Yeah, I would say that pulp and hack written fiction basically caters to the audience.
I'm not saying that there is never laziness or cynicism involved. There's a gradation of cynical and lazy and all that. But I am saying that there is skill and passion involved in even the cheesiest of fiction. AND that if you don't please the audience, you don't sell.
It is true that, especially in the best seller category (which is by definition, not pulp) there is often a fall off of that passion as the industry pushes to replicate the same success. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I can't really blame the authors, though. At that level, there is a tremendous amount of pressure to replicate success. Publishers very often won't buy something "different" from a successful author.
Sometimes you have an author like James Patterson who just applies the old pulp strategies to best selling fiction, and I have to applaud him for that. When he stops pleasing his audience, his audience will go away.
Not every author should be catering to the audience, but it is an exercise in communication, and I can't see it as a bad thing in general.
Camille
The Adventure of Anna the Great
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The Wife of Freedom
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