Artifacts: Irregular Stories — K.B. Dixon

Alan is nothing to them-just so much slop; just meat and molecules, currents and chemical soup. As he zigs and zags, biosensored through a maze, his unique ballet of beef and intention is carefully charted by Dr. Poindexter and his posse of would-be PhDs-the wizards in white coats working off their student loans and their feelings of sexual inadequacy.With Artifacts, K. B. Dixon offers an eccentric collection of irregular stories in assorted sizes-small, medium, and large-stories that flirt with the existential issues of the cuddlesome lone entity. There is a poet whose hair hangs in front of his face like a cheap curtain, a depressive who is a just a pill away from perfect, and a curmudgeonly codger dealing with the oppressive kindness of an unnamed social-service agency. It is a mélange of moods and forms-a mix of light and dark, of music and meaning.