7.01 The Chapbook: A
historical perspective.
The codex was first taken up
by the early Christians to distinguish their sacred texts from the parent
religion.[1]
The Torah is, we must remember, a scroll. In this form the codex, reproduced by
monastic orders with a painstaking process of hand copying, became the
repository of the Word of God - of sacred knowledge. This format of flat pages
attached along one edge was to become an advantage when 1400 years later
printing with moveable type was to revolutionise the production of multiple
copies and with it a profound shift in Western knowledge from the sacred to the
secular.[2]
The book form is at the core of Western civilisation and carries its past as a
profound cultural icon. Even an edition as slight as the Exploding Cinema
programme will carry echoes of this cultural heritage. The authority that the
tome conveys can have its parodic form, its reversal. The chapbook and pamphlet
always sought to undermine this symbolic authority and provide a rickety bridge
between the gentlemen of letters and the uncouth oral realm of popular culture.
One of the first mass
publications was the 18th century chapbook. The dimensions, pagination, lack of
separate cover, use of illustration and colloquial style all give the
programmes a close affinity with the chapbook.[3]
Chapbooks sold for a penny or less and contained songs, verses, histories,
jokes, riddles, sermons, dream interpretations and fairytales often illustrated
with woodcuts. This was the literature that many of the South London radicals
of the 1790s would have been raised on. They are likely to have been sold and
exchanged at Free 'n' Easies or meetings of debating societies such as the
London Corresponding Society.[4]
As I have noted these meetings would have happened in similar rooms at the back
of public houses to those currently used by Exploding Cinema shows. Such
traditions of independent media were known by members of the radical publishing
network of the late Sixties and early Seventies - the Underground Press and the
network of radical bookshops.
In the late Seventies the
punk ethos of D.I.Y. subculture and the introduction of cheap photocopiers gave
rise to the fanzine. This 'zine' format quickly proliferated into other areas.
Typically these consisted of several sheets of A4 copied both sides, which were
folded and stapled to give an A5 booklet. The layout of these productions was
typified by a rough-cut 'n' paste style, which showed little respect for
perpendicular layout or conventions of correct spelling. You didn't even need a
typewriter to publish and be damned.[5]
The recent introduction of photocopier technology
allowed a zine to be published in print runs of just two or three - so
virtually no capital outlay was needed. They became the most accessible
publishing form in the history of printed matter. Their rough-hewn aesthetic
carried connotations of freedom and access to the media. In the Mid-Eighties
zines proliferated amongst football fans and had a widespread influence.
The
importance of fanzines cannot be overstressed, both from the purely enjoyment
side of giving the fans a good laugh, their role in developing grass roots
consciousness in football and tackling issue that effect all fans, such as I.D.
cards, racism, sexism, property developers, the safety and comfort of fans and
the impact of the Taylor Report. (Richard Turner 1990 p81)[6]
The Exploding Cinema
programme belongs to this tradition of radical publishing. Before going on
to analyse the programmes as a whole, and a few examples in detail, I will
critically examine the conceptual tools available for such an analysis of
visual communication.
[1] C.H. Roberts & T.C. Skeat, The Birth of the
Codex (Oxford U.P. 1983)
[2] In 1500 churchmen had 24 major libraries whilst
lawyers had only one. By 1600 lawyers had 71 whilst the churchmen had just 21.
This shows the shift of power from the church to the secular. See Lucien Febvre
and Henri-Jean Martin, The Coming of the Book: the impact of printing
1450-1800 (Verso 1990 orig. 1958 p263)
[3] On early chapbooks see Tessa Watt, Cheap Print and
Popular Piety 1550-1640 (Cambridge
U.P. 1991 pp257-315). Chapbooks have been in circulation since that time.
Clifford Harper produced two for Working Press, The Unknown Deserter 28pp and An Alphabet 60pp (Both 1990).
[4] See, The Making of the English Working Class, E.P. Thompson, (Pelican, 1968, orig. 1963), for many
references to Corresponding Societies throughout Britain.
[5] See Notes from Underground: zines and the politics
of alternative culture, by Stephen
Duncombe, (Verso 1997) and Counter Intelligence, Zines, Comics, Pamphlets,
Flyers: catalogue of self published and autonomous print creations edited and published by Jason Skeet and Mark Pawson
(London 1995). Based on an exhibition in the 121 Centre, Brixton, London in
October 1994.
[6] Richard Turner was a fan and this was the first book
on football culture. In Your Blood: football culture in the late 1980's and
early 1990's, (Working Press 1990).