The medium is the message. Or,
more certainly, a major part of it. Anybody who owns a book shelf lined with
books on fly fishing subjects knows this to be true.
There is a satisfying,
timeless quality expressed through the tactile, printed book or angling
periodical. An authenticity that cannot be duplicated online, & a simplicity
of operation that can’t be duplicated digitally. You can take hard copy with
you anywhere, no power source required. You open the cover & turn the
pages. Nothing simpler. Maybe I’m just a Luddite, but everything I’ve ever done
online I had to learn, always with an expenditure of time seemingly disproportionate
to some small entertainment. Also, unless one is reading by candlelight, a book
page will not ruin your eyes as a PC screen surely will.
And you get to keep hard copy
& refer back to it, any time you want. You can lend it out, give it as a
gift, or pass it around, as you please. If your PC crashes the hard copy will
be unaffected.
So what is the advantage of
reading online? Cheaper than hard copy? Well, I think not. Considering the cost
of digital equipment, monthly carrier fees & subscriptions, & if time
be money, considering the extra time at the screen ruining your eyes while
trying to figure out what buttons to push. Not to mention that seemingly ‘free’
online media like YouTube or Facebook are making their money examining our
likes & dislikes & selling us to advertisers, some of them darker
syndicates garnering as much about our lives as they can. Do you receive a
constant barrage of spam & scammers on your cell-phone & PC? Sure you
do. We all do. And much of that is a result of our online media consumption.
We’re not getting anything for free. That free media we’re consuming is often
the attractive front for what is actually a mining operation.
Also, more subtly, speaking
for myself here, I find a hectic, frenetic quality to online media – as opposed
to the relaxation & satisfaction one gets from reading hard copy – a diaphanous,
fuzzy quality to digital info, very little of it abiding firm in the brain
cabinet. Admittedly, that might just be me. I realize there is a whole
generation that lives a major portion of their lives viewing online media, so
immersed in the frenetic Cloud that they don’t notice it, or simply don’t
experience it the same as I.
Often, in our rush to get
onboard with the latest & greatest thing, discarding the “old”, we throw
out the baby with the bath water. Something important gets lost. Fortunately,
after the novelty of something new wears off, humans eventually find its
utilitarian balance. So, now I’m perceiving a trend: Many of us are searching
for the proverbial lost baby. Including those who’ve grown up online, & my
digital generation flat-brimmed sons inform me that is true. Certainly not an
overriding trend (yet), but a discernable trend away from time & info stealing
“screen time”.
This is not to say there isn’t
good fly fishing media online. For example, casting videos are a lot more
helpful than casting instruction given in print. And, to be fair, there are
online publications offering good content. Sparse Grey Matter & Swing The
Fly are a couple that come to mind. There are also good & useful forums, Flymph Forum & Spey Pages come to mind. And many have written to tell me they enjoy
Soft~Hackle Journal. Yet be that as it may be, I don’t think print media will
be going away any time soon.
The timeline of the world is
continuous & connected as one. The notion of “old” or “outdated” is mostly
bullshit foisted on us by those having something to gain by perpetrating such a
lie, salient only to perishable foodstuffs. The increasing popularity of bamboo fly rods
waggles in the face of that silly notion. Not to mention the millions of us
pining for a simpler time, or actually creating simpler, more self-reliant
lives.
In my capacity as a guide
& writer, I’ve been canvassing my clients & readers for some years now,
in an effort to discern their reading habits. Results are nearly unanimous: All
say they prefer quality print over digital. Favorite magazine content is
well-written literary stories; useful fly tying & how-to articles; &
art. I was initially surprised to learn readers prefer art over photography. But then, photos are so prevalent in media
that it takes a truly exceptional photo to approach the soul & emotion
expressed in fine artwork.
There’s usually a reason for
most things: Regular SHJ readers have probably noticed I’ve not posted here for
quite awhile. Forgive me. All of my writing time this past year has gone toward
completion of a book, Trout Spey &
The Art Of The Swing, due to be released in June. That doesn’t mean
I’ve dropped Soft~Hackle Journal. To the contrary. But truth is, the blog site has degraded
& the host, also under attack from info miners, seems to have some
difficulty in keeping the site secure. A vector[s] took over the comment
section of this blog, stole my password & somehow took over as administrator
& made it so I could not sign in to comments, & the comment section
filled with foreign (dark web bots?), & then an entity came up in the comments
claiming to be a security business that would effectively remove the other vectors for a price! The comment
section of the SHJ blog actually held hostage! I had to remove the comment
section altogether as a result. I won the war but lost a piece of the blog.
Lets get real. Lest we
devolve further toward a dystopia resembling a Blade Runner landscape.
For my part, I’ve decided to
take the Soft~Hackle Journal to a (scam proof) print quarterly, embodying those
favorite reader elements mentioned above: Fine art; useful fly tying &
how-to articles; literary stories that push the boundaries of the genre. Zen simple. The same neoclassic values as the
SHJ blog, yet no longer a one-man show. We’re in the process of assembling a
stellar crew of staff writers, some old, well-loved & respected voices, as
well as some fresh voices whose time has come. All hard-core fishing kids at
the top of the game. If any ads they will be confined to the back page, &
only those we feel offering goods or services benefitting our readers would be
considered. Print SHJ will be deeply rooted in the authentic tradition (The
Archive Of What Worked) of our game. If you like classic & neoclassic flies
& gear, you’ll like print SHJ.
Print Soft~Hackle Journal
will not be the floppy, stapled, ad rag too many are, it will be square-backed
& worthy of archiving on a book shelf. Dimensions will be the more compact,
reader-friendly 9” x 7” dimensions popular in the early last century (still
popular in Scandinavia), yet satisfyingly fat
with content.
Putting ducks in a row,
planning to release the first issue, Spring, in late winter 2023. We are open
to submissions now. Payment based on word length & quality of the piece. We
are particularly interested in fine art & creative memoir or fiction that
stretches the genre. Also poetry if it is very good. If you are a new writer
looking to break into print, we would love to see something from you. Submissions
should be sent as Word doc, 12pt, Times New Roman font, 1-inch page margins.
Photos should be at least 1 MB for reproduction.
If you would like to submit
or comment on any of this, email submissions & correspondence to: Steven
Bird, columbiatrout@sbcglobal.net.