progress on the prairie

Before we had blogs, we had zines. And, I have been thinking quite a bit about zines lately. Recently, a woman I’ve never met in person asked me to participate in the creation of a zine, and I got goofily excited. It’s just that I think that is so cool; these types of small, unexpected gestures make life wonderful. Her gesture made me start thinking more about what it is about zines (and blogs and self-publishing in general) that have captured the attention of so many artists, activists, feminists, etc. throughout history.

My favorite self-publisher from the past, Emily Dickinson, created 40 handmade books (fancily called ‘fascicles’) filled with over 800 of her poems and helped forge the modern path where the self-published, self-taught, self-produced, self-edited, self-motivated circumvent capitalism.

Human beings, it seems, are naturally wired to communicate and express themselves no matter their circumstances or environment. We create art and we write and we philosophize whether we exist in caves, in jails, in big cities, in small towns, in impoverished villages, in slave quarters, or in restricted 19th-century women’s roles. But, sometimes we become intimidated by the official, modern outlets intended to profit from creativity: production companies, publishing houses, television networks, universities, newspapers. (Not that profit is a bad thing.)

It’s heart-warming and fascinating to me that zines, and in many cases blogs, are made because people can’t help it, because humans have an innate need to make and share something. And we humans can always overcome the frustration that sometimes comes from trying too hard to think of something that is both artistically interesting andprofitable. We forget money or success or fame momentarily, and we create anyway. Not perfect nor completely pure nor practical, but nonetheless beautiful.

The beauty of a small, not-for-profit, handmade zine is not only in the artifact itself, but also in the mysterious creative intention and evidence of human will that goes in to making the zine. Here’s to Ms. Dickinson and and all her grandchildren’s zines! A few links you might enjoy and support if you are so inclined (if pictures are provided, you can click on the pictures to follow the links):

Small Victoriesfrom New Zealand.

Young fashion blogger Arabelle goes on about ZINES!

A digital archive of grassroots & feminist media in Europe.

More on Emily Dickinson’s poetry at the Emily Dickinson Museum online. For the die-hard Dickinson nerd, they even have games and riddles :)

∞Spring∞