Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps

by Michael Bronski

Book Overview

A collection of gay erotic writings tracing the development of a gay identity from the late 19th century to just before the Stonewall Inn riots

Long before the rise of the modern gay movement, an unnoticed literary revolution was occurring, mostly between the covers of the cheaply produced pulp paperbacks of the post-World War II era. Cultural critic Michael Bronski collects a sampling of these now little-known gay erotic writings--some...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312252676
• ISBN13: 9780312252670
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

hidden jewels from a near past

May be not being aware of that, Michael Bromski, reiterates,in a way, by this anthology, the aim that theese "old pulps" intend to realize : "give a sight on a half-hidden world of dark faces of sexuality". Sure, nowadays, Gay-prides give us no-at-all hidden view about what homosexuality may be. But nevertheless, what Michael Bromsky let us discover it's an other kind of dark world : the one of hidden treasure of tasty texts ; for the simple reason that most of them are out-of print. The introductive essay is brillant. Full of passionating facts of History. The social world -mainstream one and the part of it which is not- but also the publishing world. The point of view is quite interesting : the way from "homosexual personnal desire" to the building of a "gay community". But, from my point of view, a question comes : sure, the building of a community, with its "rites and codes". However, how may theese codes not become "stereotypes"? And, always from my point of view, they are, nowadays, too often, stereotypes lacking of life, something like what commercial goods are also. Nostalgia of a golden age of innocence? As paradoxal as this world may appears ? An age of own creation? As much as this "own" creation needs- at least- two persons. When homosexual life was a personnal, risky, rebelling adventure and not yet adhering to a "gay global system" ? When , may-be, bodies were more living, fragile even when bulky, and less commercial things ? May be, past life is lighted by a mythified quality, that perhaps it had not. Anyway, thanks to this book for allowing us to dream of and from this really golden litterature.

Hugely entertaining and informative

There is only one thing wrong with "Pulp Friction"; Michael Bronski doesn't include the rest of "A Different Drum", and so I'm still wondering what happens with Josh and Lucian, Civil War lovers on opposite sides. Not to mention Lucian's gay father, their gay slave, and Josh's previous gay lover...do Josh and Lucian continue to have sex in the plantation bedroom? Does Etienne ever recover from his traumatic past? I desperately want to know and cannot find out. Why is it that I can find the complete text of everything by Ann Bannon but not the hot-yet-hilarious "A Different Drum"? "Pulp Friction" is absolutely fascinating, especially when one notes the contrasts between writing styles; while some stories and excerpts are horrifically bad and could be written by any dirty-minded teenager who flunked freshman English, others qualify as actual literature. There's also a surprising variety of genres; aside from the expected smut and the historical fiction of "A Different Drum", various excerpts are ghost stories, science fiction, quiet contemplative pieces in which no one actually has sex. Not one of them is boring, and Bronski's introductions add to the context and make historical notes where relevent. I particularly enjoyed the campily ridiculous "Gay Whore" and "Maybe - Tomorrow", the story of a high school sissy in love with a jock. Anyone with an interest in gay history or gay literature should enjoy this book on some level. After years of looking for a gay pulp novel of my own, I finally managed to get one a few weeks ago (thank you, San Francisco). It's called "The Bronze and the Wine" and is about a high school teacher who finds himself attracted to one of his male students, who, unbeknownst to him, is a gay prostitute. The man who sold it to me didn't have "A Different Drum", but promised to keep an eye out for it, and gave me his e-mail address. I appreciate it immensely, but it's high time someone or some organization tracked down who has the copyright to these books (if anyone still does) and arranged to have them re-printed. The covers are easy to find - why not the books themselves? Maybe I'll have to do it myself. The urge to know about Josh and Lucian is getting desperate.

Forgotten Treasures

Bronski, Michael. "Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps", St. Martin's Griffin, 2005. Forgotten Treasures Amos Lassen We don't often find a book that is both educational and fun to read and Michael Bronski does that for us. Since World War II, there has existed gay fiction that many of us may not be aware of and these forgotten treasures are the subject of "Pulp Friction". Bronski gives us a social history that is exciting and that celebrates the pulp novel. This is a chronicle of those novels from the 1940s and they are a part of gay history. The early pulp novels showed gay men that were full of angst and living in the shadows and it was not until the 1950s and early 60s that these novels changed and became more explicit sexually. The later 60s showed bolder fiction. With Stonewall and the beginnings of gay liberation even bolder novels began to appear but we learn here that even before Stonewall we had established a literature all our own. Bronski uses examples of gay pulp fiction from 1940 through 1970 to show what we had and actually read through some 225 novels. Many of these novels are lost to us now so at least we have this book to enlighten us. The introductory essay is full of information about the books and the authors and Bronski gives us an annotated timeline with the highlights. Many of us are unaware that at the end of WW II a small literary movement began and it went unnoticed by society. It was this movement that gave us the pulp novel. We become familiar with the changes that the novels went through and by learning about the movement we get a better handle on gay history. This is a totally engrossing book that makes the reader want to find some of the books that are perhaps lost. Furthermore, we can take pride in knowing that has always been something in writing about the way we live.

Truly incredible

I've respected Michael Bronski's journalism for years, but this is the first of his books I've read. I'll definitely be reading more. Here he performs two amazing feats. First, after doing an extraordinary amount of background reading, he selects examples of gay pulp fiction from the 1940s through the 1970s, ranging from the surprisingly literary to campy porn. I worried that the excerpt approach would be frustrating, but Bronski has a real knack for setting the scene, and the excerpts are all satisfying on their own. Given that most of these novels are hard to find (now probably more so), this is a tremendous resource.Second, he offers an introductory essay bursting with insight & nuanced introductions to every piece (often with tantalizing information about the writers). At the back, perhaps most valuable of all, he puts together an annotated timeline of highlights of gay male literature 1940-1969 which discusses works by the writers included in the book as well as more literary work (Genet, Vidal, Baldwin, etc.). It's an essential resource for those looking for further reading. The later pieces are often pornographic, campy and silly (very entertaining, occasionally dark or hard-core) while some of the earlier pieces are generally more thoughtful, even literary, though sometimes downbeat. Bronski's selections always emphasize what was exceptional or unique for the time. *None* of these pieces are routine. My personal favorites are "Sam," "Spur Piece," "Lost on Twilight Road," "The Boys of Muscle Beach," "Song of the Loon," and "Gay Revolution" (in which the world is turning gay, Body Snatcher-style). "Maybe--Tomorrow" is hilarious yet somehow brilliant. ("Muscle Beach" & "Gay Whore" are also hysterical.) My excitement about gay literature has been completely renewed. Bronski has eschewed the stuffy (often depressing) "classics" angle for a poppier approach of the smartest kind. At a minimum, every gay discussion group should read this book, but it should also appeal to adventurous non-gay readers.

A fascinating look into gay history

Just after the end of World War II, a small literary movement began, unnoticed to most of the public: the gay pulp novel. From quiet novels about homosexual relationships post-WWII to the psycho-analytic and sexually charged writings of the Sexual Revolution to the more speculative and activist writings post-Stonewall, Author Michael Bronski has drawn from extensive research and a large collection of pulp novels to give an in-depth look at this almost hidden movement. Through this anthology, the reader not only sees a history of the gay literature but of societal views concerning homosexuality and how they have progressively changed.Bronski has chosen to cite only a few chapters from specific works to point out the pulp styles as they changed with the times. At first, I thought I would be put off by this, but instead, it has interested me enough to try to find copies of some of these works, many of which have not been in publication since the 1950s and 1960s. One selection of note is from "The Gay Haunt" by Victor Jay. Kind of a gay "Blithe Spirit," even the snippet that was included in this book had me laughing hysterically.This is a fascinating read, most definitely worth your reading.