Behind the Zines
21.08.2023 - 11:47
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
For a while now I have been feeling a bit meh about this whole life thing. The past few years have been eventful, and after expending considerable time and effort I am now back in a place where I feel I can stop rebuilding and start living my life. But I don’t honestly have much of a clue what that looks like, so I have been letting Brain have free range, to go where it wants to go and do what it wants to do. Brain has a lot of interests, and a lot of creative energy, but finds it tiresome when projects take too long, at which point I feel bogged down if I can’t finish things before moving on.
So the result, at the moment, is that Brain wants to make zines. Zines are self-published booklets with a small circulation, often made by cutting and sticking and photocopying. They’re quick, and have a delightfully homemade charm. They have a long history in the counterculture, with people using them as a way to say what they want to say. They’re having a bit of a resurgence in the feminist sphere at the moment (and others).
I am concerned about the direction capitalism is taking us in, leading to environmental destruction, climate chaos and rampaging inequality. There are things I want to say on those subjects – but they don’t sell. People don’t want to pay to publish them, because they don’t sit well with the adverts that make most media profitable, and seeking a commercial outlet for those thoughts feels counterproductive.
For me, making zines its also a response to seeing life on the internet go to a dark place. As a teen ziner explained in the Guardian, two years ago, “I read zines to escape surveillance and clickbait.” There’s also something lovely and old school about a finished printed product, and I don’t think that will
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