Stephen Duncombe: Notes From Underground: Zines And The Politics Of Alternative Culture

Given the seemingly endless possible permutations of zines, and the difficulty of defining what they are and what they do, a comprehensive book on zines would seem virtually impossible to write. A writer immersed in zine culture could easily fall victim to self-serving tunnel vision, and someone from the outside could come off as simply clueless. Fortunately, Notes From Underground benefits from an author who has academic credentials, but has been in the zine trenches himself. Perhaps due to the aforementioned academic background, Underground works better as an extended essay on the meaning of zines than as an introductory survey. Stephen Duncombe wants to present the zine form as a potentially subversive medium, and does a good job doing so. Despite his occasionally dry, repetitive writing, he also does a fine job spicing up his argument with illustrative examples from such publications as 7 Aardvarks For Alice, Girljock, and Sneezing Jesus. And though he glosses over the fact that a vast number of zines are damn near unreadable, Duncombe has created a lucid argument for why they're important, despite their unpredictable quality.