Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens

Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens . . . is this a metaphorical allegory, something akin the ‘fox in the hen-house’?  Certainly!

It’s a quirky little magazine that specializes in Bizarro--a literary sub-genre focusing on the absurd and the surreal through darkly-inane situations while postulating philosophical inquires (notably absurdism, nihilism and existentialism).  It’s rather humorous in nature, but ambiguously so as it conveys truth though absurdity.  In other words, it’s the logic of the illogical. 

So, what exactly is this magazine and how is it absurd?

It’s an odd-timed print magazine (roughly bi-annual), with a few issues available for download at their website: www.absurdistjournal.com.  Their latest issue, #Y’aing’ngah (Winter 2010), is the fourth issue I’ve read from this delightfully odd press, and it definitely didn’t disappoint.

The highlight of this magazine for this reader was Nicole Cushing’s Youth to be Proud Of, a darkly comical and political piece centered around the ever popular and familiar, and dare I say painfully dull and boring, Our Town (the play by Thornton Wilder).  There is so much to say about this piece that it’s just easier to say: high school, small-town life, journalism, “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” and children dangling from wires, limply floating and speaking through unseen voices, conveying morality, spirituality, and seeking forgiveness for their debauchery with a cold, dull lifeless spirit.  Because let's face, the only life worth living is that of an oppressed automaton who just wants to eat shrooms and get pregnant!

Also pleasing was the flash piece Circle Slash Erections by xTx.  Think you have a hard time keeping it up and/or achieving that glorious-resolution at the end of the evening?  Try dating a woman who specializes in the art of non-stimulation.

Equally pleasing was Changing Woman by Brandi Wells, which calls to question the effort of keeping together a relationship involving a leper-zombiesque-splatter-wannabe-Thing-from-The-Adam’s-Family lover.  Warning: Do not eat eggs while reading this piece!

Also worth mentioning is the satirical There’s War by R.E. Greene.  Tyranny, fascism, nationalism, socialism, democracy . . . they all involve the same leader(s): scary people with power and money screaming for obedience as they whip mailboxes and imprison anyone who fornicates with their daughter.  It's hard to earn a living under such constraints, thankfully there's garbage which needs to be collected.

All the stories are worth a read, they’re highly imaginative pieces that play with literary formats, climatic resolutions (or lack thereof) while conveying philosophical themes through illogical scenes and characters.  They also feature reviews of other Bizarro works, inviting readers into the world of the absurd.

Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens is a magazine which will leave you wondering.  What exactly you’ll be wondering is the question . . . perhaps, what?  Maybe, huh?  But most likely: when is the next issue?