Re US working class, I can't possibly answer, doubtless the speaker
could elaborate. She did outline how the daily conditions of the zine
writers' everyday lives, including their work (and financial
conditions), was a distinctive part of their subject-matter -- they did
jobs like waitressing, shop assistant (I don't know if it was
predominantly service not manufacturing) and further would often refer
to writing the copy at work, or producing the magazine on the firm's
xerox machine, etc., i.e. reclaiming the time of alienated labour for
creative productivity. They weren't university students. (I suppose
*some of them were ...) However they were all white, Marsh thinks.
Great that there are collections of 'alternative' publications in the
BL; not what people might expect. At the National Art Library, V&A, I
know we have some kind of representation of mail art, probably mostly
late (late 80s on) -- I'll have to find out more ... (Pace cris, it goes
on -- on Wed. Professor Hampson revealed that he still regularly
participates in mail art shows in Europe ...)
e
>I think, erh-hem, "working class" needs a bit of unpacking here,
especially
>in the context of the the shifts (or were they shifts?) from the 70s to
90s;
>also is US "working class" (a rather static, one-size-fits all
concept?) the
>same as UK "working class"? More materially, how do the US zines
identify
>themselves as coming from a working class context, and how might
British
>zines do that? (this may be a shibboleth question, the answer to which
is,
>"Well, if you don't know, you certainly aren't working class!" Thinks:
>Hmmmmm.)
>
>Richard
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