DeForest, Tim 1960–

PERSONAL:

Born July 26, 1960, in Norwalk, CT; son of Dan and Nancy (both retired) DeForest. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: University of South Florida, B.A, A.A. Politics: Independent. Religion: "Christian (nondenominational)."

ADDRESSES:

Home— Sarasota, FL. Office— Ringling College of Art and Design, 2700 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34234. E-mail— tdefores@ringling.edu.

CAREER:

Circulation manager and writer. Verman Kimbrough Memorial Library, Ringling College of Art and Design, Sarasota, FL, circulation manager, 1993—. Participant in volunteer missionary work around the world, including Haiti, 2002, and Sudan, 2005, 2007. Volunteer with Big Brothers/Big Sisters, 2002—.

WRITINGS:

Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 2004.

Also author of numerous articles covering a variety of subjects including military history and the Wild West.

SIDELIGHTS:

Before television and the Internet provided people with instant amusement, children patiently waited by mailboxes for their favorite magazines and comics to arrive, and entire families eagerly gathered around their radios every night to listen to thrilling stories over the airwaves. In Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America, author Tim DeForest explores the pulp magazines, comic strips, and radio programs of the early twentieth century and demonstrates their lasting influence on contemporary popular culture. In the text, DeForest illustrates how advances in modern technology helped change the ancient tradition of storytelling forever.

DeForest, the circulation manager of the Verman Kimbrough Memorial Library at the Ringling College of Art and Design, thoroughly explores all three mediums in different sections of his writing debut. He also includes a timeline of relevant developments, illustrations from pulp magazines and comics, and summaries of popular radio programs. Throughout the text, DeForest argues that these often academically dismissed mediums encouraged readers and listeners to use their imaginations to fill in the blanks, while the television shows and movies of the twenty-first century are "passive" forms of entertainment that ask very little of viewers.

In a review of the book for Science Fiction Studies, contributor Aaron Parrett called DeForest's summary of this interesting part of Americana "a delightful expedition." Though Parrett pointed out several flaws in DeForest's history of storytelling over the centuries and felt that the author focused too much on how television and movies have negatively impacted the media, the reviewer found the author's style "refreshing" and admitted, "I couldn't stop turning pages to see what zinger I would encounter next."

Jim Cox, a reviewer for the Metro Washington Old Time Radio Club Radio Recall, found DeForest's research "authentic and sweeping and his writing style compelling." Throughout DeForest's "nostalgic tribute," Cox noted that there is an impression that the author believes that the "new" technology used for storytelling today is not necessarily "better."

In a review on his Web site,Critical Mass, author Don D'Ammassa called Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio "quite readable and often interesting," while also noting that DeForest sometimes "overestimates the quality" of some of his subjects. D'Ammassa also felt that DeForest "tends to be judgmental at times."

DeForest told CA: "I stumbled across both pulp fiction reprints and old-time radio recordings in my young teens. I came to prefer these forms of storytelling to most contemporary offerings, so it wasn't long before most of my personal pop culture references were coming from a generation or more before I was born. As my interest in writing grew, I was eventually led to research and write about storytelling methods that were once very popular, but had largely faded from popular culture. I wanted to do my part to remind people that media such as old-time radio, newspaper adventure comic strips, and story-driven fiction still had value."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bookseller, October 29, 2004, review of Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio: How Technology Changed Popular Fiction in America, p. 31.

Chronicle, September, 2004, Don D'Ammassa, review of Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio, p. 37.

Science Fiction Studies, November, 2005, Aaron Parrett, review of Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio, p. 513.

ONLINE

Critical Mass,http://www.dondammassa.com/ (October 21, 2007), Don D'Ammassa, "Non-fiction Reviews," review of Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio.

McFarland Publishing Web site,http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/ (October 21, 2007), description of Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio.

Metro Washington Old Time Radio Club Radio Recall, http://www.mwotrc.com/rr.htm/(October, 2004), Jim Cox, review of Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio.