A nameless figure arrives unbidden at a far country's department of immigration and declares himself a nonperson. He provides for officialdom no useful biography, and a complicated detainment ensues.
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Months before the man had resolved to spend down a modest windfall. The money allows him to leave one place for other points. Early on, he falls into acquaintance with someone whose assorted vexations and defeats have led to furtive dealings from home. When real trouble besets the woman, her life become more a shambles, other points quickly call.
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He fetches up on a tiny island, the spot now uninhabited but where relations once ran a business. Efforts go towards resurrecting the venture. Lack of foresight hinders, then catastrophic weather intervenes. An unhappy result in the main.
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Soon a move further afield, to the far country of immigration detention and more spending down, until declaration of nonpersonhood, when everything must go not one part at a time but all in a single great heave.
BOOKS
Some, a waypoint
Any will do
No one
Being a fictional digest of truism.
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Aphoristic collection, sketchbook, reflections light and dark ... all of it a gathering of one person's thoughts and musings.
It's not that, says the author, not of anyone you'd know.
The book's editor thinks otherwise.
Aphorisms on Aphorism
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Maxims, dicta and other irrelevancies
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Glimpsed, sketched
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States I
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States II
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Escape clauses and full stops
INTERVIEW
From Only Asking: The Interview Problem, The Problem Interview. Confab Quarterly, Vol. 01 (amended, falsified).
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Out with it — a questioning
We recently sat down for a chat with R May, author of the books One and Neither and Scoria | Leavings and Oddments, although inexplicably he preferred to remain standing. The author furthermore asked our conversation be machine transcribed in real time with screen display of text made available for reference during the interview. Luckily we had with us all needed gear and gadgetry. May’s later request once the interview began that questions be handwritten and passed to him, however, was found to be unworkable and seemed to us plainly unnecessary.
With feasible preliminaries set, we looked up from our hotel suite sofa and for the next hour had an exchange that, despite some unconventional aspects, proved remarkable in its inability to distinguish itself from any other we've had over the years.
R May, thanks very much for submitting to the interview.
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That's an unusual word choice, submitting. Has a whiff of wrongdoing about it. Although on the possibility the books are criminally bad, the word could fit.
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Right. But nonetheless you've written two books, both fiction.
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I have, they are. At the outset though, let me say that while I realise your use of the first-person plural isn't necessarily an instance of the imperial we, in the sense of your not being amused and all, it does seem peculiar given there's only one of you in the room. Or, in reality, none of you.
DATUM
Who
R May is the putative author of two books, One and Neither and Scoria | Leavings and Oddments.
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Comfortably referring to himself in the third person, he thinks it strange anyone would be interested in this kind of writing only after first knowing something about who wrote it.
But if needs must in the way of biography:
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After doing many interesting things, more interesting than could be adequately addressed here, the author now divides time between rural idyll and major metropolis. In the country he raises farm animals for no good reason and produces foodstuffs at a loss. In the city he holds meetings with the kind of people you'd like to know. In both places he's accompanied by a spouse and a dog, more than one in the country (dog).
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The author is pictured here staring off to one side while thinking writerly thoughts. He will die in a not yet determined year.
Who else (auxilliary bio)
R May is a group of anonymous authors. In addition to the wider world, the members remain unknown to one another and to themselves.
Where
Here:
The author cannot be followed or otherwise socially examined. Correspondence however can be assayed at: nonpersonhood@gmail.com.
