A Network and its Ephemera before the Internet: The Hidden Treasures and Clear Challenges of Apazines

Abstract

Subcultures produce many types of ephemera, and they often have linguistic conventions that accompany them. To those outside, words such as “minac,” “egoboo,” “annish,” and “akicif ” have little meaning, but they are all examples from a particular subculture’s ephemeral publication that even goes by a name that is obscure: the apazine. What is an apazine, why are they increasingly important, and how is this type of ephemeral material made accessible? These questions can be answered by looking at how apazines developed and the characteristics of the subculture of science fiction fandom that created them.

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