The Journal Pulp Blog
Have you heard of this novel? It was published in the summer of 1969 and ostensibly written by one Penelope Ashe. By October 13th of that same year, Naked Came the Stranger had already sold 90,000 copies, becoming a bestseller. By November of that same year, when sales of the book only continued to increase, [...]
Read MoreHe was one strange cat. I don’t always love his literature, but I love his individuality, his originality, his inexhaustible inventiveness, his arrant hatred of authoritarianism, his mad genius — Philip Kindred Dick (nom-de-guerres Richard Phillipps and Jack Dowland), philosophical novelist who bridged the science-fictional and the historical, drug-user, drug-abuser, paranoiac, self-described “acosmic panentheist,” twin [...]
Read MoreThere are many reasons — many more than five — that I’ll keep reading your story. But there are also at least as many reasons I won’t. (For example: He had nothing in the way of a like God-concept, and at that point maybe even less than nothing in terms of interest in the whole [...]
Read MoreTruman Streckfus Persons was Truman Capote’s real name. The title Finnegans Wake contains no apostrophe in the word Finnegans. Thus Finnegans is a plural and Wake is a verb. Issac Newtons’s father was illiterate. Walt Whitman’s mother was illiterate. Roald Dahl was an anti-semite. Djuna Barnes had no formal education at all. Edmund Wilson once [...]
Read MoreBest first sentence for a novel about a lovely librarian who secretly burns the books she loves because she wants no one else to read them. And the winner is — but before I announce the winner, let me say something about the selection process: Invariably when I choose a winner for the Best First [...]
Read MoreA reader writes: Dear Sir: A friend recommended your book to me a while ago and it literally took me over a year to read! It is so philosophical and I’m not an abstract person. But you made me think. My question is, how do YOU define philosophy? Sincerely, Paul S Dear Paul S: The [...]
Read More[The following is a repost:] A reader writes: Dear Sir: Why do rabbits and eggs represent Easter, which also celebrates the resurrection of Christ? – Peter Dear Peter: Easter primarily represents the advent of springtime, just as Christ’s resurrection does. The Old-English word Eastre derives from an Anglo-Saxon Pagan goddess named Eostre, about whom very [...]
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[UPDATE: CONTEST CLOSED, WINNER TO BE ANNOUNCED] The Journal Pulp is offering a $100.00 cash prize for the following: Best first sentence for a novel about a lovely librarian who secretly burns the books she loves because she wants no one else to read them. Rules and guidelines: No outrageous run-ons. You can submit anonymously [...]
Read MoreWhiskey — or whisky, if you prefer — is a distilled spirit that’s usually made from corn, rye, barley, wheat, or, very often, a cross combination of some or all those. Whiskey is almost always aged in wooden casks which almost always consist of charred white oak. The word “whiskey” is an anglicized version of [...]
Read MoreMy name is Kevin. I’m Kevin Mathew Haas. My last name does not rhyme with moss. It does not rhyme with floss. To say so makes me cross. Many regard me as the motherfucking boss. I enjoy a little of the sauce. In fact, my last name — Haas – rhymes with gauze. (This should [...]
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