V. VALE
Interview with the man behind RE/Search Publications
2004
Since 1977 V. Vale has been documenting underground culture, first in his punk zine Search and Destroy, and since 1980 in his RE/Search series -- collections of lengthy conversations with such artists and provocateurs as Jello Biafra, William S. Burroughs and Bob Flanagan. Covering everything from punk and feminist culture to the zine and body modification phenomena to promoting "obscene" books like Octave Mirbeau's The Torture Garden and J.G. Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition, RE/Search flinches from nothing society has to cough up. For many reasons, chief among them a desire not to be screwed by corporations, Vale's books are not available in Borders or Barnes & Noble but only through the website researchpubs.com and assorted independent outlets. Long a fixture in cultural movements around San Francisco, Mr. Vale was called "the underground's answer to Studs Terkel" by the Washington Post.
WILL VON RATBLOOD: So, Allen Ginsberg gave you money to start Search and Destroy?
V. VALE: My first job was at City Lights books, and that enabled me to meet everyone who was a so-called Beat. I found out afterwards he'd done that maybe hundreds of times. If he thought people were doing a worthwhile project, he'd give them cash.
What was your introduction to the punk scene?
Before working at City Lights, I was an English major at Berkeley. There I became exposed to the underground. Back then Asians were very conservative; there were no Asians in the underground.
What is the essence of your technique?
The key to everything is reading. In my mind the only thing worth being in this world is an artist -- everyone is at some level. What I try to do in my interviews is to communicate the thrill of learning, of discovery. One of my founding theses of publishing is that everyone is an artist. Any kindergarten in the world you to, kids are creating everything under the sun. Then later, somehow, that all goes away.
How would you describe what you do?
I'm not really a journalist and I hate being called one. I consider myself a combination of an amateur historian and an amateur anthropologist. And I try to be as nonjudgmental as possible with everyone I interview. The only point for me is to document thinking, and important people who are under-documented.
How many books have you published?
About thirty titles total, plus the eleven tabloids I did. Search and Destroy was a tabloid, every aspect of it was planned and yet it was done with almost no money. "Zine" -- the word didn't exist back then. I never liked the word; it's kinda pejorative. I prefer to call them publications -- that's a neutral word without value judgments. I'm one who is very finicky about the vocabulary I choose to use....I'm very cognizant of how much respect is important...there's no such thing as too much respect...especially when you're doing counterculture work, the powers that be want to denigrate you...
What is your favorite book?
One of my favorite books of all time -- the single most important artist of the twentieth century is Duchamp; he had the most ideas that affected me -- is a book called Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp. And someone [Pierre Cabanne] engaged him in some long conversations, and took the time, and transcribed them into book form. Duchamp wouldn't have done that....My favorite books are interview books...they should just be known as conversations...I'd rather do a conversation; and the holy grail is trying to get someone to talk about an area they haven't talked about much, or thought about...I have an emphasis on ideas or concepts more...
Of those you've interviewed who are some standouts?
I probably had to do the least amount of editing ever on J.G. Ballard and Burroughs. That's all they do -- they write, they talk, they read. And I think everyone should be a writer too. I don't see how anyone can become himself without being a writer. At least keep a journal or something.
What of punk?
Punk was the last international, naïve art movement that was also cultural and political rebellion. In every aspect of what you call art, it was original. There were a million things I saw that weren't recorded; things that people wore for example -- tearing up clothing, writing things on it -- then they wore it once and never again. Those who were lucky enough to be there, it had to do with collective euphoria, you were having the most fun ever in your life....Back then no one knew what it was...there was no blueprint...we just knew we were all sick of what had happened with the previous underground, the hippie movement...I would say in the first two years no one called himself a punk...A lot of us were very poor...we had to be creative with no money. That's part of why people started giving each other haircuts....For a brief time we seemed to be outside of capitalism...outside of those interactions...
What would you say you're trying to do?
We're working toward the Hegelian goal of more consciousness for more people.
What will be the next RE/Search publication?
A book of interviews with J.G. Ballard, the William Burroughs of England. Burroughs was and remains my favorite writer of the twentieth century. I did a book on Burroughs and put him in Search and Destroy. And David Lynch -- right after we saw "Eraserhead" we found him, gave him one of his first interviews and put him in Search and Destroy. Burroughs and Ballard are on another level, they're so amazing in their thinking. They give you so much.
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