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Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture
In a comprehensive study of zine publishing, Stephen Duncombe describes zine origins in early 20th-century science fiction cults, their more proximate roots in the sixties' counter-culture and their rapid proliferation in the wake of punk rock. Packed with extracts and illustrations from a wide array of publications, past and present, this is the first book to explore the...more
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
October 1st 1997
by Verso
(first published September 1st 1997)
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I first read parts of this book for my master's thesis three years ago, and I was wanting to return to it and read the whole thing for a while. This book thoroughly discusses various aspects of zines and zine culture, including the sincere nature of zines, the anti-authority, and the independent, anti-corporate attitude of many zines. Duncombe is himself a zinester, and so is quite knowledge. He avoids being too academic, while drawing on academic discussions and theory in accessible, interestin...more
The only full academic treatment of zines to date. There have been a few good studies of girls' zines since, but Duncombe is still the only one to do a book-length study of the entire zine phenomenon. This was in 1997, when zines as a fad had just peaked and waned in the mainstream consciousness and before online self-publishing became so influential that most people assumed zines were a thing of the past. So Duncombe's book comes off as a bit dated today, but you can't hold that against him.
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Duncombe's bias toward his subject matter ultimately forecloses some of the (in my opinion) most significant offerings this book might make regarding zines as both a medium and a practice. I refer not to the fact that Duncombe is invested in his subject matter, but rather to the fact that he feels zines' greatest potential was in their makers' attempts to entirely overthrow mainstream culture (including our contemporary system of capitalism). Since this unlikely goal was never achieved by the po...more
Interesting but pretty scattered. Didn't like the lay out.
Academic writing that's fun to read and inspiring.
May 28, 2013
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