The felt value of reading zines
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The felt value of reading zines Ash Watson1 · Andy Bennett2
© Springer Nature Limited 2020
Abstract This article explores the meaning and materiality of contemporary zines. As do-ityourself and profit-resistant publications seeing a sustained resurgence, zines are an interesting and valuable case within the cultural sociology of reading. Based on a thematic analysis of 73 zines collected from a 2019 zine fair, and qualitative interviews with 16 zine readers, in this article we consider the ‘felt value’ (Simmel 2005 [1916]) of zines. We explore how contemporary zines—via their content and form—intimately speak to both the weight and frivolity of life, how they intensively grapple with questions about relationships and ways of living, and what this means for how meaning is made material(ly) in the form. Conceptually, we bring together Thumala Olave’s (2017, 2020) work on affect and reading with Alexander’s (2008a, b) work on iconicity and immersion and Bennett’s (2018a, b) work on the significance and diversification of DIY projects in contemporary cultural practice. We identify four iconic properties of the contemporary form: a DIY ethos and aesthetic, anti-mainstream positioning, an intimacy, and an intensity. These iconic properties offer insight into how reading zines is made meaningful through the iconicity and immersive materiality of the analogue zine form. Keywords Zine · Affect · Iconicity · DIY · Reading · Materiality
Introduction Zines are an interesting and valuable case within the cultural sociology of reading. A zine (pronounced ‘zeen’) is a DIY (do-it-yourself) publication of writing, photography, collage, illustration and/or other creative work, multiply produced in a small run often via photocopier before being folded, stapled, glue-bound or sometimes delicately handsewn. Zines have intentionally specific content that ranges radically * Ash Watson [email protected] 1
Vitalities Lab, Social Policy Research Centre and Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, John Goodsell Building, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
2
Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Mount Gravatt, Australia
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A. Watson, A. Bennett
from publication to publication: contemporary zines cover everything from sexual experiences to political manifestos, social media, homecooked meals, environmental collapse, pets, loneliness, and odes to musicians or other popular culture icons such as film stars or sports personalities. Largely a lo-fi endeavour, zines carry aesthetic value for makers and readers (Teal 2006), which the form gains through its historical development as a distinct craft (Triggs 2010, pp. 205–206). The social contexts within which zines are made and read have piqued the interest of scholars concerned with media, art, fan cultures, feminism and/or youth. Indeed, and as this article will presently demonstrate, while zines are now attributed a broader readership that transcends youth, evidence suggests that there is still a signifi
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