When you channel surf on your TV and you stumble upon the American Movie Classics channel, what do you notice first? The black and white picture? Cigarettes in need of lighting? Vintage cars and fashion? I’ll tell you what I notice first...smart dialogue. Before Industrial Light and Magic came along, there were no fireballs or buses leaping over missing bridge spans. Your story had to have good plot delivered by good acting. And good actors depend on good writing.
The stories in Pulp Friction may remind you of an old film. Although books can have as many special effects as the author can dish out, many of these stories are character pieces that rely on smart dialogue and wit. Keep in mind that in this pre-Stonewall era, gay men don’t have many places to turn for answers to their questions. Pulps of this period served as self-help, how-to manuals. Seriously!
Pulp Friction is an anthology of gay pulps published prior to the Stonewall riots of 1969. Pulps are books that generally have the following characteristics: They’re adorned with provocative cover art, published in paperback only, usually sold at newstands and kiosks rather than more mainstream bookstores, and can be said to be “emotionally overwrought and slightly out of control.” For his research, Bronski located more than 225 pulps with a gay character or storyline. His introduction details the evolution of his pre-Stonewall thinking as he progressed. He started with several beliefs that turned out to be myths. Not all gay characters were required to be tragic, for example, or defined by stereotypes.
My colleagues complained that the book suffers from “death by introduction.” I disagree. Although there are 3 levels of introduction throughout, I think each is of reasonable length and eminently readable. The opening introduction is the longest at 21 pages. Section introductions are about 6 pages each and individual piece introductions are fewer still. Each level brings more specificity. But even if you are an introphobe, skip them. Go right to the stories and enjoy. Some of the pieces are so good that you’ll be hungry for more. Perhaps this will spur you to go in search of material from the period. It’ll take some work to get these particular pieces though... most have been out of print for a long time.
The book starts much more strongly than it ends. I don’t know if it was Bronski’s fatigue in story selection or the subtle effect that the relaxation of censorship laws had on the quality of books in the 1960s. Authors became much more overt with their fantasy; the later selections here are downright pornographic. I cannot believe that Bronski didn’t have more cerebral pieces from the period to choose from.
Bronski provides an appendix that gives a very brief review of all 225+ works that he read as part of his research. This will aid those of you who want to pursue more. Unfortunately, the layout of the appendix is atrocious; it is almost unreadable.
Shortcomings aside, I highly recommend this book. Bronski laments the disappearance of pre-Stonewall fiction from the mainstream. He observes the irony that it is through this fiction that we get the best glimpse of real mid-century gay life. He blames the post-Stonewall generation’s need to break cleanly from their troubled past and put Stonewall on too high a pedestal. Perhaps this book is a good start to the reclamation of our past. Read and be mesmerized by the lives of our forefathers.