Reading Response

It's really interesting that a main theme driving Temple's article, its responses and as the main inspiration for Munroe's work has been this sharp divide between the independent and mainstream worlds of publishing. Because I know next to nothing about either it's hard for me to comment. But I do have a pretty good understanding of the independent music and movie communities, and perhaps publishing is different but I've found that the only real difference between "indie" and "corporate" is more a matter of labels and that the reality lies somewhere on a continuum. For example, I worked at an "independent" movie theatre that featured arthouse and foreign films. The truth of the matter is that behind all of those small production houses was a major movie producer. Really, it was kind of a rip-off. People came in to see real independent movies: assured that their movie ticket bought them entrance in to a unique and alternative world that they eitherwise would not be privy but really they were paying the same companies for pretty much the same schlock except with maybe some titties, tattoos and dirt. Is John Waters an independent movie maker? If so, how does that account for Hairspray?
And, what about indie music? It seems these days that indie is just a name for a genre or a sound and has little or nothing to do with the type of production involved. I think Johnny Temple actually revealed the ambiguity of the word independent, especially in music, when he spoke of his experience with Girls Against Boys. For the majority of the band's career they could be considered an independent band. Did they lose that title during the brief period that they were contracted to Geffen? Did they regain it when they went back to an indie label?
Perhaps it is due to the money generated by both of these industries that creates the indefiniteness of this term. It seems that most big companies have no problem creating a system that obscures the mainstream support of an "independent" product so that they can reach a wider audience. This might make the distinction between the movie and music industries and the publishing world. Where budgets are smaller, and perhaps the audience less discerning of the origins of their entertainment, it is easier to mark the place that separates independent and corporate. It seems that nothing in life, and especially in business, is really that easy peasy one-two-threesy.