The Experiment

Myrto Azina Chronides's book attempts to unify subtly connected narratives, partial tales that lean toward the structure of a more synthetic prose piece, but which cannot be regarded as either novella or novel. The book does not fit within any traditional genre of creative prose. The Experiment can be characterized as ‘a study on erotic love and the soul’. From the beginning, He and She, take a pledge to undergo an ‘experiment’, retrace erotic love and their relation by abstaining from carnal contact so as to devote themselves to writing. She, ‘a woman in perpetual search’ is an unbowed woman who claims her freedom; and He, ‘a wise man, a believer in the Socratic “All I know is that I know nothing” ’, are invited to participate in the experiment in equal terms. The erotic couple is called to recognize through writing and literature the Other, his/her other half, his/her mate and eventually the Self as Other. Despite the darkness that pervades the conclusion of the book, one may detect hints of the lovely flower of love and writing emerging through the ordeal and torture of prose. The question remains; what about the other things, the unwritten ones, those that lie in the land of silence? Apparently, both neo post-modernist (contemporary) literature and The Experiment would rather an open, indefinite ending.