I introduced this new, intermittent series here at Every Day Should Be Tuesday in this post and attempted to define both “pulp” and “superversive.”  In this post I will try to flesh out what I mean by those terms by applying them to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.  My focus is on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s best known works by a wide margin.

In his own words, Tolkien explained that, in writing The Lord of the Rings, “[t]he prime motive was the desire of a tale-teller to try his hand at a really long story that would hold the attention of readers, amuse them, delight them, and at times maybe excite them or deeply move them.”  Thus he had both pulp and superversive aspirations.

In the end, Tolkien wrote stories that are extraordinarily good, extraordinarily superversive, and perhaps more pulp than you may suspect.  In…

Today I introduce a new, intermittent series here at Every Day Should Be Tuesday: The Good, the Pulp, and the Superversive.  With each post I will look at the work of a particular author or at a particular series and discuss how good it is, how pulp it is, and how superversive it is.

There is a basic human tendency, when you come across a label you find very useful, to start slapping it willy-nilly on everything you like.  The terms “pulp” and “superversive” get thrown around a lot by a lot of people who run in the same circles.  But, at the same time, they are distinct aspects of storytelling with a certain amount of tension between each other.  So I think it is useful to both attempt to define them and to attempt to distinguish between them.

A story can be good but be neither superversive nor pulp. …

I caught myself saying something the other day and it made me realize that perhaps I watch too much Star Trek, and in particular The Next Generation.  After thinking about it for a bit, it struck me how much of my vernacular has its roots in ST:TNG.  So here is my handy guide to let you know if you’re suffering from Trek-inosis.  Feel free to add your own in the comments.  Give yourself one point for each one of these you are guilty of.

1. You are about to leave your abode.  You pause and look down at your pet, who is staring up at you wide eyed and mildly curious.  You say to them them, “You have the bridge, Number One” and depart purposefully.
2. Someone closes the door to the dishwasher after loading it.  They pause and ask you if you have anything else to put in it, or should…

The Incredibles 2 comes out this weekend and I am very, very excited! The first movie is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies and the sequel is long in coming. Me being the pop culture friendly blogger I am, I knew I needed to make a list that would coincide with the movie. How about famous comic book families? Just like the Incredibles!

Yeah, nah, that list would be comprised of the Fantastic Four and all the other famous comic book families that everybody already knows.

Not enough super teams having matching uniforms

I could make a list full of characters and superhero families that everybody already knows, but where is the fun in that? I want some deeper cuts! Then Marvel announced the new Asgardians of the Galaxy comic, which features a character I barely knew about, but is a son taking up his father’s legacy. Boom! There’s…