Abstract
In this chapter, Paul Vlitos explores the short prose pieces of B.S. Johnson in the context of Johnson’s own comments on this aspect of his oeuvre in the ‘Introduction’ to Aren’t You Rather Young to be Writing Your Memoirs? (1973), in particular his ‘avoidance of the term short story’ to describe these pieces and his invitation to the reader to ‘Make of them what you will’. Examining short prose pieces from both Aren’t You Rather Young? and Statement Against Corpses (1964) this chapter asks: What differentiates Johnson’s ‘short prose’ from the conventional ‘short story’? How does the short prose offer new ways of understanding B. S. Johnson in relation to his literary contemporaries? How seriously can we take Johnson’s invitation to ‘make of’ his short prose ‘what we will’?