The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes #1
Amber Dearest
https://www.instagram.com/___pencilskirt/
https://totalbetty.bandcamp.com/
The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes #1 is an A6 black and white perzine about mental health, revisiting the past through zines, sobriety, and more.
Sometimes the zineverse gives you the zine you need to read when you need to read it.
The Triumph of Our Tired Eyes opens with a simple “Reasons to Live” on the inside front cover, which Amber provides with a ‘that’ll do’ in both words and tone. While this is a bit of an intense way to open a zine, I think it speaks to Amber’s writing style as well as being the right kind of tone to resonate with me with where I am in life and mental state right now.
From there Amber writes about a hot July night and how closing a door can mean much more than a closed door. They go on to write about lethargy, melancholy, and loneliness, feelings of being a burden on wonderful friends, and learning to accept things in life.
I identified with so much in this zine and love the way Amber wrote about it. Amber presents the situation and their thoughts without getting stuck in all the teeny tiny details. It’s sharing observations about not being okay without being preachy.
At one point, Amber writes: “I’m never sure if I should answer the question “How’s it goin’?” with perfect honesty.” I found myself nodding along (as someone who has taken to jokingly responding to that question with ‘honest answer or polite one’).
Aesthetically, this zine is very easy to read with primarily typed text. The handwritten elements are clear, and the cut and paste elements are used sparingly to emphasise. It fits the tone of the writing and content. If the reader of the zine is in that space as well, it’s a ‘calm’ zine visually speaking.
One addition I really liked is on the last page Amber added a note beginning with “If you’re a friend and you’re wondering how to support me”… There’s something really beautiful to me about that.
I think a lot of what I like about this zine is how much I identify with it from where I’m standing now. Admittedly, that isn’t the best place. In some things, I feel like Amber (albeit past Amber writing this zine) is a few steps further from where I am now. That in and of itself is rather intriguing, and maybe it’ll be the case for someone else, too.
I think even with current life elements influencing my perspective, this is a zine to check out for Amber’s distinct writing style and writing on subjects I think a lot of people can identify with.