Searchlights into Coming of Age

SEARCHLIGHTS INTO COMING OF AGE

The third (and final?) experiment. I set the overall topic (gay, coming of age tales of youths through the centuries), and gave the professor some guidelines to work to. From these, in most cases, he created his tales again, but within my brief. The result, an anchor piece of 12,500 words, and 9 short tales in three groups of three sub themes.

The final Coda was more carefully crafted to reflect personal experiences - a true AI/author collaboration.

Please Note: This anthology is intended for mature readers. It contains period-typical depictions of institutional bullying, homophobic language, and adult themes.

PROFESSOR CASTOR POLLOX is my personal pen name for Google's generative AI, GEMINI. In Greek mythology, the twins were called "Castor" and "Pollux". Together they are immortalised in the Roman constellation of Gemini. Through use and a habit of talking to machines , I have started to refer to the AI interface as "The Professor".