PEACE: Venus sans arms

Michael Andre-Driussi07 May 2002, 23:54original

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Andy Robertson quoted me and wrote: (Still hunting for another source to that wonderful "Venus di Milo" story! So haunting, since I all-but-swore that I'd seen it before, somewhere, just before reading PEACE . . . )

A Lafferty story?????

Intriguing notion! I haven't read much Lafferty, he exists in one of my blindspots, but it is possible. APOCALYPSES, perhaps? Not that collection, STRANGE DOINGS, I don't think . . . certainly not ANNALS OF KLEPSIS, nor "900 Grandmothers," nor "Continued on Next Rock." The story in PEACE is about how the statue we call Venus di Milo is a forgery, in that it is not as old as it is thought to be, nor is it Venus. The fellows who "found" it in the cave (by the sea?) sold it to the (English?) gentlemen, and then they offered to sell him the arms, as well, but he declined. Something like that. (It does seem like something Lafferty would do, sheesh!) =mantis=

Adam Stephanides08 May 2002, 13:53original

↳ follows, by subject match Michael Andre-Driussi

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on 5/7/02 6:54 PM, Michael Andre-Driussi at mantis at siriusfiction.com wrote: Intriguing notion! I haven't read much Lafferty, he exists in one of my blindspots, but it is possible. APOCALYPSES, perhaps?

That would certainly be a prime candidate. The first short novel in it, "Where Have You Been, Sandaliotis," is about forgery and contains a Master Forger. But checking the most likely places (and it's been a long time since I read it), I didn't find any reference to the Venus de Milo. The closest I found was a story told by the Master Forger about how he forged the "Weeping Hermes of Praxiteles," a lost masterpiece of ancient Greek sculpture, and then discovered the real sculpture and found it wasn't as good as his forgery. --Adam

Andy Robertson08 May 2002, 17:17original

↳ follows, by subject match Adam Stephanides

----- Original Message -----

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From: "Adam Stephanides" <adamsteph at earthlink.net> That would certainly be a prime candidate. The first short novel in it, "Where Have You Been, Sandaliotis," is about forgery and contains a Master Forger. But checking the most likely places (and it's been a long time since I read it), I didn't find any reference to the Venus de Milo. The closest I found was a story told by the Master Forger about how he forged the "Weeping Hermes of Praxiteles," a lost masterpiece of ancient Greek sculpture, and then discovered the real sculpture and found it wasn't as good as his forgery.

I don't have acces to APOCALYPSES, but I think this is where I remember the motif from. It was about forging statue(s), but not necessarily the Venus hartshorn

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