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Andrew (bookseller era)

This was all pretty Stream of Consciousness last night. Let me try again a little more coherently.

1 Oct 2022 at 11:46 | Open on retro.social
18 comments
Andrew (bookseller era)

Last night, a friend of a friend came by the makerspace and suggested the book Jamming the Media to me.

He's a cool dude! But he's not always exactly coherent, you know? So I didn't know if I should give any salt to this recommendation.

It was published in 1997, and written by Gareth Branwyn.

A cursory glance at the book online made it look like the kind of coffee table drek you'd get at a barnes and noble in 2009, but it had all the right words on it.

I looked up the author, and he has the street cred:

- Published his own Zine "Going Gaga" which was well reviewed and circulated widely
- Became a contributor to bOING bOING when that was still a print publication
- Editorial Director at Make
- Wrote for Wired
- Author of the Happy Mutant Handbook

Basically 1) exactly the kind of guy I should know about and 2) one of the only voices from that era of computing worth listening to about the media?

But I'd never heard of him. Somehow this guy has completely missed my radar.

He's still a regular boingboing contributor, I read things he's written on a regular basis, I just missed his name?

So I found a copy of the book from the internet archive and checked out the digital edition, which I've been reading in their incredibly frustrating web viewer because I don't want to fuck with Adobe Digital Edition DRM.

Last night, a friend of a friend came by the makerspace and suggested the book Jamming the Media to me.

He's a cool dude! But he's not always exactly coherent, you know? So I didn't know if I should give any salt to this recommendation.

It was published in 1997, and written by Gareth Branwyn.

A cursory glance at the book online made it look like the kind of coffee table drek you'd get at a barnes and noble in 2009, but it had all the right words on it.

1 Oct 2022 at 11:54 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

I ordered a copy of the book. It'll be here in 3 or 4 days.

In the meantime, the book reads like something out of my own head. He's quoting the authors I quote. He's referencing the movements I reference (he's skipping some! Information about, for example, The Videofreex, was basically impossible to find in the 90s and up to the point I am in the book now he hasn't mentioned them even though it would be natural to do so, so I have to assume he had not heard of them at that point.)

Apologies for the text screenshots, but here are some samples of this book against a thing I wrote when I first joined Mastodon.

(see my thing at ajroach42.com/diy-media/)

I ordered a copy of the book. It'll be here in 3 or 4 days.

In the meantime, the book reads like something out of my own head. He's quoting the authors I quote. He's referencing the movements I reference (he's skipping some! Information about, for example, The Videofreex, was basically impossible to find in the 90s and up to the point I am in the book now he hasn't mentioned them even though it would be natural to do so, so I have to assume he had not heard of them at that point.)
1 Oct 2022 at 12:05 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

There's some clunky terminology floating around in there, but for the most part it is, so far, just a bunch of solid advice and personal anecdotes about the power of media, and the potential of technology to influence and create change.

I'm going to try to get through another chapter on the IA reader, and then wait on the paperback.

1 Oct 2022 at 12:07 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

Anyway, this is what happens when I sit and discuss #newellijayTV // #netv with people.

He's prepping a horror film, and working on getting permission (or not!) to shoot scenes inside baby land general (the horrific cabbage patch doll museum a few miles up the road.)

I met him through my friend Peg, who plays an elf on She Hulk (among other things.)

I'm surrounded by talented people itching to make something.

1 Oct 2022 at 12:09 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

"Only an estimated 23% of American Households have access to the internet"

Really puts the time period in perspective.

1 Oct 2022 at 12:25 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

It's cute how the author of this book is both 1) super right about a lot of trends and things that are coming down the pipe, 2) entirely oblivious to a lot of things that happened before.

Several of the things I'm reading here expect a certain amount of foreknowledge, but the author (and his editors) misstate a few details here and there in a way that implies that they are about as familiar with the source material as I am about the quote from that person that references Ulysses, but admits to having never read Ulysses..

It's cute how the author of this book is both 1) super right about a lot of trends and things that are coming down the pipe, 2) entirely oblivious to a lot of things that happened before.

Several of the things I'm reading here expect a certain amount of foreknowledge, but the author (and his editors) misstate a few details here and there in a way that implies that they are about as familiar with the source material as I am about the quote from that person that references Ulysses, but admits to having...

1 Oct 2022 at 12:44 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

I don't mean that in a disparaging way. It's cute. It's endearing. It makes the book feel like a blog post or a zine, rather than a work of nonfiction to come out of a major publishing house, and that's part of the charm.

Yes, McLuhan did write a book called "The Medium is the Massage"

He *also* wrote a book called "The Medium is the Message"

and saying "McLuhan's famous book is actually called The Medium is the Massage" is ... not untrue, exactly? But it implies that you've only read one and not the other.

And the other is worth reading!

I don't mean that in a disparaging way. It's cute. It's endearing. It makes the book feel like a blog post or a zine, rather than a work of nonfiction to come out of a major publishing house, and that's part of the charm.

Yes, McLuhan did write a book called "The Medium is the Massage"

He *also* wrote a book called "The Medium is the Message"

1 Oct 2022 at 12:46 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

And even as I write that, I realize that I'm also wrong.

The Medium is the Message is the first chapter in Understanding Media.

The Medium is the Massage is the followup.

Regardless, The Medium is the Massage is the pop-art version of Understanding Media, and one without the other is still silly.

1 Oct 2022 at 12:50 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

And, ultimately, none of it matters.

Nothing the author says here is factually incorrect. It's a little reductionist, but it's not a scholarly work on the history of media theory, it's a quick survey of media theory before getting in to ideas about making media.

As a quick survey, summing up McLuhan as something like "yeah, the medium is the message, which means that the medium touches and transforms the message, which is why the book is called The Medium is the Massage" is fine.

There's enough meat there that anyone who cares can go dig in to the referenced texts in more detail, and there's enough actual summation there that most people don't need to go read McLuhan. That'll slow them down. They need to tell a story now, right now, using the tools on hand, regardless of the quality.

And, ultimately, none of it matters.

Nothing the author says here is factually incorrect. It's a little reductionist, but it's not a scholarly work on the history of media theory, it's a quick survey of media theory before getting in to ideas about making media.

As a quick survey, summing up McLuhan as something like "yeah, the medium is the message, which means that the medium touches and transforms the message, which is why the book is called The Medium is the Massage" is fine.

1 Oct 2022 at 12:56 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

Spend less time reading theory and more time making shit (I say to myself as I read a book of theory instead of making shit.)

1 Oct 2022 at 12:56 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

But look, it's like this:

I make a lot of shit. I'm making a lot of shit with a lot of people. I'm leading a group of people who are making shit, and I'm hoping to turn that group of people in to a movement of lots of groups of people making lots of shit.

And that means that I need to read some theory sometimes, if only so I can try and avoid the mistakes or recreate the successes of the past.

1 Oct 2022 at 12:57 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

Under the head Conspiranoids, Branwyn is the first Media Theorist I've read to actually Engage with the way the far right has capitalized on DIY media.

Even if the rest of this book was just retreading ground that other theorists have explored, this frank discussion of the right wing conspiracy theorist movement, and the power of their alternative media to create a break with consensus reality is worth the price of admission.

That's not the core of the book, or even a Major feature. It's just a thing that's discussed and addressed. It's good that that thing is discussed and addressed.

Under the head Conspiranoids, Branwyn is the first Media Theorist I've read to actually Engage with the way the far right has capitalized on DIY media.

Even if the rest of this book was just retreading ground that other theorists have explored, this frank discussion of the right wing conspiracy theorist movement, and the power of their alternative media to create a break with consensus reality is worth the price of admission.

1 Oct 2022 at 13:09 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

Nothing sets the time period in which this book was written more clearly than this:
1 Oct 2022 at 13:14 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

The book is talking about a zine directory called Factsheet Five.

I'd never heard of F5 before, but it appears to have been very influential in the early days.

I wonder if it (or a decedent) is still around?

1 Oct 2022 at 13:40 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

Sounds like I need to find some more info on this Lancaster guy.

We fought hard to learn how to bind books ourselves. Lots of trial and error.

I wish I had a tutorial from a 90s Zinester when I started down that road. Maybe there's still things I can learn.
1 Oct 2022 at 13:49 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

(I was supposed to stop reading a while ago, but I keep going because I'm fascinated. I guess that's the mark of a good book.)

1 Oct 2022 at 13:50 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

Now they're talking about a self published book called Cigarette Boy.

I found some photos in this Adafruit blog review (even though I've soured on adafruit themselves, I appreciate the review)

blog.adafruit.com/2021/04/28/c

It looks Beautiful, and I hope to encounter a copy (or a reprint or a scan) at some point in the near future.

1 Oct 2022 at 13:54 | Open on retro.social
Andrew (bookseller era) replied to Andrew (bookseller era)

Now they're talking about the Tape Beatles

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tape

Their works make extensive use of materials appropriated from various sources through a process they call "Plagiarism®".

Apparently their logo was the AT&T globe with mickey mouse ears.

I can't find it online, go figure.

1 Oct 2022 at 14:02 | Open on retro.social
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