These Proses a Problem or Two

Originally only available in a very diverse mix of literary periodicals, from Strange Faeces to The Antigonish Review,These Proses A Problem Or Two brings together as coherent unit a dozen entertaining experiments with language and narrative -- sometimes erotic, sometimes satirical, sometimes serious, sometime quasi-scientific.

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Prose takes a beating in these These's experiments. Sometimes hammered into poetry, sometimes just hammered into submission, these assaults on prose by These are consistently interesting experiments."
--Anonymous reviewer in the now defunct Journal of Prosaic Findings.

"These's thesis is prose can be poetry. Yet poetry with a thesis is prose. These begs the question. In reply, the question begs These answers. It's all to confusing for this reviewer."
--Anonymous reviewer in the now defunct Illiterary Review

Excerpt from "First Prose: Old Theodore These Is Wont To Wheeze (A Memoir)":

My name is Theodore These. An odd name, you say? Well, don t think it hasn t caused me my share of trouble. I suppose all those marked with somewhat unusual names are doomed to live a childhood of mockery, and I m sure my suffering was not unique -- but that is little comfort. My suffering was intense. Not only was my name odd, my personality non-normative, but I was also cursed with asthma. The coupling of my difficult breathing with my nob girder of a name was the insipid inspiration for some very unfortun¬ate rhymes, rhymes that followed me through many years of school. As if, in God s vicious wisdom, that wasn t enough of a burden for a sensitive young child, I also had a tendency to lisp when I became angry or excited -- something that happened far too often. Thank heaven I was not also small, or my childhood surely would have been a playground in hell. Daily I saw what the smart¬asses and bullies did to the little kids in our class. I saw the bruising and...

Ken Stange is a writer, visual artist, occasional scientific researcher, and a university lecturer on the psychology of art. He was the founder and editor of Nebula Magazine from 1975 to 1984 and currently edits the reincarnated Nebula as a very unperiodical Internet publication. He works in many forms and likes to mix his media. His works include poetry, fiction, arts journalism, scientific research reports, computer programs, philosophical essays, and visual art, and has hundreds of periodical publications. He calls all of his nine books "hypotheses" because of his interest in the integration of the sciences and the arts.