“Perhaps no genre is more superfluous than the editorial preface introducing a volume of essays. Its only claim to legitimacy may well be sheer and suspect editorial habit. For if the hopeful reader has already picked up the tome, he will hardly be deterred by the most pretentious or the dullest preface, as long as the title or one of the contributing authors has piqued his interest. And if the hopeful reader has not picked up the book, what good is the wittiest preface intended to whet his appetite?
In any case, we now invite you, the proverbial gentle reader, to peruse at least the Table of Contents before setting aside this volume for good.”
The volume was unveiled on March 17, 2005, on the A38 Ship. The Table of Contents, Introduction, the First and Second Chapters can be downloaded from the site in Hungarian.
László Majtényi: There is stink
László Majtényi’s essay in Élet és Irodalom on 2 Februar 2018.
