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Title: To Publish
Author: Aragorn!
Date: Spring/Summer 2009
Language: en
Topics: AJODA #59, editorial
Source: AJODA #59.

Aragorn!

To Publish

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

— G. Carlin

If publishing is defined as the practice of putting ink onto paper and

then getting that into the hands of people, then publishing — and

anarchist publishing in particular — is on the ropes. While there are

arguably more anarchist books being published than at any time in

history, readership is shrinking. Anarchist publications, magazines,

newspapers, and journals, are nearly universally diminished. Infrequent

publishing schedules and decreased print runs indicate that the time for

print may be drawing to a close for anarchist periodicals.

The counter to this statement is that there has been a corresponding, if

not larger, rise in anarchist publishing on the Internet. But is this

actually the case? It depends on what you mean by publishing. On

Infoshop.org, the largest and longest-running anarchist publisher on the

web, it would be hard to find enough original anarchist content on the

news portion of the site (the most active portion) in a year to fill a

magazine. This is not a criticism but a statement about how

qualitatively different Internet publishing is than publishing a

newspaper or magazine, where reprints are the exception rather than the

rule.

So perhaps a broader definition of anarchist publishing is needed. If we

free publishing from paper and ink, then perhaps it can be seen as

healthier than it has ever been. These are halcyon days of discussions

about events halfway across the world, essays written just last weekend,

and salacious details that formerly would have taken years to uncover

about the heroes and villains of anarchodom. But what is lost in this

new world of constant information limited to screens; broadband network

connections; specialists of the digital arts of HTML, CMS, and image

manipulation?

Pacing, tactility, seduction, context, simplicity, clarity (copy-editing

and proofreading are beleaguered skills), beautiful writing, depth,

informed debate, and personal relationships to authors[1] are what has

been lost. And it is likely that these things aren’t coming back, not in

the anarchist or any other press. Moreover, there is a critical mass of

readers[2] who declare good riddance to retail pricing; long form

essays; specialization of authorship; editorship; slow publishing

schedules, and the amount of time it takes for periodicals to get to

print. People are no longer waiting on print and, by and large, print

publishers are fading away one by one.

Any publisher who wants to be relevant[3] today has to maintain a

presence on the Internet but the opposite also holds true. The move

towards digital publishing (as evidenced by the increasing number of

“pdf only” anarchist publications) and incapacity of an increasing

number of projects to even get their voice out into the world is a

demonstration of the bleak times ahead. Sure, there will be more words,

more stuff thrown against digital walls hoping to stick but mostly this

will not be noticed. At best a new kind of virtual elite (which already

exists and is in a kind of ownership of many of the anti-authoritarian

spaces) will nod in the direction of a text — and links will

proliferate. For about a week. Then it is on to the next thing, the next

faux-controversy, the next pleasure, the next distraction.

This is distinct from even the lowliest zine or the most fantastic,

critical anarchist magazine stuffed into the bottom of a traveler’s

pack. Ink on paper continues to contain the greatest possibility of

being rediscovered years from now, of finding a new audience.

Anarchist publishing in this century will have to come up with a

solution to a new problem that at this time seems more pernicious than

the suppression of publications in the last century. While it would seem

that the idea of living free of coercion would have to benefit from

being free from the burden of printing and distribution, this hasn’t

shown itself to be true. In an infinite marketplace of ideas even the

idea of freedom, of anarchy, becomes just another choice and not a

particularly inviting at that. The path is too lonely and fraught with

danger. It may seem unevident but the process of desiring anarchist

freedom, of articulating your desire for a different world while you are

under duress[4], is as much a part of the process of becoming an

informed, educated, life-long anarchist as is reading the words of the

grandfathers of anarchism, or the Anarchist FAQ.

The process of putting ink on paper and getting it to people who are

interested contains a full spectrum of experiences about how to actually

do something. How to turn good ideas (and half-assed notions) into

successes and failures on paper has a value of its own, different than

the accolades, dismissals, and misconceptions that result from getting

those ideas out into the world. The process of moving words on paper

from here to there, from me to you, is also the primary connection a

publisher has to the dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people who will

be the writers of the future, the magicians of anarchy today, the

comrades who may make things happen, and the best friends we will ever

have.

[1] The “author as hero” is rightfully criticized (and a puzzling

phenomenon for most anyone who has met an author or two). That said,

very few Internet writers bridge the gap that a Hunter S. Thompson or

Feral Faun does — few go from being someone who is read, to someone who

makes everything around them brighter.

[2] While these readers are overwhelmingly younger than 25, they are

speaking volumes about what the future of text, print, and reading will

look like.

[3] Whatever in the hell that means.

[4] It is a sad state of affairs that sitting in an office chair staring

at a screen is considered the easier option than reading a magazine on

the toilet, bus, or couch, but such is the state of affairs we are

confronted with.