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typicalgirls - Re: [TypicalGirls] Riot Grrrl book

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Subject: Typical Girls: Women in Punk/Post-Punk/Underground Music (Circa 1975-1980s)

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  • From: Larry Roberts <larrybob AT io.com>
  • To: typicalgirls AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [TypicalGirls] Riot Grrrl book
  • Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 11:47:54 -0500 (CDT)

I think it would be preferable to have Riot Grrrl-era zines available for free download rather than the current situation, where they are sold as
collector's items on EBay.

The argument about reprinting zines was had before in the Riot Grrrl Press era where RGP had flats of peoples zines and continued copying them after people were over them.

Tobi - I think it's being overmodest to say that what was produced during the Riot Grrrl era is no different than what's being produced now. Those zines are primary texts and should be available. If you want to recontextualize it with new writing and publish it in book form I think that would be great.

However I would say that the message of "Do It Yourself" is primary, and people should not just consume the past, but also continue creating in the present.

For some reason in punk cultures, records have been valued over zines. People throw zines away who would never throw records away. There is a structure for the resale of records that does not exist for zines. Zines are rarer than the records but the records sell for more. But print in general is undervalued - rare books sell for less than they should based on scarcity.

The 60s have been much more institutionalized than the 80s/90s underground. Many people involved in 60s counterculture ended up entering academia. The 60s were also better documented at the time - printing and film were both cheaper than in later eras. The punk/post-punk/riot grrrl era fell into a media gap between cheap film and cheap consumer video.

Almost every underground publication from the late 60s and early 70s is available on a microfilm collection which is owned by many university and public libraries.
http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/undergroundpress.html
Of course, the print runs were much larger in the 60s and the number of people involved was greater.

There are some people who were involved in Riot Grrrl who have gone on to academia, notably Mimi Nguyen of Worse Than Queer.
http://www.worsethanqueer.com/

Universities and colleges are a means by which information is transferred between generations. A college professor has direct contact with hundreds of students. People who are not teachers or professors or librarians have much more limited contact with younger people. With non-institutionalized knowledge like we have, there are much fewer opportunities to transmit what we know.

I do try to make mix CDs and copy zines for younger friends and relatives. But the impact compared to someone involved in academia is fairly small.

Larry-bob





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