A Diminished Thing, or Sex and One Superposition

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Ryan smirked at the state's intrusion into each and every classroom. Itreminded him of Kafka's parable Before the Law. The man from the countrywaits and waits for admission to the Law, intimidated by the authority of thedoorkeeper, until he has wasted his whole life in prostrate submissionbefore him. High school English teacher Ryan Tether suffers from erectile dysfunctionand a quixotic belief in his own ability to perceive the truth. While tryingto solve his sexual impotence, he suffers from the agony of kidney stonesand the embarrassing after-effects of a male enhancement medication. Ryan's ever-patient, though sharp-tongued, wife, Dee, has her ownproblems. An elementary school teacher, she battles the evil Standardsmovement which is slowly demoralizing her ?under-achieving? schoolthrough its relentless testing obsession. She also worries over the state ofher twenty-year-old eldest son, Paul, an art school student, who is strugglingto figure out his identity'sexually, psychologically, and vocationally. Set in San Bernardino, California,A Diminished Thing, or Sex and OneSuperpositionis a darkly humorous tale of one family's search for conjugalhappiness, emotional maturity, and educational progress.