A potboiler or pot-boiler is a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * P ...

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

, or other creative work of dubious literary or artistic merit, whose main purpose was to pay for the creator's daily expenses—thus the imagery of "boil the pot", which means "to provide one's livelihood." Authors who create potboiler novels or

screenplay ''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993. Background After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, f ...

s are sometimes called

hack writer ''Hack writer'' is a pejorative term for a writer who is paid to write low-quality, rushed articles or books "to order", often with a short deadline. In fiction writing, a hack writer is paid to quickly write sensational, "pulp" fiction such as " ...

s or hacks. Novels deemed to be potboilers may also be called

pulp fiction ''Pulp Fiction'' is a 1994 American crime film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary.See, e.g., King (2002), pp. 185–7; ; Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Vin ...

, and potboiler films may be called "popcorn movies."

Usage

High culture

"In the more elevated arenas of artistry such a motive...was considered deeply demeaning."http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pot1.htm "Potboiler" at World Wide Words If a serious playwright or novelist's creation is deemed a potboiler, this has a negative connotation that suggests that it is a mediocre or inferior-quality work.

Historical usages

*In 1854 '' Putnam’s Magazine'' used the term in the following sentence: “He has not carelessly dashed off his picture, with the remark that ‘it will do for a pot-boiler’”. *

Jane Scovell Jane Scovell (born in Brockton, Massachusetts) is an American author, journalist and playwright. She is the author of collaborative autobiographies with Marilyn Horne, Elizabeth Taylor, Kitty Dukakis, Ginger Rogers, Cheryl Landon Wilson ( Mic ...

's ''Oona:'' ''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 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

, 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. *In an early-1980s ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

'' review of a book by Andrew Greeley, the author called his novel ''Thy Brother's Wife'' a "...putrid, puerile, prurient, pulpy potboiler". *In the late 1990s, American author and newspaper reporter

Stephen Kinzer Stephen Kinzer (born August 4, 1951) is an American author, journalist, and academic. A former ''New York Times'' correspondent, he has published several books, and writes for several newspapers and news agencies. Reporting career During the 198 ...

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." *In an interview with ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'', writer David Schow described potboilers as fiction that "...stacks bricks of plot into a nice, neat line".

Sources and notes

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Usage

High culture

Historical usages

See also

Sources and notes

Further reading