Talk:Potboiler

Mike Wallace interview[edit]

What does this add to the article? Someone in the media used the term in an interview. So? Wikibofh 04:20, 24 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I see your point; as it stood, it really adds nothing. It was the first "thought-out" factoid I ever added to Wikipedia. Hopefully I've reworked it enough to add relevancy, if not so much now then certainly as the article grows away from being a stub.--Metron4 23:01, 26 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

No you have not. It is still total rubbish.

Which term?[edit]

Which term did Frank Marcuso term? Tentpole or potboiler? I just think that as both are terms you should clarify. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Blazer410 (talk • contribs) 12:25, 22 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A Christmas Carol, a potboiler?[edit]

I would like to see better reference for this claim, please. Maikel (talk) 08:48, 1 July 2008 (UTC). The reference actually states that Dickens thought A Christmas Carol to be a potboiler -- meaning an inferior work. As placed in this section it implies that this is supportive of the "positive" inference for the term. This is simply not the case and the reference should be stricken.[reply]

Popular Culture[edit]

The fact that ill-informed or poorly educated reviewers have chosen to use the term "potboiler" doesn't make it correct use of the term. This section is not point of view neutral. It either needs to be eliminated or corrected.

Page turner?[edit]

Novels deemed to be potboilers may also be called pulp fiction or "page-turners"

English isn't my first language, but the term page turner has found its way into the German language and is used frequently in German book reviews. I'm a bit surprised to learn that the term has a negative connotation in the English language – at least that's how I understand the above cited sentence. I've only known the term as a synonym for a book that is so thrilling that you just can't put it down. The English Wictionary doesn't suggest an association between a page turner and a work of low quality, either (a written work, usually a novel, which is sufficiently interesting or suspenseful to keep the reader 'turning the pages'). Can someone clarify? 62.152.162.240 (talk) 07:22, 14 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You're right. Being a page-turner means the book is unputdownable, not that it's a pot-boiler, or that it's of poor quality. I took the liberty of removing the reference. Kwinkunks (talk) 14:33, 7 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Historical usages[edit]

This item needs to be clearer:

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".

Grammatically, "the author" appears to refer to Andrew Greeley rather than to the book reviewer, the implication is that Greeley reviewed his own book.

Perhaps better to say: The authors of a 1982 book review in Time magazine referred to Andrew Greeley's novel, Thy Brother's Wife, as a "...putrid, puerile, prurient, pulpy potboiler".

John Sinclair (talk) 14:44, 13 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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