Cartoons

Now, this narrative could go in several directions from here, a few of which I’ve already expired, or will soon, in other stories, Kit Schluter writes in The Rooster Man, a short in his 2024 collection titled Cartoons. I think the way I’d like for it to end, however, is for something completely absurd and unexpected to interrupt the continuity of the story. 

Shortened from the original, this passage captures Schluter’s approach to storytelling. Absurdism defines each story in the collection, some which are complemented by Schluter’s bizarre illustrations. 

In The Little Children of Heaven, a nurse gives the protagonist a plate of lightly salted children after he wakes in a hospital in the afterlife. In Imaginary Children, the protagonist converses with a heartbroken piece of bacteria that’s the father of everyone on earth. In The Little Pencil That Could, a pencil who fears paper convinces a boy to visit his mom instead of writing her a letter. In An Umbrella, an umbrella navigates criticism and insecurity before the story becomes something else entirely.

Cartoons isn’t a book of ideas, it’s a book of imagination. You press on to see just how absurd the stories get. You wonder what’s going on in Schluter’s mind. And when you reach the end, you discover a silent invitation. Schluter provides several lined pages where you can write your own absurd story and boxes for your own absurd drawings. There aren’t instructions, yet the message is clear: You’ve explored my imagination, now it’s time to explore your own. 

Schluter simply says, Now it’s your turn. 

So it is.