How to Be Alone 2
Bastian Fox Phelan
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bastian.fox.phelan@gmail.com
I bought this zine when I was last at Sticky Institute – and that was a long while ago. So I can’t help but find it amusing that the content of this zine covers subjects that have been on my mind very recently.
As you may have sorted out, this zine is the second installment in a series about being alone. There is no mistaking this as anything other than a perzine. Bastian talks about things like codependency, life after issue one (hinted at being about getting off Facebook, taking a break from dating, etc), and more. There’s also a side of the mystical with talking about past lives and ‘the north node’ (a new concept for me).
This zine doesn’t start out with an introduction but with a story about a bike accident. Like most people around an accident, I couldn’t help but pay attention. It’s like the start of the book. “This zine is the first I have made using just one arm” as a first line is an excellent hook that keeps me reading.
Even better, as you read, he refers to things written about in the first zine in a way that doesn’t confuse you but does make you want to get a copy of the first zine.
I find myself hoping that Bastian is doing writing in other ways as well. He definitely has a way with words and a writing style that I enjoy. I’ll be hunting down the first zine (and hoping for more).
Check it out.