Trash fiction
Trash fiction
Trash fiction is pulp literature from the 1960s onwards. Trashfiction.co.uk is a British website documenting this literary genre. This page is dedicated to the website Trashfiction.co.uk has reviews of paperbacks of the following publishers:
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Ace - Arrow - Ballantine - Bantam - Consul - Corgi - Coronet - Dell - Digit - Everest - Fontana - Four Square - Futura - Granada - Mayflower - Methuen
On Michael Leigh's Bizarre Sex Underground
The Velvet Underground (1963) Michael Leigh
This was first published in the USA by Macfadden-Bartell in 1963, when it was known by the far more evocative title The Velvet Underground. --http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/yellow07.html [Jun 2005]
When it came to Britain in 1967, the cover design remained but evidently the title was considered too subtle for us illiterate Brits. More recently it's been republished here under the original title, though that of course is simply a cash-in on the band whose name it inspired. --http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/yellow07.html [Jun 2005]
Bizarre Sex Underground (1967) Michael Leigh
Remember those sexology books published by Luxor Press* and the like, often with lurid yellow covers? The ones that used to adopt a pseudo-scientific tone, were ideally written by someone with letters after their name, but were very clearly 'For Adults Only'?
No? Oh, well they looked kinda like this.. --http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/yellow00.html [Jun 2005]
see also: bizarre - sex - underground - velvet
On Peter Haining
It has been scientifically proved that if you bought three anthologies of horror stories in the 1970s, one of them was statistically certain to have been edited by Peter Haining.Born in 1940, Haining became one of Britain's leading authorities on horror, with a particular emphasis on early Gothic and on the classic English ghost story. At a time when 19th century Gothic fiction was difficult to come by, his compilations were often the only available source of such material for the general reader. Taking a firm stand against the then ubiquitous Pan series and its ilk, Haining favoured the subtle and the classic over the shocking and the graphic. He also strove to broaden the repertoire of the anthology beyond the familiar handful of tales that turned up over and over again. In the process he uncovered many hitherto obscure stories and, if he wasn't always followed by compilers of other volumes, he can hardly be blamed for their failures. --http://www.trashfiction.co.uk/haining.html [Jul 2005]
One of the most painful truths in American publishing is that genre fiction is better than literary fiction. There are two basic reasons for this. One is the market angle: detective stories outsell “quality” novels at an exponential rate. The second is tougher to defend, but it’s the truth. The writing’s just better. Genre fiction, by providing a steady diet of sex, violence and adventure, and little or nothing more, serves the reader in a way that so-called “quality” literature can’t approach. No short story in Harper’s or The Atlantic could ever be described as “gripping” or a “page-turner.” And since all storytelling rests on the inherent fascination of the tale, not the finesse with which it’s told, it can finally be stated here: Raymond Chandler is a better writer than John Updike. --http://www.culturevulture.net/Books/AmericanPulp.htm [Jul 2005]
see also: Peter Haining - pulp - USA