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 René 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.