FOR THE LOVE OF IT?: ZINE WRITING AND THE STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY AMATEUR WORK A Dissertation by EMILY SARA HOEFLINGER Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Mary Ann O’Farrell Committee Members, Sally Robinson Giovanna Del Negro Joan Wolf Head of Department, Maura Ives May 2016 Major Subject: English Copyright 2016 Emily Sara Hoeflinger ABSTRACT In this project, I am examining zines in relation to the question of contemporary amateurism. With the onset of Web 2.0 came a space for new forms of amateur work, but this new work hasn’t been addressed as “amateur,” which has revealed a problem between what theorists know the amateur to be and what has been embraced by mainstream culture. This oversimplification of the definition of amateurism seems to threaten the integrity of amateur work in general. I analyze the concepts “transparency” and “distance” and show that both highlight the need for preserving the amateur. I confront the notion of “for the love it” by interrogating the boundaries that zine writers have established and the misperception that zine work somehow remains on the fringe of capitalist culture. Moreover, I identify the Pro Am (professional amateur) as the most significant contemporary amateur figure because it directly challenges not only what it means to be professional, but also what it means to be amateur. By examining perzines and glossies, I argue that while “for the love of it” has been downplayed or even ignored, internal rewards are still an important factor in what makes an act amateur and that external rewards don’t always have to be monetary. I argue that a better understanding of amateurism via the amateurs doing their work calls attention to the way that individuals are self-identifying as amateurs and shows that zine writers maintain the distance and transparency that is seen as a necessity of amateur work. ii I find that zine writers demonstrate this preservation of amateur space in successful ways until they are confronted with the issue of Pro Am work. It is at this point that they fail to embrace a diverse definition of amateur work, which is necessary to understanding what kind of space glossies occupy and how they are valuable to amateurism. The zine community ends up rejecting a body of publications that directly interact with and challenge professional magazine work. By alienating these publications, they lose out on the opportunity to alter the mainstream magazines their zines are working so hard to change. iii DEDICATION To Nana and Aunt Nat, two women who taught me the importance of education and instilled in me the love of reading. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. O’Farrell, and my committee members, Dr. Robinson, Dr. Del Negro, and Dr. Wolf, for their guidance and support throughout the course of this research. Thank you for pushing me to look further and seek more for this project. Thank you to the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History & Culture for the scholarship that allowed me the opportunity to spend a week mesmerized by decades of zine work. Thank you to the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University for a Graduate Stipendiary Award that allowed me to travel to Portland and Seattle to experience a vibrant, living zine community. Thank you to all of the zine libraries and archives out there for being here and for supporting these works and writers. Thank you to all of the zine writers who took the time to send me their zines and answer my questions. And, thank you for being bold, sassy folks, publishing their thoughts and lives in these publications. Thank you to my College Station Thursday night softball team for many years of games and good times. I don’t know how I would have made it through my time in Texas without you all. Thank you to my friends at the Blinn Writing Center. I truly enjoyed working with you all. Thank you for such a wonderful, positive space. Thank you to my Texas writing group, Emily Janda Monteiro, Sonya Sawyer Fritz, Sara Day, and Sarah Peters. It’s been a long time since we sat and read and talked, v but I learned so much in our meetings. Thank you to Sarah Spring for all of our Starbucks dates to write and struggle together. And thank you, especially to Emily for all of the support throughout this process. What it has meant to me is beyond words. Thank you to my Masters field hockey team for putting up with the tears and the uncertainty and for taking me back in and letting me heal. Thank you to Denise Venanzi for all those National Festival tournaments, for the beers and crab legs at The Red Parrot, for that last, big hug four years ago that healed a huge crack in my heart, and for being my eternal spirit of field hockey. We miss you every day, every game. Thank you to Beth Denmead and Todd Portsmore for pig roast, the hot tub and the Epsom salts. Thank you for inviting me to all those awesome field hockey tournaments, and especially for asking me to play in New York with PHUN. Thank you to all of my NY teammates, as well, for helping me to find my competitive field hockey self once more. Thank you to Erin Brandt and Amy Cavanaugh for hosting me on all of my many trips up and back between NJ and TX. Thank you to Rhonda, my old Nissan, for twelve trips and over 130,000 miles, and to McDonalds for getting better coffee. Thank you to Amiee Ross for giving me one of the most interesting jobs I’ve ever had. You took in a very scattered person and showed her patience and self care. You are a fabulous, kind human being. I am grateful for you. Thank you to DKG for supporting my work, for supporting my teaching, and for being wonderful, smart people. vi Thank you to Christ Episcopal Church for being my spiritual home and for allowing me the space to find peace, and to Father Stephen for being such a welcoming and generous spiritual leader. Thank you to all of my Writing Center folks from Montclair State. I still remember the conference table writing sessions, Bob, and what the center looked like after Kris and Andrew’s night shift. Thank you to Balls Deep, my trivia crew, for complete and utter inanity, and especially to Kris and Anne for our Devil’s games and for true friendship. Thank you to the Montclair State First Year Writing Program and all of my amazing co-workers. You all inspire me to think, to write, and to challenge myself. I appreciate you all checking in on me when I was hiding away. Thank you to coffee for everything and to booze for what the coffee couldn’t handle. Thank you to my family members and friends, who have listened and sympathized, and never let me get down on myself. You did your best to understand me when you could and support me when you couldn’t. Thank you especially to Stephanie O’Keefe, Cathie Ressland, and Joe Wilson for the constant flurry of texts about life and whatnot, for making me laugh, and for being best friends. Thank you to my brother-in-law, Sven, the best brother-husband ever. I am grateful for all of your help moving me, and all of my books, and for repairing all the things I manage to mangle in my apartment. I am lucky to not only have gotten a brother-in-law, but a friend. vii Thank you to my nieces, Bree and Krista, for being you. Thank you to my sister, Rebecca, for being my best friend for my whole life, for all of those awesome clothes in middle school, for being the first child, for letting me cry—really cry, for having the kids, and for punching—literally or figuratively—anyone who hurt me. May there be many more races to run, games to play, cookies to bake, parties to throw, and beach days to enjoy. And finally, thanks to my parents, who have shouldered most of the burden that was me during this work. I know it wasn’t easy watching me go through this, especially when I was so far away from home. Thanks to my dad for being my voice of reason, for helping me when I was too proud to ask, for sailing in the summer, for buying me gluten-free everything so I can eat at home with the family, for listening to me even though I know it drove you crazy, and for all of the good advice. And thanks to my mom for reading this dissertation repeatedly, for saying the things I didn’t really want to hear even when you knew it wouldn’t be well-received, for talking me out of quitting every single time, and for being a constant source of intellectual and emotional support. I love you both, and I know I wouldn’t have gotten where I have without you. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………….. ii DEDICATION…………………………………………………………………….. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS…………………………………………………………. v TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………... ix CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: THE STATUS OF ZINE WRITING AND AMATEUR WORK……………………………………………….. 1 What are zines? ................................................................................. 4 Why zines? ........................................................................................ 9 Defining “amateur”……….………………………………………... 12 Transparency and the Pro Am…………...…………………………. 50 Distance and preserving the contemporary amateur……………….