Although primarily a North American phenomenon, the Golden Age of Pulp Fiction had an enormous impact on the development of genres like science fiction, action-adventure, westerns and, of course, horror. One of the most prolific and successful horror authors of this period was H. P. Lovecraft:
Lovecraft was one of the first horror writers to realize that
in an increasingly technological world based on science, the old horror story themes (ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves, demons, and the like) just wouldn't do any longer. For, by the 1920's, many readers had become too realistic, too skeptical, to "believe" in them anymore. So something new was needed. Some kind of hybrid supernatural tale combining eerie chills with scientific plausibility. And that's exactly what Lovecraft came up with in his "Mythos" stories, many of which (between the 1920's and 1930's) first appeared in the now legendary pulp magazine Weird Tales.
Of course, the lines between horror and science fiction, fantasy and other genres has never been hard and fast. That is why the era that saw the greatest overlap in these genres (roughly 1934-1937) also was known as the era of weird menace or shudder pulp fiction:
The problem with much pulp fiction, and genre fiction in general, is that it tends, over time, to become very formulaic. Rather than evolve, its very success guarantees that publishers will seek to constrain the genre's conventions and characterizations. This would prove to be a recurring problem for horror fiction, a matter which we will examine in more detail in tomorrow's post....
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