to pay me to pretend to be Truffaut, I would be elated. So my thesis is this: The title "Pulp Fiction" gives us the real insight. Pulp fiction is a description of a genre, not a description of anything that happens in the movie. This would be like calling a movie "Adventure Non-fiction". Tarintino isn't even hiding the fact that he's copying and pasting things, he's embracing it. Given Tarintino's background as a film buff, along with his obvious fandom of pop culture, the entire movie is an homage to the Pulp Novels and the French New Wave movement. He's taken something generally considered to be vapid and empty and mixed it with something that is considered to be deep and philosophical. All of the drugs, sex, and violence in those novels but through the lens of a film buff. I understand why people don't like it I think, but it also opened a huge world of movies and cinema to me which I didn't know existed. He's done this afterwards too, the whole Grindhouse thing, and then Kill Bill which is basically a revenge flick where even the characters names are from other movies. article Oh hey do you like 12 monkeys? La_Jetée What about Indiana Jones? Secret of the Inca's So you are right 100% it is a morality play it has no value in the story. The characters are over the top extensions of the narrative and none of them grow. But for me, it works it works because of the gimmicks, it works because the motivations are often secret or lazily put together on weak strings. It works because I bought exactly what is on the box "Pulp Fiction".
For the record, I said "Pulp fiction is not that good of a movie." I didn't say it was bad, I didn't say it was a failure. For the record, I think it's one of Tarantino's weakest; I find that when he writes for other directors he does fine (True Romance is a favorite of mine) but when he's left unattended you get Kurt Russell in Death Proof. As a film, Pulp Fiction is better than Death Proof or Jackie Brown but Death Proof was so bad that I decided I don't need to subject myself to Tarantino ever again. For the record, you're arguing that it "works for you" and that it's a "good movie." We're not that far apart, you and I - on the one hand, I'm observing that it gets far more praise than it deserves, while you're arguing that it's not undeserving of praise. I totally agree with you - and I suspect you don't completely disagree with me. Are we close? Thing is, you're also arguing that Pulp Fiction needs to be considered as "an homage to the Pulp Novels and the French New Wave movement." You're doing it no favors. Nobody gives a shit about French New Wave except hipster film students (who mostly bring it up to annoy people who claim to "like movies") and Tarantino. Meanwhile, "pulp fiction" gave us Raymond Chandler, Robert Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Some people see Maltese Falcon. Others see "royale with cheese." Doesn't really matter, though, because Tarantino isn't actually making French New Wave cinema. He isn't actually worshiping the pulps. He's actually making 70's exploitation cinema which the whole world has turned away from. While the rest of us were watching Coppola's The Conversation, Tarantino was watching Boss Nigger. And that's fine. If you want to make a blaxplitation film, rock on with your own bad self. But don't tell me it's art. Quentin Tarantino is Clarence from True Romance. he's that huckster kid from the video rental place that worships Sonny Chiba above all else, stumbles into a trunkload of cocaine, goes to Hollywood and beats everyone else at their own game while simultaneously wiping them out in a hail of bullets. He's an unsubtle man. Left to his own devices he'll make ultra-violent revenge movies about nothing, and that's okay. But unlike John Carpenter or Russ Meyer or Tyler Perry, Tarantino convinced an entire generation of film buffs that he made "art" so they could enjoy ultra-violent revenge movies about nothing without feeling guilty. That's why he gets along so well with Robert Rodriguez - they're in on the same joke. They're cut-rate Hong Kong hackers that have been given the keys to the kingdom because Hollywood thinks they've let it in on the joke. The pig doesn't roll in shit to be ironic, it rolls in shit because it likes it. And if you like pigs, you don't care. So long as we can agree it's a pig, not a unicorn, we'll be fine.
Well let me say first that I am glad that you read through my nonsense. We're very close in the what that we see in both PF as a movie and likely Tarintino in general. I hope that I didn't imply that you didn't like the movie (I'm not going to look at my post again, because that wouldn't be fun) because I specifically tried not to assume that. I also hope that you don't see it as argumentative, but more discussion because I just like talking about this shit. To add, I also agree that QT is much better behind a pen than behind the camera when he has people helping him reign in as you say. Okay on with the show! I was weary of writing about pulp in such a way that was almost dismissive and I know there are others (was it Bradbury, maybe Heinlein, maybe all of Sci-fi) that could definitely have fit into the mold of the common pulp magazine. What I was really trying to express was the idea of "Pulp as genre" rather than "Pulp was crappy". He's not making New Wave, but he's certainly using enough elements (Pumpkin and Honey Bunny being almost complete rip offs/continuations of the characters from Breathless but I digress). I feel like calling it 70s exploitation is too plain and subtle for the movie, but I get it. Okay these are fightin' words! (Please don't really hit me though because I'm weak). C'mon man it's easy to dismiss things as not being art because you don't like them. Who cares if it's art you don't like, it's still art! Justin Bieber is still an artist even if he is backed by Sony(tm) or whoever he's selling shit for. What I get though is that the fans of Pulp Fiction are surprisingly, or unsurprisingly like the fans of Bieber. Taking something that they love and putting so much of their own interpretation into it that they make it their own and then become attached to it. What I REALLY think you and I are going to find common ground with is that PF is really overstated. I still think it's a good movie and it has a lot of merits, but I don't think it will stand the test of time. Overall I'm glad I got this out of my system, so thanks. Now I just want to start movie threads.Nobody gives a shit about French New Wave except hipster film students (who mostly bring it up to annoy people who claim to "like movies") and Tarantino. Meanwhile, "pulp fiction" gave us Raymond Chandler, Robert Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Some people see Maltese Falcon. Others see "royale with cheese."
Doesn't really matter, though, because Tarantino isn't actually making French New Wave cinema. He isn't actually worshiping the pulps. He's actually making 70's exploitation cinema which the whole world has turned away from.
Tarantino convinced an entire generation of film buffs that he made "art" so they could enjoy ultra-violent revenge movies about nothing without feeling guilty.
Yes, I appreciate the discussion and no, we don't disagree on a lot. Put it this way - I think Tarantino gets a lot more rope than any other director because he's Tarantino, and I think he's Tarantino because of Pulp Fiction. And I think Pulp Fiction isn't that great. In my opinion, it's not a dynasty-building film. Let me restate "art" - "the uneasy alliance of art and commerce" has been used to describe Hollywood so many times that nobody even knows who said it first. Some people make pure art - like Godfrey Reggio. Some people make pure commerce, like Michael Bay. Most people end up somewhere in the middle. Tarantino is held out as an "artist" by "Bieber fans" (to use your phrase) because then they get as much street cred for blasting "U Smile" as that obnoxious Emo fucker in 5th period does for prattling on about Nirvana. But it's still "U Smile" and they're still "Bieber fans" and all the backward-handed attempts to turn it into Dylan is tedious.
My opinion of QT is that he's really good at making scenes, and not that great at making movies. That is, I love his dialog, and sometimes I think he shoots the most beautiful movies, but he has a tendency to swing and miss on the story. Kill Bill is the notable exception to this, and I think that movie is brilliant (although you really don't need a story to be a revenge flick, so it was already written for him; the filigree is what makes it great). Ingluorious was the most egregious example of QT not being able to get out of his own way to tell a goddam story. That move makes me mad, because it could be so good, but falls so flat on its face.
Fair enough. Part Two is better, but I can see why the brutal obviousness of it could be pretty off putting. But like I said, I like it for the pretty filler, and for me, that's all Kill Bill needed. A movie like Ingluorious, or Django really suffers when you treat subjects that should be treated with respect as cannon fodder, never mind the fact that the stories are just dumb. If you're going to do a revisionist history, at least make it interesting. I completely agree with you about Death Proof. I was soooo bored, but I wanted to see Planet Terror, so I stayed. Otherwise, I think that would've ended up on my shortlist of movies that I've walked out of (and it's a very short list; my tolerance for shitty movies is really high). I would say Death Proof is unarguably Tarantino's worst movie. Even if it was supposed to be recreating the "Grindhouse" feel, you should at least try harder than some 1970's filmmaker who probably had a microscopic budget and little to no talent. Shameful, really.
I don't see how the story is insipid or flat. Granted, the events in the movie are ludicrously coincidental and unlikely. And I'll admit that it's a basic movie in the sense that the in-movie karma is predictable and one-dimensional -- those who seek redemption obtain it. But there's so much.. action. How is it flavorless? How is it flat? I feel that's an easy critique to make 20 years after the fact. I can't imagine the splash this movie made in '94. edit: I must add, thank you for the Sicilian scene. That is a treasure of a scene.
It didn't make that much of a splash. It was more of a slow burn. Search for it. As for "insipid and flat" compare it to, say, The Usual Suspects (a year later) or Silence of the Lambs (4 years earlier) or Goodfellas (4 years earlier) or Sneakers (3 years earlier) - or shit, Reservoir Dogs or True Romance. Story-wise, it's weaker than all of the above. Gimmick-wise, it's much, much thicker. In the end, it's only opinion - but in my opinion, Pulp Fiction is a grossly overestimated film. Spin Magazine once did an article entitled "top 10 albums owned by people who hate music" or the equivalent. Pulp Fiction is much loved by people who watch a lot of Reality TV.
I think I concede your point. Help me out though: you say Pulp Fiction is gimmickier than all the above, and I agree, except I don't know exactly why. True Romance feels a more genuine, single-entendre film than PF, which feels more self-aware.. Or something. I think my lack of film knowledge and vocabulary are showing. So what makes PF (more) gimmicky?
Smoke and mirrors. A movie about a shark that keeps throwing up people until they have to open a beach sounds like some sort of magical shit, but it's just Jaws backwards. Jaws forwards is "Roy Scheider enlists Richard Dreyfuss and Oliver Reed in killing a shark puppet." But Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Oliver Reed are f'ing fascinating killing a shark. They're fuckin' dope at it. There are no song'n'dance numbers, there's no basement full of gimps, The Wolf does not show up in an NSX for the express purpose of giving the director a cameo. The Usual Suspects has a lot of smoke'n'mirrors, too, but you have to watch it cynically to see them. There are a lot of blind spots that are well-hidden from the audience but as soon as you peer Sneakers or Silence of the Lambs, on the other hand, are straight-up linear storytelling with no hidden gotchas, no obvious shit hidden behind mirrors, nothing funky to disguise a thin narrative. On the other hand, Pulp Fiction is an ensemble film about tied-together narratives that disguises the fact that nothing really happens, nothing is advanced, nothing is lost, and nobody has any stakes by throwing the whole thing out of linear time and substituting plot with violence and wise-cracks.
.....Like I was shot with a diamond bullet in the forehead and I thought, my God, the genius of that.... -Best monologue in film history? If not, its up there. Thanks for that link. What a performance. Damn dude, that lead me to re-watch one of the most intense pieces of film ever:
It's an amazing, amazing performance. Can you imagine watching that improvisation live?
Insipid? Really? It held my interest throughout. Granted, I haven't seen the film in many years but still not many people would call it a film that suffered for pacing/intrigue. I think it's interesting that you're not a fan of PF and you're not a fan of Seinfeld. I see similarities in the two. Both take a linear story and break it in to separate parts for each character and then tie them together in a nice bow at the end. I don't disagree regarding your 1994 reference. In fact, I'll openly admit that I saw the film in the theatre and probably had to sneak in. I'll also concede that if I saw it today for the first time, I wouldn't be as moved by it. Is this because I'm older and wiser, or because so many films have cribbed from the PF/Tarantino playbook?
I've read about 16 of them. Most of them were pretty good. Not that many Steinbeck novels on the list. Hated Falkner and Melville. Was glad to see Thomas Wolfe's, "Look Homeward, Angel" on the list. Can't say if it's really good or if it just hit me at a time when it was just the right thing for my state of mind, it really scratched an itch. Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" is a favorite novel of mine, read it three times over the last two decades. Twice for school but once for myself.