Or rather: Should I know who Doc Savage is?
In less than 5 seconds I can get answer from the wikipedia pipe, but that’s not really my question. I got my copy of Spirit of the Century (and this is not meant to be a criticism of SOTC, I’ve only flicked through the introduction) which is a roleplaying gaming about “pulp” and specifically “era pulp”. I know what pulp is and I recognise it’s influences. But my first taste as a child was Indiana Jones. What came before that I don’t’ really know anything about. Should I? Have I missed some sci-fi cultural element? Who is Doc Savage, the atypical pulp hero? Am I a sci-fi philistine?
It just occurred to me why, after seeing the cover of White Wolf’s “Adventure!” when it was released, I never bothered to even look at the blurb. I knew what pulp was but I had no interest in it. Likewise SOTC, shrug, yea pulp looks fun but it’s not something I completely get. It’s not part of my… actually is there a word for that? Personal/historical culture/media/history? If it wasn’t for the internet noise (and that it uses Fate, a tangent/brew/derivative/insert-word of Fudge), I probably wouldn’t bat an eyelid about it.