Pulp Fiction discussion

Horsley’s _The Noir Thriller_ describes beautifully the model of self-imposed isolation this novel embodies. The protag is known only as “Sailor,” and he is set adrift at a New Mexico fiesta. He is seeking a senator from whom he is extorting big bucks for criminal services performed. Hughes is brilliant at decoding the motives resulting from a poverty-bitter childhood. Sailor will accept nothing (except what can make him comfortable) from anyone. While the novel follows Sailor in his dealings with the Senator (one who is vulnerable as those owned by banks and oil corps are not), its heart is in the contrasts between Sailor and the inscrutable Indians and grimy, raucous Spanish workers at the carnival, symbolized by the lifeforce that is “Pancho,” a merry-go-round operator. Sailor’s friend from his Chicago mean streets, Mac, an honest cop, represents the decent American, as Sailor represents, what—the amoral wanderer? The social isolate? The avenger of the cruelties of American poverty, and what it produces?
Hughes’ title phrase _In a Lonely Place_ perfectly describes Sailor as well as Dix. She is master of the psychology of the Depression- and postwar-injured American males, sympathetic in spite of their near-sociopathic hearts.

I think 'Shoot the Piano Player' is another good subject of study for isolation. Thanks for suggesting Horsley.

That looks fascinating. I wonder if it is at the library. The price for the book on Amazon is insane.

Algernon, I loved Shoot the Piano Player. I need to get back to reading Goodis again.

The used book sites like "all in" have fairly cheap copies. I t was a film, but not a movie tie-in book although my copy has a Robert Montgomery look alike on the cover.

Goodis' Of Tender Sin is one of the strangest pbk originals ever, with guilt over brother-sister incest the motivation for the protagonist's masochistic guilt.

Really enjoyed Shoot the Piano Player. And one of the rare instances where the movie which took a different approach was quite good in its own right.

Goodis was an odd duck. Wasn't he the one who literally lived in his mom's basement until his death? Or was that a rumor?

I think it was Cornell Woolrich who lived with his mom until her death; but maybe Goodis did too.

I think Goodis died while trying to sue the producers of "The Fugitive" for ripping off Dark Passage.

Wow, you guy are reminding me how much I need to read Woolrich and Goodis :)

I've been devouring Charles Williams' novels this summer & I think they speak to the isolated antihero theme. I'm a huge Hughes fan as well but these Williams stories are just really ticking all the boxes for me right now

Adam wrote: " Wasn't he the one who literally lived in his mom's basement until his death?"

Christopher wrote: "I think it was Cornell Woolrich who lived with his mom until her death . . . "

Hmm . . . Maybe instead of kicking my son out, I should give him a typewriter.

Moms' basements have long been a hotbed of cutting edge fiction and future serial killers!

There's something to this noir writer and their moms. Chandler had a close relationship with his mother. She wouldn't let him marry and he didn't until after her death. And the woman he married, I believe, was much older than him... a replacement for his mother?

Melki wrote: "Adam wrote: " Wasn't he the one who literally lived in his mom's basement until his death?"

Christopher wrote: "I think it was Cornell Woolrich who lived with his mom until her death . . . "

Goodis lived with his parents in the 1950s and wrote his paperback original novels in their house. When they died in the early and mid-60s he became depressed. He was also ill with heart disease and feared he could no longer care for his schizophrenic brother. In his last novel, the protagonist considers his father's death. "He died at 50, because he was fed up with himself." Goodis also died at 50. That novel was published posthumously. Family love goes together with the powerful restrictions one learns from his loved ones. Goodsi did not marry a woman he loved, probably b/c he knew his parents would never accept her b/c she was Black. See Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." "She clung to that which had harmed her, as people will."