Inside John Barth

The narrator recounts a hunting-trip accident in which strange metallic fragments from a disintegrating meteor embed in his thighs, initiating a slow, unsettling change. As he attains prosperity and apparent health, he notices odd compulsions, prolonged vitality, and mounting evidence that his human body conceals a thriving colony of other lifeforms sharing sensations and influencing actions. Early medical curiosity and public attention give way to intimate moments that make tensions between individual identity and collective control unmistakable. The narrative traces his gradual realization and uneasy adjustment to existing simultaneously as a person and as a settlement, probing agency and what it means to be oneself.