Zines trace their origin to science fiction fandom and grow into autobiographical self-expression
Evidence
Zines are photocopied magazines written by individuals and passed around by mail and through in de pen dent bookstores. Zines originated in science fiction fandom, but by the 1990s ran the gamut from obscure topics like The Brady Bunch to autobiographical accounts of personal experiences. Zines are sold for small amounts of money or are exchanged through a barter system, and they often emphasize the futility of wage-slave labor and lower-middle-class existence. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 81
Categorization
- DEFINE: A compact definition of what a zine is — its production, distribution, and thematic preoccupations — needed to follow the genealogical argument about DIY culture.
- XREF: The ‘futility of wage-slave labor’ ethic echoes the anti-capitalist strand the reader knows from other media studies; also prefigures the maker/creator labor debates later in this book. — connects to: Zine culture defined itself in explicit opposition to celebrity, consumption, and wage labor — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 82; Hacker zine culture developed independently from punk DIY culture — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 86; Print zines spawned the feminist Riot Grrrl punk scene — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 93
Broader Connections
- Print zines spawned the feminist Riot Grrrl punk scene
#expands(0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 93 - Hacker zine culture developed independently from punk DIY culture
#contradicts(0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 86