Sure... (1 Viewer)

Is anyone familiar with Sure, the CB newsletter? I'm totally out of the loop on this thing. I know Runfola sold an almost complete run through PBA. Is it worth reading/owning?
 
Sure was a zine, and being pre-Internet, it was a cool thing. At the time.

Since then, of course, considerably more information has surfaced. So I'm not sure how compelling those old Sures would be. I have them here, I could look, but a lot of that old stuff just reruns the same handful of stories and factoids (that may have since been disproved or at least called into question).
 
I think that most of the long time buknet members own a few issues of Sure or a full run. Some good stuff in it, especially from a nineties (pre-internet) point of view.
I'd say: $10-12 per issue. Max.

(I just notice that mjp already posted his opinion. Agree.)

If you like to read more recent stuff on Buk, I'd go for the one and only issue of Buk Scene. I'm one of the editors. Few regular copies are still available.
Email: [email protected]
 
I think Mr. Smith printed a lot of copies of #1. Unlike most little mags or zines, #1 seems to be the most common issue of Sure. Some of the others are much harder to find.
 
My guess (uneducated) may be that he printed a lot of these with the hopes that it would be very in demand. When It did not sell, he lost bit of interest and printed less and less. I can see that happening. Bottle #1 & #2 sold better than the later issues. Strange as Bukowski did not appear until #3....
 
I think that most of the long time buknet members own a few issues of Sure or a full run.
I've got a pretty wide-ranging pile of stuff and I'd not heard of Sure until looking at this thread. For what that's worth, which is basically nothing. I should be writing something for work and perhaps I'm just keeping my typing skills up. :rolleyes:
 
Since then, of course, considerably more information has surfaced.
It's always interesting to see how people write about different aspects of Buk's life or work in essay form, though, even when they aren't revealing any new information. That being said, I've got a scan of the entire 5/6 issue but haven't really found it necessary to hunt down/purchase the rest, yet.

Russell Harrison's essay on Buk's letters did catch my eye, though (as in, the subject matter) . . . does anyone who's read it have an opinion? Any particularly valuable or original insights?
 
I don't remember anything about any Harrison pieces in Sure, but I did try to read his book. He is an academic and he writes like an academic, which means that any insight you find is going to be academic. Personally I find no interest (and certainly no insight) in academic writing, but I understand that a lot of people are turned on by all the big words and Latin phrases that academics use to describe what writers do. If fucking that dry hole appeals to you, Harrison won't disappoint.
 
Ha, oh dear, hit the old academic-writing-alarm. Should have been more clear - I'm already familiar with Harrison's work, his book of essays was, you're right, dry in parts but nothing I minded too much. He certainly approaches Buk from a necessarily limited, Marxist perspective but admits so in his introduction. Then, I'm in academia too (sign of the cross for my sins) . . . though I'm no fan of big words and complex jargon for their own sake, a habit which seems to be hastening the end of literary studies in at least some academic departments. Harrison's general style, must be somewhere in the middle . . . accessible enough for "anti-big-word-academics" like me but still too much of a dry hole for the honest, salt of the earth folk out there.

Still wondering about that essay on the letters in particular.
 

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