Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Little magazines are back

wsjfreeexpression.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 41 posts

Re: Little magazines are back

#31

Post by testfrequency »

goodmythical wrote: post #5

The zine scene's seen weak weeks, certainly, but the gritty ink stays distinct: a permanent link for those who think outside the precinct. It may wax and wane, but for any with an intention to mention the subversive soul, zines offer distinct impressions. I'd originally intended to simply argue that short form print never went anywhere and therefore had nowhere to return from, but I thought I'd take the opportunity t…

Fun write.

As someone who contributes to a zine, goes to zine fests often, and has a lot of friends who do conventions with short form print - I agree.

In general my opinion is the waves are more or less outsiders who stumble into it, or a certain IP, and they are introduced to a whole other medium they didn’t really experience. Unless of course, they frequent a very awesome local book store in their city with a dedicated zine section.

Re: Little magazines are back

#32

Post by tbossanova »

amarant wrote: post #3
teeray wrote: post #2

> A quarter-century ago, conventional wisdom held that ebooks, read on electronic devices, would replace books made of paper. Until publishers thought “huh, we can increase our margins AND increase our prices too for ebooks?!”

I've made the switch to ebooks.i haven't yet had a problem with pricing like you suggest, but I have been a little worried about my library of purchased books might one day disappear since they all use DRM, and I don't really own any of my books in any real sense of the word. Then again, even that doesn't worry me too much, since I almost never read a book twice anyway. I think the only book I've read more than once…

The only reason I ever read HHGTTG as a kid is because it was on a bookshelf at home and I eventually got bored enough to pick it up. I don’t currently have an ebook equivalent of that for my kids

Re: Little magazines are back

#33

Post by Animats »

tolerance wrote: post #8
A_Duck wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Substack?

Yeah? I got Substack for you, pal. https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/516/278/c19... Edit: Substack is mid-brow.

> Substack is mid-brow.

It is? I thought Substack was just Wordpress with a paywall.

Re: Little magazines are back

#34

Post by ninalanyon »

amarant wrote: post #20
VorpalWay wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't read a book multiple times, why not borrow from a public library (if such a thing exist in the country you live in)? Here in Sweden they are free, and you can even get them to loan a book from another library if they don't have it locally (though for physical books it will of course take a few days to get it delivered). Remote loans used to cist around 20 SEK (about 2 EUR), but is now also free since ear…

I prefer the slim device that keeps track of where I am in the book, has a built in backlight that is easy on the eyes and doesn't disturb my wife when I'm reading in bed until long after she's asleep, and that lets me acquire the next book in a series with only a little bit more effort than it is too turn the page, over the heavy physical tome that would tire my arms. I am a creature of comfort after all!

> device that keeps track of where I am in the book

I use bookmarks, often the paper receipt from the purchase of the book itself.

Re: Little magazines are back

#35

Post by netfortius »

You can tell this is yet another US centric post. Once having moved to France, almost five years ago, I've been and continue being pleasantly overwhelmed by the quality and quantity to choose from, of printed journals, magazines and books. Once a week, on Wednesdays, when the closest mediatheque is open the entire day, I go in and dive into reading everything I can, for hours and hours, with a small break for lunch, most of the time until they close.

Re: Little magazines are back

#36

Post by d0mine »

OhMeadhbh wrote: post #24

So I just spent a week moving 60 linear feet of books and I'm done with dead trees. Neil Gaiman has a quote that goes something like "Books are like sharks. There's nothing better at being a shark than a shark. There's nothing better at being a book than a book. But a Kindle can make a very reasonable replacement for a bookshelf." I'm probably going to get rid of my dead tree books and replace them with PDFs or text…

Unlike Kindle, Amazon can’t shutdown your bookshelf

Re: Little magazines are back

#37

Post by OhMeadhbh »

d0mine wrote: post #36
OhMeadhbh wrote: post #24

So I just spent a week moving 60 linear feet of books and I'm done with dead trees. Neil Gaiman has a quote that goes something like "Books are like sharks. There's nothing better at being a shark than a shark. There's nothing better at being a book than a book. But a Kindle can make a very reasonable replacement for a bookshelf." I'm probably going to get rid of my dead tree books and replace them with PDFs or text…

Unlike Kindle, Amazon can’t shutdown your bookshelf

Kindle and Amazon are the same company.

Re: Little magazines are back

#38

Post by bluebarbet »

opan wrote: post #30
bluebarbet wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that we never really "owned" books. Put aside the mundane physical object and assume that a book is a work of culture, authored by somebody else. What can "own" possibly mean in this context? You don't somehow commandeer its copyright by gaining an indefinite right to consult it. The words "own" and "buy" and "sell" are fundamentally ill-suited to abstract quantities such as knowledge and information and id…

This is about how I feel when people discuss "owning" games, and GOG vs Steam. It's just data, you can make a backup or get someone else's, bypass DRM if needed, and you don't own the copyright either way. Interestingly, though, when you apply it to books here, I feel shocked and even a little resistant to the idea. Mostly because of the physical object you say to put aside, though. Similarly to games, it would feel…

>when you apply it to books here, I feel shocked and even a little resistant to the idea

As you should, but my comment takes "book" to mean the cultural object, encompassing non-physical (e-)books.

Re: Little magazines are back

#40

Post by goodmythical »

testfrequency wrote: post #31
goodmythical wrote: post #5

The zine scene's seen weak weeks, certainly, but the gritty ink stays distinct: a permanent link for those who think outside the precinct. It may wax and wane, but for any with an intention to mention the subversive soul, zines offer distinct impressions. I'd originally intended to simply argue that short form print never went anywhere and therefore had nowhere to return from, but I thought I'd take the opportunity t…

Fun write. As someone who contributes to a zine, goes to zine fests often, and has a lot of friends who do conventions with short form print - I agree. In general my opinion is the waves are more or less outsiders who stumble into it, or a certain IP, and they are introduced to a whole other medium they didn’t really experience. Unless of course, they frequent a very awesome local book store in their city with a dedi…

Thank you!

I'm sure there are surges around conventions featuring zines rather than focused on zines as well, right?

Can't remember the last Queer Pride event I attended that did not have many many zines. Hell, one of my gender affirming care clinics used to have an entire zine library in the waiting room.

Post reply on HN