A Reason for Zines
—Abdication of ART by the small press and little bookstore scenes.
Forced art under the underground—-to mail art and then zining.
Even now when some aspect of zining starts to take off, starts
to make the jump from tiny to small to mainstream—which all
art makes—anyone in charge seems to turn into an idiot.
There’s some kind of infection in modernism. Is it just greed?
Causing instant sell-out?
Don’t people realize that the mainstream is *against the grain*,
that if someone truly new came up that the People would want it?
Instead we have a system where all the establishments
big and small are against it at first but it used to be that
radical quality would eventually find the crack and break out into
popularity. —It’s our history, for one thing. It’s happened time
and again.
Heck, during some phases it used to be that someone in the
establishment would even stick to their guns and get the new thing
out and it would change the world. Or at least tell the truth.
What new thing has survived that process lately?
Is it committees? Did F5 have a committee? Maybe in the old days
Alfred Knopf could subsidize literature with trash because, heck,
he wanted to be able to go fishing with Hem. Or just coz it felt
like the right thing to do. A duty.
What kind of innovation happens with a committee? I’d love to hear
cases! How did Mac get on top? No committee. How did IBM lose their lead?
Committees.
Henry Miller would get stuffed today. The others, too.
There’s been a BIG paradigm shift
that we underestimate. Today when good, committed lifelong poets
and writers try to sell their stuff—say, the members of the Beat generation
who didn’t sell out or dry up, who kept moving forward—they’re
told to get lost by old bookstores who used to buy their stuff,
who still sell their stuff just fine. It’s not as simple as ‘results tell’.
It’s not a no-brainer as the moderns would have you think.
‘Ah, they must suck. Get the old farts outta here.’
Stores won’t look at it if it’s not how-to or politicized in their way.
There’s great unpublicized stories about how the early
PUBLISHERS of the Beats can’t move their stuff anymore.
Publishers with a good, steady, proven track-record…and their
stuff STILL SELLS…get run out. No time for you anymore.
Even the underground is catering to celebrity and hackwork. The underground
feels threatened by quality, distinction, genius, anything that
stands out. UNLESS YOU’RE DIALED IN or already known in just
the right way, you can be hot stuff and get laughed out of a shop.
Shops feel threatened by originality. Even the little guys want
stability, want to stick to their MARKETING PLANS. Something
new is a risk. Watch how many are willing to actually think.
I’ve heard that even City Lights relegates the
small presses to the back of the basement anymore. Is that so?
The little bookstores are so often NICHE-IFIED now that fresh stuff
can’t hardly get in. It’s another reason why zines came around.
So here I am, psyched on the record and easy-turnover of my zine
and am ready to try BOOKS. Maybe I’m in for a surprise. The newstands
lately have been receptive. It doesn’t mean that books will work.
Or that even newstands really care that much. There was a glitch, a
window. That’s all.
Well, I know enuf NOT to count on the bookstores. With my dayjob books,
which are bestsellers, I have to use a CROWBAR to keep them in stock
in these newfanged computerized bookstores.
I have a new plan. It involves the internet.
You know how everything is going to Just In Time inventory?
—They’re forcing the burden further and further upstream in all
market sectors. So it seems like I can play ball despite them perhaps.
I’m going to publish all my fave titles and then print only as anyone
orders them. They’ll be Kinko’ed of course. But set up just like any
other book. Nice layout, good covers and binding.
When the culture ABDICATES its duty to growth, education, etc.,
you have to MAKE DO. DIY. This is how good stuff gets published today.
Maybe. I know I’ve already bought quite a few hard-to-find quality books like
this. No other way to get such stuff. Hey, it’s the writing/info/art that counts.
Not the store!!! They’re confused if they think they’re the boss. (Maybe the
problem is the new modern egoism?) If bookstores won’t help, art will do
an END-AROUND! Maybe to amazon.com! We’ll see…
Blend Kinkos with pagemaker and the quality really ain’t that bad.
Get a quantity discount and it’s affordable. People will pay for something good.
??? (Many new paperbacks fall apart quicker, so I’m happy with Kinko’s.)
