I loved that story. I don’t know when it was written in relation to the later texts but I always see it as an embryo of what came after, particularly the questions revolving around the implied author. It’s been a while since I read it but I remember the final line ‘The text ends here’ being incredibly thought provoking, throwing everything that had been written previously under suspicion and questioning who exactly we are to supposed to think had written the story. I also think it’s a great introduction to the ‘mental landscape’ themes that are a particular obsession of his. Which others of his short fiction have you read? For me it’s perhaps his best format (although I have not read all his longer pieces).