A potboiler is an artistic work (writing, picture, musical composition, play, film, but usually something written), created only to make money quickly or to maintain a steady income for the artist, thus implying that artistic values were subordinate to saleability. The word implies that its author had to create the work to earn enough money to buy fire fuel to heat his cooking pot. Scribe Writing Writing, in its most general sense, is the preservation and the preserved text on a medium, with the use of signs or symbols. ... Economics offers various definitions for money, though it is now commonly defined by the functions attached to any good or token that functions in trade as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account. ... Look up artist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Artistic merit is an English language term that is used in relation to cultural products when referring to the judgment of their perceived quality or value as works of art. ...

One of the most famous potboilers is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens [1], showing that works written primarily for money are not always of subpar quality. Television host Mike Wallace used the term while interviewing writer Rod Serling about his upcoming show, The Twilight Zone [2]. At that time, science fiction writing was widely considered amateurish and juvenile, and Wallace questioned whether or not Serling was moving away from "serious" writing. However, Serling's series became an influential television classic. A Christmas Carol (full title: A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost Story of Christmas) is Charles Dickens little Christmas Book first published on December 19,[1] 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ... Dickens redirects here. ... Mike Wallace (born Myron Leon Wallace on May 9, 1918 in Brookline, Massachusetts) is an American journalist. ... Rodman Rod Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, most famous for his science fiction anthology series The Twilight Zone. ... The Twilight Zones original opening The Twilight Zone was a television anthology series created (and often written) by its narrator and host Rod Serling. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ...

References

• Sander, Gordon F.:Serling: The Rise And Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man. New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

External links

• "Potboiler" at World Wide Words