You talk a lot about percentage of market share - does anything interesting happen when you look at the absolute figures? Do certain genres or titles plateau I wonder, or are there publishers trying to steer their readers from one title to another?
Of course, I know you're asking the questions that can fruitfully be asked, it just occurred to me, reading this, that maybe some pulps get devoted and closed readerships and become little worlds unto themselves - that this might be a place to trace the roots of fanservice (rather than always refering right back to the early serial novels like Pamela).
I do look at the absolute figures, but given the varying lengths of publication of the numerous pulps--some have 53 issues in a year, some only one--I think the percentage of issues, as expressed in market share, is a better indicator. But when I rewrite the posts for the book I'll be looking at the performance of the number of titles as well as market share, just to see what is plateauing.
My sense is that the sort of incestuous fanservice you mention is uncommon in the pulps--practically speaking there was only one railway pulp, for example, but it displayed a decent amount of vitality and openness for a number of years. But it's certainly a valid issue to consider--it's not something I really thought about while reading the stories--and I'll have to examine the entries in my encyclopedia to see if there's any of that fanservice.
Of course, I'd trace the roots of fanservice back to casebook novels and dime novels and even feuilletons. I think it's likely been around as long as serially published fiction has been.
Now you've made me wonder about broadside fanservice - balladeers' in-jokes, references to popular ballad characters doing unexpected things, shipping Irish Molly with Jessie o' the Dell...
Really, any medium in which the creator gets response from the audience is going to be prone to that, and it would only be human nature for the makers of broadsides or the singers of ballads to gear their creations to the audience.
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Of course, I know you're asking the questions that can fruitfully be asked, it just occurred to me, reading this, that maybe some pulps get devoted and closed readerships and become little worlds unto themselves - that this might be a place to trace the roots of fanservice (rather than always refering right back to the early serial novels like Pamela).
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My sense is that the sort of incestuous fanservice you mention is uncommon in the pulps--practically speaking there was only one railway pulp, for example, but it displayed a decent amount of vitality and openness for a number of years. But it's certainly a valid issue to consider--it's not something I really thought about while reading the stories--and I'll have to examine the entries in my encyclopedia to see if there's any of that fanservice.
Of course, I'd trace the roots of fanservice back to casebook novels and dime novels and even feuilletons. I think it's likely been around as long as serially published fiction has been.
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