Collected Self-Amusements

The first volume of Bryan Ray's Collected Self-Amusements contains fifteen short books:

The Permanent Modes

A purposely adolescent depiction of some B-movie creatures undergoing various events.

Why I Am Not a Surrealist

If Bertrand Russell were to read this text expecting a coherent lecture, he might be perplexed; then Ren Magritte might try to help him by whispering: This is not an essay.

Rumors of Sarah

An embellished mistranslation of St. Mark's gospel: it's like 19th-century literary nonsense draped over 1st-century religious scaffolding.

La Man

A very zany book, consisting of three parts: (1) an imbecilic introduction; (2) a fable so convoluted that it defies elucidation; and (3) an elucidation of that fable.

Even Silence Nods

A low-budget, mid-length poem or 'B epic', composed in what were supposed to be rhyming couplets, relaying the misadventures of a few stock characters against the backdrop of an icy jungle.

The Floaty-thing's Go-to Boy

A postmodern children's book for lazy adults.

The Stickup Continuum

A brief non-story, like a mosaic made from memories of so-called noir films.

Impatiens

Riffs on themes of mortality, authority, etc.

The Radiator Girls at Strapontin Lodge

A composition with fruit, females, and fruit females.

New America

An experiment in repetition and unsettled carriage returns.

X Pages of Horn-face

A faithful description of the contents of a wordless picture-book.

A Terrible Misunderstanding

The first truly absurd, ecclesiastically themed adaptation of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors.

Gabella St

A frivolous text written purely for kicks.

The King and Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes

An enigmatic anti-novella that playfully dances with some concepts of Marcel Duchamp.

Mediocre Mountain

A book like any other except less interesting.