the hell is "samizdat?"

an old eastern bloc term!

wikipedia definition: it "was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader."

when these countries' governments implemented censorship on the press, it fell to the resourcefulness of everyday press to share ideas, popular or otherwise. it was impossible to use the main channels, as manual printing shops were all registered and traceable through font. so people used personal typewriters, copying works with carbon paper and tissue paper, secreting them away in book bindings and other unsightly places where the roving eye of control would not look. and eventually, the ragged nature of these little publishings became desirable in its own right - less polished, less practiced than the pre-approved writings of the institution.

the writings contained herewith may not be anything of revolutionary importance, but they are my own samizdat - the expression of certain things beyond the confines of a pre-approved network.