Beloved Pariah.

I've wanted to explore the zine culture for a while now. I see it as a great vehicle for expressing some thoughts and ideas that I think the mainstream tends to shy away from.

I'm a writer. according to the Library of Congress classification of my work I am a writer of:
fiction,
fiction/general,
Alienation (social psychology),
Influence,
Pop art.

oddly enough, that really does actually sum it all up perfectly.

right now I'm working on what will become my first zine under the Beloved Pariah imprint. It's going to be a solo project and a one-off affair. a story in photos and words, black and white, 1/4 sized and compact for reading on a commute or in a coffee house. it's called overnight and the time between - a story of success I guess it's just a little story about some unexpected feelings along the way. like I said, a one-off solo venture... I have other plans for the bigger picture of Beloved Pariah.

The name has its origins in a conversation with another writer.

We were talking about how I felt about myself, even with the acceptance of a big mainstream publisher, I still felt ill at ease with people. I still felt that I was outside of things. Not good enough. Not understood. This other writer suggested that things were going to get huge and that might change everything... My response was: "no, I think I've elevated Pariah to an artform"... his reply, "don't you mean Pariah beloved by all?"

the idea stuck in my head.

artists are usually seen as outsiders/outcasts/freaks/misfits. but the things they create are often beautiful expressions of the things that society knows about itself and can't seem to speak...

I want Beloved Pariah to become a place where those voices can speak...

I think collected, such voices will have some interesting things to say.

after I finish putting overnight together, I'll let you all know where we go next, a call for submissions... essays and letters from the outcasts. I want BP to be a collection of notes from the outside. I suspect that there our more of us out there than anyone imagines. the resonance is there in the bigger culture...and if that is indeed the case, why the alienation?