Headpress Guide to the Counter Culture: A Sourcebook for Modern Readers [Anglais] [Broché]

Overviews alternative culture by reviewing its literary legacy. Hundreds of book and zine reviews. An indispensable sampling of the vast assortment of publications which exist as an adjunct to the mainstream press, or which promote themes and ideas that may be defined as pop culture, alternative, underground or subversive. Sections of Guide to the Counter Culture are devoted to books on cult film, music and the esoteric, comics and graphics, cutting-edge fiction and an unusual array of periodicals. Overviews alternative culture by reviewing its literary legacy. An indispensable sampling of the vast assortment of publications which exist as an adjunct to the mainstream press, or which promote themes and ideas that may be defined as pop culture, alternative, underground or subversive. Sections of GUIDE TO THE COUNTER CULTURE are devoted to books on cult film, music, comics, graphics, cutting-edge fiction and an unusual array of periodicals. Updated and revised from the pages of Headpress journal, this is an enlightened and entertaining guide to the counter culture by way of its books and zines, with contact information accompanying each review so that readers may find out more.

In depth and entertaining reviews An excellent sourcebook for a wealth of publications both mainstream and small press Ideal reference tool for readers familiar with pop culture and those seeking an introduction Places the contemporary small press and pop culture literary scene in historical context Includes contact information for each publication reviewed Comparable to Russ Kick’s Psychotropedia (also published by Headpress) but with more opinionated reviews and a greater emphasis on the historical context of the small press Publishers Headpress have been at the forefront of pop culture writing for over ten years Subject matter will appeal to a broad cross section of interests, and includes cult film, music, graphic art, photography, comics, fiction, adult, crime and the occult Pop Culture readers, i.e. fans of Disinfotainment, Apocalypse Culture, Loompanics, Amok, etc Readers interested in the small press Because of the contact info listed, will appeal to writers seeking publishers Sourcebook for libraries

A turbulent upbringing in the American south has givenTemple Drake an acute knowledge of sex, religion and death, making her eminently qualified to select reviews from the last ten years of Headpress for this Guide to the Counter Culture. David Kerekes is the editor/publisher of Headpress journal, and coauthor of the acclaimed books Killing For Culture and See No Evil.

Modern Counter Culture by Temple Drake & David Kerekes

Counter culture. A catchall expression for the alternative or underground society that the hippies were hoping to create in the late sixties, a society removed from that of the mainstream with its own set of values. This book doesn’t attempt to chart a timeline of the counter culture, rather it free-falls through it by way of the vast assortment of publications which exist as an adjunct to the mainstream press, or which promote themes and ideas that may be defined as pop culture, alternative, underground or subversive. Guide to the Counter Culture is a book of reviews. Independent to one another these reviews are an informed and fascinating look at a tiny fraction of the material bubbling beneath the surface of popular culture; taken collectively they trace the underground through its printed legacy. The majority of publications in this book were printed — or have seen a reprint — in the last decade. It is a guidebook firmly and unashamedly entrenched in contemporary society, offering a comparative review of modern pop culture but without losing sight of its heritage. If this book is something of an eclectic mix, it is because there exists no clear signposts. By including arguably borderline works, ones that can perhaps be assigned to genre and oeuvre, Guide to the Counter Culture is contributing to the ebb and flow of its ill-defined boundaries. That is the nature of the transmogrifying beast. In these pages you will find coverage of Beat authors alongside S&M erotica, luminary artists alongside the production-line superheroes of DC and Marvel, hand produced booklets of severely limited numbers alongside full colour oversize coffee table tomes, tie-in books on Hollywood blockbusters alongside biographies of no-budget renegade filmmakers. Readers will note that there aren’t any specific discourses on the grandmasters and major shakers of counter cultural writing. (An obit for William S Burroughs was scheduled to appear but we ran out of room.) Indeed there aren’t any specific discourses on anything. Guide to the Counter Culture instead acknowledges that counter-literature took a major turn with the publication of Amok’s Apocalypse Culture in 1987, a compendium that brought together essays on all manner of disparate, dangerous and plain weird ideas. This type of material certainly wasn’t invented with the publication of Apocalypse Culture; rather the book pulled it all together in the right place at the right time, giving a focus and direction to the cultural shift hanging in the air. Apocalypse Culture was the tip sheet for a diseased world. With it came the celebration of the serial killer, unrepentant necrophiles and marginalia slipping into a wider consciousness. A small, but influencing flurry of like-minded titles soon appeared courtesy of new independent publishing houses. Amongst these were titles like Pranks!(RE/Search), The Manson File (Amok) and Rants and Incendiary Tracts (Amok/Loompanics). Book catalogues from left-field publishers and distributors became defining works in their own right, most notably Amok: Fourth Dispatch and the Loompanics Unlimited: Main Catalogue. The first issue of Headpress journal appeared in 1991, carrying the subtitle "Bizarre culture, deviant conceptions, cinematic extremes". Unlike the above publications, which all heralded from the US, Headpress was UK based. Whilst often promoting darker cultural ideas, the debut issue also carried an article by co-editor David Kerekes that pondered the state of post Apocalypse literature and its increasingly familiar figureheads, lamenting on the fact that the dark milieu was already out of steam and moving in circles. Thankfully the counter culture can’t stay put for long. Assimilated into the mainstream — which often remains oblivious to all but the most prurient aspects — its roots have been forced to stray further into the cracks and crannies of popular society. And so low art and high art meet in the middle, where disposable culture is big money and major publishing houses can apply an academic veneer to subjects that once fell way below the critical radar. With the exception of two reviews (The Complete Crumb Comics and Headpress 23) all the material in this book originally appeared in Headpress 13 through to 24. The former was the first edition on which Kerekes acted as sole editor/publisher and the latter happened to be most recent when the wheels began to roll on Guide to the Counter Culture. All the reviews have been updated for inclusion in this book, with added notes on any significant developments since the material first appeared. Finally, a big thank you to the reviewers whose writing has graced the pages of Headpress (and now this book). It wouldn’t have been possible without you. Really. David Kerekes & Temple Drake Manchester, England April 12, 2004