I have a lot of bitchier ways I've thought about saying this over the last few months but let me try saying this the Nice Way:
I got out to a big zine fest here in Seattle today! It was great! one of my favorite things is getting art direct from people just producing small scale, small print run works of art. we ended up spending quite a bit of money, kind of splurging in a way I just don't normally do. but here's the thing about that: I don't think we ended up spending more than, say, two AAA games cost. and just now I was like ok so a night at the movies, though, surely that's still, like, less than a AAA game, right? ha ha oh man. not if Sarah and I wanted to go to our local AMC! forget about "dinner and a movie" lol. but ok, so, two AAA games or two nights out at a mainstream (not second run or arthouse) movie theater. I leave comparing this to the price of Netflix or Disney Plus to your imagination.
I've seen some... weird assertions on here that it just doesn't matter where you spend your money. that money's not going to be life changing for either, say, JK Rowling or for the independent artist you'd give that money to instead, right?
where on earth do people get this idea from?
it kinda seems when you say something like that that you just don't... understand how money works? or the disproportional positive impact that even some portion of the cost of a AAA game or blockbuster theatergoing experience can have on the life of a working artist? cause let me tell you, what we spent today is a real significant percentage of the money we have coming in. should I also compare that money to what groceries cost now? I just... yeah I guess it's not going to matter that much to Scott Cawthorn if you decide to give your money to Scott Cawthorn instead of me or Sarah or any of our friends who rely on day jobs and/or! welfare to support their art. but uh! it matters to us, actually!
and, I don't know, is it really so totally morally neutral to spend all your money on giant corporations that union bust and lay off their workers? or rich shitheads who funnel their wealth into oppressing queer people? there's all these alternatives out here, people whose work IS actually pretty consistently under threat, in a real way, from censorship both organized (i.e. book bannings) and structural (having to give up on art because it just doesn't pay unless you're approaching it like a venture capitalist with existing seed capital). and it's good art too, god dammit. don't try to tell me someone's weird zine art is harder on the eyes than the unfinished, out of focus special effects Marvel is shoving into their movies now because they believe they have a perpetual captive audience!
anyway we got several works of queer erotica, a short book about a christian anarchist immigrant sect in Canada, a free newsprint magazine (Scarfff! they have a patreon!), the first two issues of an ongoing adaptation of a Russian fairy tale, an imported and translated collection of an indie manga author's sort sci fi stories, experimental horror shorts based off the author's experience in a highly regimented religious school, and a few things I genuinely don't know how to describe or categorize. oh and some stickers and bookmarks too. it's a really good and exciting haul!
to me, that's money well spent.
just some food for thought.
