The Debauchery Issue

Volume 8 Issue 2, September 2008

Debauchery is all about sensory delight, and as sensual creatures, we are all debaucherous at some time or another. The word drips with temptation and the promise of sublime overindulgence in one’s own particular vices – consumption past enjoyment, enjoyment beyond comfort, and glorious self-indulgence (sometimes to the point of pathetic self-detriment.) Tales of debauchery begin with a lascivious smile and end with the audience hungry for more (or wincing in sympathy) because they speak of our psyche at its most playful and super-stimulated. Each and every one reveals to the careful listener something deeply personal about who and what the speaker values in his or her free time.

I say that too often debauchery is unfairly considered the domain of the drunkard, junkie, or fiend! We all cut loose from our stresses and obligations in our own ways, and the stories that are spun when we allow those loose ends to temporarily lift us out of the usual by becoming tangled for a moment or an evening in earthly delights of one sort or another have always been some of my very favourite. I understand that not every one of us lets their freak flag fly quite so far up the mast as some do, but I also know that each of us has at least once grown their hair long and let our inhibitions be damned, if only for a short time. This issue – and this magazine – are dedicated to that carefree spirit of enjoyment.

Debauchery is all about sensory delight, and as brains built hungry for sensory input, we are doomed to crave the gasping thrills of debaucherous behaviour. Why pretend to fight it?

Mark Ciesluk
Editor-in-Chief