GLUTTONY DIGEST, SUMMER 2003 -4-
INTRODUCTION Summer, 2003.
–G Wmasthead,, D.C. Gluttony
DEAR READER. AS noted in the Digest has moved its corporate headquarters into a swank new office in Adams Morgan.1 What else is new since the premiere issue? Plenty. GD has expanded its readership, added a subscription service,2 and has taken on a number of new and talented contributors, whose work you’ll find and no doubt enjoy herein. ASHINGTON
REETINGS,
More importantly, GD’s been hard at work trying its best to avoid the sophomore slump that seems to plague the bloated assortment of literary print ‘zines overburdening the West’s collective consciousness over these last half-dozen years or so. If you recall, the ultimate theme (if there was one) of Issue 1 was gluttony defined as self-digestion, &c. Taking on a more proactive role for Issue 2, The Editors have again posited gluttony as an amalgamation of other compulsions. Viz., vanity. At first blush, one might think it odd that those obsessed with their image are at all gluttonous. Admittedly, the typically hyper-vain hit the gym dozens of times a month and routinely eat “food” that the rest of us would consider as tasteless and unsatisfying as corrugated cardboard. But remember: gluttony isn’t about food… it’s about overdoing it. What is it about our reflection in silver-backed glass that drives us to such ridiculous extremes? What are we trying to demonstrate with our hopeless exteriors? What’s missing inside ourselves that predicates so much adornment and accessorizing, primping and posing? GD offers what lies within to help satisfy some of these questions. No one article directly acknowledges the query, and some even struggle to remotely begin addressing vanity as a form of gluttony. Nevertheless, The Editors ask you, Dear Reader, to trust them as you embark on this continuing inward journey to the soul of the modern glutton. 1 And yes, that’s right, one Editor no longer sleeps nightly on a factoryrefurbished air mattress in the other’s living room. Also, see page 26. 2 See inside front cover, please.