For years, films have been using historical cues as reference points. Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction owes its influences to the pulp novels of the 1950s. The storyline for the film was inspired by the 'ten cent' paperback crime novels of the fifties. The film provides the stories of seedy underworld gangsters with a nineties twist, 1970s and 1980s popular culture references, and an essentially timeless style. Hence the promotional material for the film is styled on a ficticious 1950s 'Pulp Fiction' magazine.
This was based on the 1950s "trash" novels that Andy Warhol also found so appealing. Although the cover promised much, the pulp novels of the 1950s were usually published on cheap yellowish paper that enhanced their trashy, throwaway quality. Readers sought them for their cheap thrills as their low budget allowed them to be read and then disposed of. Their low production cost meant that they could afford to explore subjects that were considered taboo and as such were designed to shock and/ or tittilate.
| The Simpsons | Ulysses | John Wayne | Facial Recognition | Post Structuralism | 1950's Pulp Novels |
| Copyright | Sampling | Pulp Fiction | Salvador Dali | Rhizomes | Post Modernism |
