Dime Novels
Dime novels, as they were commonly called in the late 19th-20th centuries, are
referred to today as mass market paperback books, some comic books and even
some films. “A "dime novel" was a cheap and generally sensational
tale of adventure sold as popular entertainment in the 1800s” (McNamura).
They often feature the tales of westerners, explorers and detectives. Young
Wild West was a series of dime novels featured in a weekly spread. They
were often described as “men’s adventure” stories.
The first dime novel, Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter, by
Mrs. Ann S. Stephens, was published in 1860 by Beadle & Company. The
owners, two brothers, had begun publishing small paperbacks in 1859. The
idea for the dime novel caught on fast and more publishers popped up.
“There were five firms that published dime novels for significant periods of
time: Beadle & Company (Beadle & Adams); George Munro; Norman Munro;
Frank Tousey; and Street & Smith.” (Erickson). Some popular dime
novels included; Frank Leslie's Boys of America, Good News, Beadle's New York
Dime Library and the Mack Bolan series, Richard Marcinko, which was the
original Indiana Jones tales.
A notable thing about the dime novels was the fact that they were so cheap that
they could cater to a larger audience. Despite their name, they rarely
ran for 10 cents but normally cost a nickel. They also were bound in leather or
cloth, today they are hardcover, and sometimes paperbacks. The small size
and cheap prices of the dime novels appealed to a wide audience, including
children and some of the poorer folks, and that was a big deal in why they were
so popular.
In Relation to Against
the Day
Although the thing itself is only brought up twice in Against the Day, dime novels are relevant to the book. As
stated above, dime novels are small short novellas about having adventures and
discovering things. If the novel was shorter, it would be the spitting
image of a dime novel. Not only are there plenty of adventures being had
in Against the Day, but there are
many dime novel-esque stories mentioned throughout.
The Chums of Chance have many action adventure tales including The Chums of Chance and the Evil Halfwit,
The Chums of Chance at Krakatoa and The Chums of Chance Search for Atlantis.
We, the reader, never get to hear or see these particular adventures but the
titles are straight out of dime novel. From the book there are many sub-plots
that could be considered as smaller stories if you took all of their sections
out and put them together. For example, one of the Chums Kit is working
alongside Scarsdale Vibe. Through the second section the reader delves
into Kit’s actions and what he’s up to with the Vibe family. This counts
as his own little side adventure which could be transcribed into a dime
novel-like story.
“Pynchon
was co-opted by some critics into the steampunk movement. The opening of Against the Day reminded me of Alan
Moore's Tom Strong graphic novels which drew on late-19th-century "science
hero" dime novels to examine Edwardian mechanical optimism exemplified by
the real Nikola Tesla” (Moorcock). So while the entirety of the novel
contains a bunch of smaller stories, the novel on a whole does have dime novel
aspects to it.
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