Zine Revue 04

And just like that, it's the end of January! Here are some more zines I've been reading:

Title: Work

Author: Anarchist Federation/Red and Black Leeds

Category: Politics

A well-structured pamphlet that advances a critique of work and a series of escalating direct action strategies workers can use to resist exploitation in the workplace. I picked this up knowing I would agree with its general idea, but found the practical side of what to do about these issues really clear-eyed; it also doesn't fall into the quagmires other left or anti-work critiques do when faced with self employment, sex work, unpaid reproductive labor, unemployed people etc. These ideas are always what most get my gears spinning thinking of how tantalizingly close a better world can be, and I feel the powerful solidarity of all people slacking off at work to do the things they actually care about. I was happy to see the essay Wageless Life get a shoutout, which I also enjoyed when I read it. (Not to be confused with the book of the same title, which I had more complicated thoughts about...)

Title: 5 Prose Fictions For A.I.R. - To be read, but not out loud...

Author: Lucy Lippard

Category: Fiction

I really liked Lucy Lippard's novel when it was republished a few years ago, and before that her curatorial and academic work on Conceptual Art was super influential on me. This is a recreation of a pamphlet from 1976 featuring copied drafts of some short prose pieces, but the conceptual eye for appropriation and recombination, of text from horoscopes, descriptions of scientific phenomena, nature imagery and first person narration with subtly unfolding scenes or character details that also made I see/You mean really interesting is all here. I enjoyed NY Times IV and First Fables of Hysteria the most.