The DIY revolution has taken over. YouTube talent spreads like wildfire by word-of-mouth and word-of-email. People love looking in on each other’s lives via blogs and connecting via MySpace, etc. Reality shows are still big, with regular people doing their area of expertise as well as going nuts for the world to see, a la that chopper bike show and the Dirty Jobs guy. Independent (semi) real-world adventures are taking off and getting big exposure in every area of life.
Why has literature remained shut off and sealed away from the world?
Of course, IT HASN’T. Only the official, establishment literature is secretive. The DIY revolution HAS INDEED broken thru in literature. —Only you don’t know about it yet.
But it’s staring you in the face.
Right here!
Official, academic literature is dead today, cut off from the realities that everyday people can relate to. Only a few traces of fashion and wit remain. All substance is lost. OK, well, nearly so. The scene is very weak, at any rate. It’s become isolated and nichified. You can look in on the literary world but it’s not really for you. You’re on the outside looking in.
But the underground has been rocking all along. The zine scene created a few stand-out upstarts who’ve integrated the impacts of the Net-age into their work and created singular works which we call ZEENS. They’re like books or novels only they’re home-made, home-thought. They represent the new roots culture of the USA. …As seen on YouTube and the blogs.
What you see in print in mainstream media is only an imitation of the real thing. I see they’re trying to take a new light tone in slicks like the New Yorker and the New York Times. I just saw mention of “DIY” on the front page of the NYT biz section. –But you know they’re off the back, WAY behind the times.
The real thing is here at OYB and ULA PRESS. Check it out! It’s compelling, unflinching entertainment of uplift and surprise.
Anyone trying to get a sense of the potential in our culture today MUST keep abreast of the DIY literary movement or they’re out of it. Otherwise, they’re getting less than half of the picture. They’re missing out on the Full Contact.
This is an era of supposed “hard times.” How is the culture responding? Do you think the mainstream has the slightest clue? OYB has been giving you the real scoop for 17 years in print and since the Web started.
Of course, as Martha worries, grimly, hard times more likely means boom times for coupon websites—not for affordable culture. And a DIY boom means a proliferation of free blog sites and “easy to use tools”—not a fresh chance for real-world cultural leadership. Forums are great, but doesn’t anyone notice how fragmented the scene is? Each forum is isolated from the others. Is it true that nobody really needs any help to do all this stuff? No one needs help in understanding what it means? All we need are coupons and free web-tools to handle a new cultural paradigm? It seems to me that the same folks are still sitting on top, keeping a low profile…and keeping 95% of the action to themselves. But we have to remember that money is just a medium: those who have the money only have it because they have the UNDERSTANDING. They know what’s going on. It’s an info age and free tools and coupons aren’t what you need. INSIGHT is where it’s at.
