potboiler
American Heritage Dictionary:
Top
pot·boil·er
(pŏt'boi'lər) 
n.
A literary or artistic work of poor quality, produced quickly for profit.
n.
A literary or artistic work of poor quality, produced quickly for profit.
[From the phrase boil the pot, to provide one's livelihood.]
Related Videos:
Top
potboiler
Random House Word Menu:
Top
categories related to 'potboiler'
- Publishing - potboiler: fast-paced, heavily plotted popular fiction produced for financial gain only
- Schools, Styles, and Forms - potboiler: usu. inferior work written for profit, esp. fiction
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Potboiler
For a type of boiler, see pot boiler.
Potboiler or pot-boiler is a term used to describe a poor quality novel, play, opera, or film, or other creative work that was created quickly to make money to pay for the creator's daily expenses (thus the imagery of "boil the pot",[1] which means "to provide one's livelihood"[2]). Authors who create potboiler novels or screenplays are sometimes called hack writers or hacks. Novels deemed to be potboilers may also be called pulp fiction, and potboiler films may be called "popcorn movies."
|
Contents
|
Etymology and usage
High culture
"In the more elevated arenas of artistry such a motive...was considered deeply demeaning."[3] If a serious playwright or novelist's creation is called a potboiler, this has a negative connotation that suggests that it is a mediocre or inferior-quality work. An early usage of the term that has this sense is in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine of New York, dated 1854: “He has not carelessly dashed off his picture, with the remark that ‘it will do for a pot-boiler’”.[3] Similarly, Jane Scovell's Living in the Shadows states that "...the play was a mixed blessing. Through it O'Neill latched on to a perennial source of income, but the promise of his youth was essentially squandered on a potboiler."
Lewis Carroll, in a letter to illustrator A. B. Frost in 1880, remarks that Frost should spend his advance pay from his work on Rhyme? & Reason? lest he be forced to "do a 'pot-boiler' for some magazine," to make ends meet. [4] In an early-1980s Time review of a book by Andrew Greeley, the author called his novel Thy Brother's Wife a "...putrid, puerile, prurient, pulpy potboiler." [5] In the late 1990s, American author and newspaper reporter Stephen Kinzer referred to potboilers in this derogatory sense: "If reading and travel are two of life's most rewarding experiences, to combine them is heavenly. I don't mean sitting on a beach reading the latest potboiler, a fine form of relaxation but not exactly mind-expanding."[6]
A definition of potboiler fiction from the 2000s captures the sense that it is an inferior grade of writing; in a Publishers Weekly article, author David Schow called potboilers fiction that "... stacks bricks of plot into a nice, neat line."[7]
See also
Sources and notes
- ^ wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
- ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company
- ^ a b http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pot1.htm "Potboiler" at World Wide Words
- ^ "The Letters of Lewis Carroll," (pp397) edited by Cohen, Morton & Green, Roger, New York Oxford University Press, 1979 ISBN 0-19-520090-X
- ^ The Luck of Andrew Greeley Monday, Jul. 12, 1982 By MAYO MOHS Article ToolsPrintEmailReprints THY BROTHER'S WIFE by Andrew M. Greeley; Warner; 350 pages; $14.95
- ^ "Traveling Companions," [2]New York Times, April 19, 1998
- ^ From Splatterpunk to Bullets. Publishers Weekly Talks with David Schow by Stefan Dziemianowicz. Publishers Weekly, 10/6/2003
Further reading
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
Top
Pot-boiler
Dansk (Danish)
n. - bestillingsarbejde
Français (French)
n. - ¯uvre alimentaire
Deutsch (German)
n. - Fließbandprodukt
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - λογοτέχνημα ή καλλιτέχνημα που παράγεται για βιοποριστικούς λόγους
Italiano (Italian)
opera da quattro soldi, scrittore di poco conto
Português (Portuguese)
n. - livro escrito só para ganhar dinheiro (m), autor de tais livros (m)
Русский (Russian)
книга написана на быструю продажу
Español (Spanish)
n. - obra mediocre compuesta para ganar dinero
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - dussinroman, bok el konst skapat endast f pengar
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
赚稿费的文学作品或作家
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 賺稿費的文學作品或作家
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 돈벌이 위주의 조잡한 문학[미술]작품
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - יצירה גרועה, סופר או אמן היוצר כדי להתקיים, יצירה ספרותית או אמנותית שנוצרה למען הפרנסה בלבד
If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
Random House Word Menu
© 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier.
Write Brothers Inc.
All rights reserved.
Read more
Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary
Collins Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary © Anne Bradford, 1986, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008
HarperCollins Publishers
All rights reserved.
Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Potboiler.
Read more
Mentioned in
Nära Livet
(1958 Drama Film)
Destroyer
(1988 Horror Film)
Brute Corps
(1972 Crime Film)
Chain Lightning
(1922 Drama Film)
» More