Zines Save Culture
Yeah they do. Or could. Be a good start anyway.
Anyway, for those who don’t know, here’s a take on what’s happening
in official-land.
It used to be said that a writer was selling out when they went to
Hollywood. Faulkner was the first real writer to do it. Didn’t like it.
I guess Nelson Algren was a significant writer to be burned coz
he quit doing it. He hated what the scriptwriters did to his books
and said he wanted control or else so all his business went away
and he spent the rest of his life writing about what THAT was like.
So what’s happening now is that you can’t even sell to New York
if your book wouldn’t sell to Hollywood. Coz the way NY makes
$ today is in movie rights. Hwood vets NY. So it looks like
if you sell to NY today you’ve also sold out.
Now, how does a writer get into academia today? Via grants and prizes
to a big extent. Application rules enforce blind judging which is a
canard anyway coz everyone knows who everyone else is and
the $ makes a merrygoround based on who is agreed to be
up’n’coming or who has chits to cash on as they like, etc. But
anyway one of the rules is no autobiography in applications:
can’t mention real names which would bias the judging. Thus
ruling out any writer specializing in that field. But moreover
writers who don’t/can’t win prizes don’t get the relief that
academia could provide (quiet place to work, etc.). A prize
winner is kind of like a Hollywood book: a committee likes it.
If people have to make money on it, a committee has to like it.
It has to be able to pass the corporate litmus test.
NY and academia are now tied into this vibe as heavily as Hwood.
It’s hilarious how one of the worst things you can say about a
movie: that it was written by a committee: is the rule for
modern literature.
No wonder it’s dead and dry.
There are many types of writing that would rankle or worry committees
or corporations. Especially anything that might really cause a change.
It’s called defanging the most important art. The leader.
The written thoughts of a culture, the thoughts which help it
find its way out, which point the new way.
It’s doubtful that a rescue would be in the best interests of the
status quo. Would please any committee. But that’s the way the
system is set up today.
They used to publish good stuff on the side and subsidize it with
blockbusters. No more. No risk.
Zines are the last frontier. The last chance. Not that we’ll take
advantage of them. It’s a skin of our teeth situation. Readers
are out there waiting to be rescued. No one else will do it.
We better get moving.
