FFR 196
"The task of a marginalia maven is at right angles to the task of reading a book: It is an attempt to read the reader rather than to read the writer. For several decades now, scholars have been swarming the margins of books in dead people’s librar1ies." – Andrew Ferguson, "Nixon Between the Lines," The Atlantic, October 2023, p. 21.
From the Editor's Esurient Pen: A Prolegomenon to Our Avian Opus
Oh, Gentle Readers, and you, my Reluctant Subscribers (for such is the bittersweet ambrosia of our peculiar bond), it is from this very spot, nestled within the embrace of my corn-colored, classic British corduroy pantaloons from the venerable Peter Christian Outfitters, and adorned, with a perhaps regrettable but undeniably democratic spirit, by a Donald Duck T-shirt, that my thoughts, like migratory birds in the autumn, turn inward, toward the very crucible of their own uncomfortable gestation. A sinus headache, alas, of no trifling magnitude, currently holds court within the delicate filigree of my cranium, its throbbing a leitmotif to this morning's intellectual ballet. A heady potpourri, mind you, of daytime cold and flu medicaments, chased down with the saccharine tartness of raspberry lemonade, all commingled with the peripatetic, indeed, almost phrasal melody of my neighbor's accordion medley, conspire to distract me, to deflect my peregrinations of memory as I strive to reconstruct the very primum mobile that propelled this latest incarnation of the Fowl Feathered Review into the unforgiving light of day. Was it, one ponders with a certain rueful cynicism, a mere compulsive/compulsory imperative to publish the novel, the neue, for its own sake? Or, might there lie beneath this ostensibly pragmatic surface something altogether more profound, a deeper, unresolved dossier of vanity? (No, no, the very notion, much like a poorly constructed syllogism, collapses under the weight of its own preposterousness.)
And yet, as I meticulously sifted through the variegated tapestry of stories, poems, artwork, and citations so generously submitted by our esteemed contributors, a singular, almost preternaturally insistent thread began to reveal itself, woven throughout the very warp and weft of each offering. For each and every one of these brave souls had, in their own unique fashion, presented me with a sandwich of prodigious proportions, generously adorned, one might even say bemoistened, with an extraordinary superabundance of mayonnaise. Beyond this gustatory synchronicity, however, there lay a theme, an unmistakable intellectual leitmotif, and that theme, my friends, resonated with the profound and enduring need to create in the face of adversity, to, as it were, whistle a happy tune while the very foundations of one's existence tremble. And, most crucially, to draw sustenance, to imbibe the very essence of inspiration, from the marginalia – those whispers from the forgotten edges of thought – and, indeed, from the very marginalized themselves, those who reside beyond the conventional pale.
And so, with a spirit simultaneously weary and invigorated, we present this, our latest issue, for your edification and, dare we hope, your profound enjoyment. May it, in its own unassuming way, both encourage and, in the most felicitous sense of the word, incite.
Sincerely and with an unwavering commitment to the culinary arts,
Virgil Kay,
Editor,
Rooster,
China Wok Habitué
PDF of FFR 196 is attached.
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