Students of Myself

By Rhys Hughes

There are few students in my class. When one considers what the subject is, this isn't surprising. I teach myself.

 In other words, I impart to my students facts and fancies based on my life and ideas. It's the least popular class in the university and I doubt it will be funded for another term. But none o

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elsewhen Press
• Release date: Jun 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9781911409793

Rhys Hughes

RHYS HUGHES was born in Wales but has lived in many different countries and currently lives in India. He began writing at an early age and his first book, Worming the Harpy, was published in 1995. Since that time he has published more than fifty other books and his work has been translated into ten languages. He recently completed an ambitious project that involved writing exactly 1000 linked short stories. He is currently working on a novel and several new collections of prose and verse.

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Students of Myself cover

There are few students in my class. When one considers what the subject is, this isn’t surprising. I teach myself.

In other words, I impart to my students facts and fancies based on my life and ideas. It’s the least popular class in the university and I doubt it will be funded for another term. But none of that is my fault. I wanted to teach a proper discipline such as ecology, but the authorities wouldn’t let me. They insisted that I teach myself; and as a result, I do so.

The students are given an assignment. They each have to write a short piece about how I spend my free time. But this is information I’ve always kept secret. I can’t imagine how they’re expected to know anything about my private life, certainly not in detail.

Clearly I’m being spied on. Unless it’s guesswork?

I read the essays anxiously.

Yes, only some of them have got it right…

Cover design by Alison Buck

– SAMUEL R. DELANY

ALSO BY RHYS HUGHES

FROM ELSEWHEN PRESS

Mirrors in the Deluge

‘Jekking the Oofers’

in Existence is Elsewhen

STUDENTS OF MYSELF

RHYS HUGHES

Elsewhen Press planet-clock design

Elsewhen Press

Students of Myself

First published in Great Britain by Elsewhen Press, 2021

An imprint of Alnpete Limited

Copyright © Rhys Hughes, 2021. All rights reserved

The right of Rhys Hughes to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, telepathic, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-911409-79-3 eBook edition

ISBN 978-1-911409-69-4 paperback edition

Condition of Sale

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

Elsewhen Press & Planet-Clock Design are trademarks of Alnpete Limited

Designed and formatted by Elsewhen Press

This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, vehicles, places, educational establishments, museums, and events are either a product of the author’s fertile imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, galleries, academies, places or people (living or dead, kites or bats) is purely coincidental.

This

book is

dedicated to

Maithreyi Karnoor

STUDENTS OF MYSELF

There are few students in my class…

The Ineffable Twiddle

The Pub Crawl

The Halo Trust

After I have read these…

The Frame Tale

The Academic Chair

I had planned to read these…

Cold Puckered Lips

Professor Miscellaneous

The Sorites Shudder

Madman with a Lamp

Banana Moonbeams

I sit in the café…

The Examination

I feel like crumpling up…

The Back of Beyond

I finish reading and…

The Wrong Shoes

The Firemen

I fall asleep and…

We Are Kites

The Lost Labyrinth

Coelacanth with a Loving Kiss

My reading of the essays…

Driven to Distraction

With a laugh…

There are few students in my class. When one considers what the subject is, this isn’t surprising. I teach myself.

In other words, I impart to my students facts and fancies based on my life and ideas. It’s the least popular class in the university and I doubt it will be funded for another term. But none of that is my fault. I wanted to teach a proper discipline such as ecology, but the authorities wouldn’t let me. They insisted that I teach myself; and as a result, I do so.

The students are given an assignment. They each have to write a short piece about how I spend my free time. But this is information I’ve always kept secret. I can’t imagine how they’re expected to know anything about my private life, certainly not in detail.

Clearly I’m being spied on. Unless it’s guesswork?

I read the essays anxiously.

Yes, only some of them have got it right….