reading response: the history of zines

First of all, can I just say that it must be hard to write a successful senior thesis on the history of zines when it requires that you quote and take seriously people with names like "Larry-bob" ? That is all on that note.

So I used to read zines a lot when I was younger. Not that much younger, just a few years ago, but still, I feel like it was a phase of sorts for me. I don't remember how I was initially introduced to zines, but I'm sure it was filtered through to me in some way related to the independent bookstore I worked at in Austin. A lot of the people who worked there were very passionate about the bookstore as an independent business. I had always loved it just because it was the best bookstore in the city, hands down, and because I could see that the atmosphere was unique, so much more engaging and enjoyable and multi-faceted than the big box bookstores. It was working there that I first discovered, even heard the terms for, things like small press publishing, self-publishing, zines and chapbooks. A few people I worked with made zines and I eventually made them too, feeling inspired by a friend of mine who showed me some of the best. She ran a zine distro on the Internet and I feel like it was the best introduction to zines I could have gotten-- she knew me and recommended things she knew I would like.

About a year later, I visited Chicago for the first time and went to Quimby's because she had told me to go. I was amazed! I spent a ton of money on zines and art books and devoured them. I later bought a bunch of materials and even conducted an interview for a zine I never did make. I hope to produce some version of it still.

I liked that this essay compared the creators of zines to James Joyce and William Borroughs and Benjamin Franklin. I feel like a lot of the stigma with zines comes from the sillier ones, the stereotypical drunken hipster narcissist zines that really offer nothing but another demonstration of a personality type made public by photocopying and stapling. The truth is, there are a lot of really bad zines out there, and I think that's what eventually turned me off of reading them. They were unreliable and with few exceptions, I'd buy a bunch that seemed intriguing but ended up being really dull and not unique.

But I've always been behind what zines stand for, and I think this essay drove that point home. Regardless of content, zines are hugely valuable as an alternative to traditional publishing, in both magazines and books. I was initially drawn to them because they weren't like anything else and because I found the creativity and self-discipline of the authors really inspiring. I love that they exist at all, the good ones and the bad. I've never really read political zines, but even the zines that are about gardening or music or whatever are all making their own kind of political statement, quietly.

Some of my favorite zines ever are still some of my favorite things I've read, and I think I would be a different writer and reader without them. A different thinker, even. I liked reading this history because I like remembering what is important about zines, even if some of them are really stupid. I've always defended zines when this is mentioned to me, and I always will but now I have some history to back it up.