The Future of Zining
In my previous post about the top significant advances made
in general culture by zining, I included a couple deficits or negatives.
These were what has set zining back. One was an over-emphasis
on indulgence and whimsy and another was lack of support
or encouragement by anyone with clout.
Perhaps these two are connected. And maybe in two different ways at the
same time.
For the obvious one: maybe the indulgence/whimsy
factor makes zining be seen as being too lame to be worth anyone’s time.
Less obvious: maybe a heck of a lot of zines are not lame at all
and those with clout see it as a threat to their hustle. This seems
really amazing, but it seems like the realistic power-argument. How would
power react to something which is unregulated, honest and free?
—In fear and horror. And nowadays the main tool of attack by
those with media-savvy, as well as by those who want to spare
their own egos even a moment of guilt or reflection, is SUPPRESSION.
—Just ignore zines.
But despite this possibly huge and totally dominating factor that
those with clout can’t help but seeing that zining and self-publishing
are the ONLY ways today to have honest literature. —All the
mechanism of publishing, printing and even distro is now for the
first time available WITHOUT THE EDITOR AS OVERLORD.
Editing in the DIY scene can be opted for strictly in a subordinate
sense, to help with correctness and clarity and not at all in
the DOMINATING CONTEMPORARY SENSE OF THOUGHT CONTROL, of
not allowing certain ideas and facts to be exposed.
You would think that such a potential would HAVE to attract the
interest of serious writers.
However, I suppose, that a conflict is set up. Self-publishing is
probably still seen as anathema and a kiss of death to a CAREER.
So the artist has to decide: art or career. I guess that today we
see a near 100% conformity to a desperate preference for the
career. —Even though most won’t get one. Right from the get-go,
it would likely be better if they just printed what they thought.
As Henry Miller says (something like) “You might as well have
your say, they’re going to shit on you anyway.”
But it really seems like with a bit more application of clout,
that self-publishing will STOP being the kiss of death. It’s too
available. It will become part of getting a career. You set up
your website or your little zines and that is then the baited hook
for bigger publishers to come do you up right and make the big
bucks off of you. Actually, it likely won’t just be clout that does
this, but it will require history: the first major important book
to be published DIY or to come up from zining.
The hilarious thing here is that there hasn’t been an important
book like that in 30 years.
Boy, power is doing fine these days. Important books change things
and no one with power wants any of that. Looks like they’ve about
made it a fait accompli. —No serious art in 30 years is a good success
to them folk. Death of bookstores and libraries: hey, we’re winning!
Remember, literature is how a people can know about themselves
and their options—-kill it and you have the perfect employee finally.
A final restatement on what it will take to lift up zining is for people
to realize that it’s the perfect outlet for their inside info on any topic.
If they know something that not everyone does, this is how to get
the word out. If they want to be honest for a change, in a way they
can’t be otherwise, this is how to do it.
The indulgence/whimsy/shock factor in zining will have to drop
back to more of a minor note in the whole scene.
There’s no reason why it has to be a scene mainly for kids and music.
It’s entirely conducive to everything else as well, especially any
serious issues. SINCE SERIOUS ISSUES PLAINLY HONESTLY DEALT
WITH HAVE NO OTHER OUTLET. You’d think that the pressure would
be building still IN FAVOR OF ZINING.
Nuff ranting.
