RRP: £11.99; Paperback: 229pp; Publisher: Big White Shed; ISBN 978-1915021519.
"Pulp System" is the first work of fiction by Beltis Steamburton, a "synthetic persona with more interest in Systems Thinking than storytelling craft".
In over thirty pieces, 'pulp' conventions are harnessed to explore cybernetic themes: Corporate sentience, ordinary characters in endless feedback loops, disloyal Al, and dilemmas that expose systemic truths. Influenced by 1940s pulp magazines and 1960s speculative sci-fi, the book uses satire and absurdity to illustrate ideas such as variety, recursion, boundaries and emergence. It offers fables that pose questions, illuminate principles, and occasionally mock the organisations and cultures that give rise to them. The paperback edition comes with a double bookmark 'system' that gives the reader the opportunity to experience a real system in action!
