Bernard Saftner

Punctuated Equilibrium / the Proepistrephomeniad Bernard Saftner

Forty-four years in the making, Punctuated Equilibrium / The Proepistrephomeniad, a collection of twenty works from the author´s intelligent, imaginative and whimsical oeuvre, includes one novel, two novellas, six stories and eleven poems in one convenient, affordable two-volumes-in-one volume.

This comprehensive compendium features, among others, the following instant classics:

-- The Proepistrephomeniad. In this sweeping metaphysical epic, Sir Chrysogonus Exiordines must overcome the natural and supernatural forces arrayed against him in a perilous faraway land. The cost of failure is complete apocalyptic annihilation!
-- "The Louisiana Book of the Dead." A beautiful young woman hiding a terrible secret finds herself in the sights of a psychotic killer.
-- "Homeward, Warrior." A Viking finds glory and love on a metaphysical quest for his homeland.
-- "The Magic Calf." Ashley, a remarkable young mother, must contend with a horrible family crisis.
-- "Coal for Christmas." A troubled boy searches for inner reconciliation.
-- "Aftermath." Sir Chrysogonus Exiordines delivers the goods in more ways than one.
-- "Attis." In ancient Anatolia, a devotee sacrifices everything for mystical illumination.

Self-conscious literary stylings, interwoven genres and intellectual puzzles abound. The contents comprise the infrastructure of an epistemic metanarration on reason, being, progress, truth, systems, and especially metaphysics--a deconstruction not only of episodic evocation and the plurality of effective narratives, but also of the presumptive meaning within semiological discourse itself. "As collaborator and competitor in the creative colloquy," the author has observed, "the reader must be the writer´s gauge and defender, his inquisitor and auto-da-fé, a precision-tuned metronome calibrated to the nuances of both beauty and craft."

The author´s talented brother Mike provided the skillful line drawings that accompany the text.

All income from the sale of this book will be donated to a 501(c)(3) charity.