Zines, etc.
So, I've just finished reading Notes from Underground: zines and the politics of alternative culture by Stephen Duncombe and I'm feeling conflicted and thoughtful. Also embarrassed, because I pulled a zine I made in 2001 out of a box and it's so incredibly typical of the "genre:" Text written on a typewriter; a rant about how "rape affects everyone;" a "recipe" for a feminist action I organized at my school; ironically doctored images from children's media (Eloise, wearing T-shirts that say things like "beer is not a community"); earnest vignettes about a girl I crushed on who I never talked to, a punk rock boy who broke my heart, and a litany of "what I would do if I could take over the world." If you wanted to know, at 22 I wanted to cure sexism, racism, homophobia, world hunger, my insomnia, anxiety issues, writer's block, back zits, and a yeast infection.
Anyway, Duncombe's book is really interesting but it bothers me that although he traces the lineage of zines back to scifi APAs in the thirties, he gives "us" a page and a half of coverage which is essentially just a summary of Enterprising Women. Now, I get that his book is about punk rock zines, but. Maybe I just also want the book that considers why it is that the two main coexisting examples we have of non-profit, independent, self-publishing subcultures involve science fiction and punk rock respectively--the connections and differences there.
Partly the issue has to do with Duncombe's particular investment in the material form of zines, whereas typically at this juncture someone thinking about fandom might not be so irrevocably tied to a media that's largely been eclipsed by the Internet.
But the part that really annoyed me is this sentence: "The world of self-publishing on the Internet is not an alternative culture. There is no cultural price of admission into the digital realm, there are no arcane rituals to master or rules to follow (or even debate)."
[...]
The "world of self-publishing on the Internet" is a pretty frakking big category, so perhaps it isn't an alternative culture in itself (neither is newsprint) but it does mediate alternative culture(s). It's interesting how he can thoughtfully consider his "own" community in terms of the shifting interrelations between media technology [print, photocopiers, etc.], cultural forms [genres], and cultural practice [community, social relations], but be so myopic with regards to something that shares aspects of its origin story with his own favored object. In the historical narrative of this book, it's like scifi zines dropped off the face of the planet with the advent of punk rock. But I mean, dude, conventions, we still have them.
And I'm sure I don't have to tell you all that we have codes, secret handshakes, and initiation rites of a sort.
All that said, if you want to know more about a certain form of DIY 'zine culture, this is an informative book that acknowledges the impossibility of putting definitive borders around a subculture, ideologically or practically, and yet still tries valiantly to talk about one anyway.
I get that. I know that my view and experience of media fandom is radically different from many other fan(girl)s. But fandom exists as some kind of entity, even if we don't all agree about it or do it the exact same way.
I am also peeved that a vintage TOS 'zine that I wanted sold for like 99 cents on ebay last month and the copies on Amazon are $40 and it's not up online. Additionally, a poll:
Poll Spock!!11!!1! I mean, tell me about your 'zine experience.
Anyway, Duncombe's book is really interesting but it bothers me that although he traces the lineage of zines back to scifi APAs in the thirties, he gives "us" a page and a half of coverage which is essentially just a summary of Enterprising Women. Now, I get that his book is about punk rock zines, but. Maybe I just also want the book that considers why it is that the two main coexisting examples we have of non-profit, independent, self-publishing subcultures involve science fiction and punk rock respectively--the connections and differences there.
Partly the issue has to do with Duncombe's particular investment in the material form of zines, whereas typically at this juncture someone thinking about fandom might not be so irrevocably tied to a media that's largely been eclipsed by the Internet.
But the part that really annoyed me is this sentence: "The world of self-publishing on the Internet is not an alternative culture. There is no cultural price of admission into the digital realm, there are no arcane rituals to master or rules to follow (or even debate)."
[...]
The "world of self-publishing on the Internet" is a pretty frakking big category, so perhaps it isn't an alternative culture in itself (neither is newsprint) but it does mediate alternative culture(s). It's interesting how he can thoughtfully consider his "own" community in terms of the shifting interrelations between media technology [print, photocopiers, etc.], cultural forms [genres], and cultural practice [community, social relations], but be so myopic with regards to something that shares aspects of its origin story with his own favored object. In the historical narrative of this book, it's like scifi zines dropped off the face of the planet with the advent of punk rock. But I mean, dude, conventions, we still have them.
And I'm sure I don't have to tell you all that we have codes, secret handshakes, and initiation rites of a sort.
All that said, if you want to know more about a certain form of DIY 'zine culture, this is an informative book that acknowledges the impossibility of putting definitive borders around a subculture, ideologically or practically, and yet still tries valiantly to talk about one anyway.
I get that. I know that my view and experience of media fandom is radically different from many other fan(girl)s. But fandom exists as some kind of entity, even if we don't all agree about it or do it the exact same way.
I am also peeved that a vintage TOS 'zine that I wanted sold for like 99 cents on ebay last month and the copies on Amazon are $40 and it's not up online. Additionally, a poll:
Poll Spock!!11!!1! I mean, tell me about your 'zine experience.