Zine Snobs

[Nicholas Whitman Kessler]

I visited the Independent Publishing Resource Center yesterday--not to check out zines from their superfluous library, but to actually work on a zine!  Imagine that!  It appeared that a lot of the people there couldn't.  Granted, I know the "independent" part of the name means you're supposed to go DIY, but some people skills with the folks there would have proved for a much productive and friendly visit.  Sometimes I wonder: Is this just how writers are?  Wrapped up in their own work and not able to offer the simplest of help to others?  But I know from experience: OF COURSE NOT.  I have been around too many writers in my time to think otherwise, so really the snobbery could've come from anywhere, any source. But zinesters do have a reputation of being self-consumed, often irritatingly eccentric, and frankly, snobby.  There's no two ways around this until we decide to change our reputation as who we are as a collective, and not some warring interpersonal soap-opera.  I sure would like to see that change happen, wouldn't you?

[Billy Da Bunny]

Many people write or do zines because they really ain't so great at face-to-face communication.  Not that this is an excuse to be rude.

 

If I was there I would have copied/glued/cut/folded/stapled with you until it was all done!

[Nicholas Whitman Kessler]

I think it's very possible everybody there was...um...self-absorbed.  It also seems to be (just as the term "independent" is so prominent in zine culture) that you have to go through a lot of hoops to publish anything independently.  Why we can't be more communicative or compassionate about our art form is anyone's guess.  But I would agree that I was being too hard on these people.  Just for the record: I went back the next day and got a lot more done. 

[James N. Dawson]

Actually I've lived out in the boondocks and backwaters for so  much of my life, and've been so cheap and lazy, I've never been to a zine fest or had much contact at all with other zinesters for that matter, so I can't be much of a judge about their behavior.  Is it statistically possible  the ones you saw that day  were all having a bad day???  Sometimes in those situations a little groveling can be helpful.

 

I hope to try to get a little more involved in the Bird's Nest zine library here in Spokane, and so far, they've been pretty friendly.

 

I'm completely clueless how I come across  in person to other people.

[bobby madness]

even though i agree with your observation,i think its just how people are.if your in portland(i dont know if there are other iprc's or what),every scenester is like that.they'll warm up to you in 17 to 20 years,usually after a few unsuccessful murder attempts.maybe its an impromptu way of enforcing editorial standards on zine content-the stuck uppedness cutting down on the tourist types whose zines suck,to them anyways

[Nicholas Whitman Kessler]

I don't.  But many people in society do.

[NicoleIntrovert]

Don't mistake being introverted for snobby.