{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4887", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 4887, "subject": "OT: Lafferty recommendations", "messages": 11, "voices": 10, "first": "2007-07-21T18:11:37+00:00", "last": "2007-07-26T14:43:09+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "<39ed084f0707211111p35be603fp8ccffbebe77e8dc6@mail.gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Matthew Groves", "address": "matthewalangroves at gmail.com" }, "date": "2007-07-21T18:11:37+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Wolfe seems to be a big admirer of R. A. Lafferty. (\"Has Anyone Seen\nJunie Moon\" from _Starwater Strains_ has a character named Roy T.\nLaffer.) Are there any readers of Lafferty here who can recommend a\ngood place for a Wolfe fan to start?" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Bryan Alexander", "address": "bryan.alexander at gmail.com" }, "date": "2007-07-21T18:31:59+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "<39ed084f0707211111p35be603fp8ccffbebe77e8dc6@mail.gmail.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "The short stories. I liked the Nine Hundred Grandmothers collection, if you\ncan find it." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 7/21/07, Matthew Groves wrote:\n\nWolfe seems to be a big admirer of R. A. Lafferty. (\"Has Anyone Seen\nJunie Moon\" from _Starwater Strains_ has a character named Roy T.\nLaffer.) Are there any readers of Lafferty here who can recommend a\ngood place for a Wolfe fan to start?\n_______________________________________________\nUrth Mailing List" } ] }, { "message_id": "<20070721191333.GB16249@localhost>", "from": { "name": "Gwern Branwen", "address": "gwern0 at gmail.com" }, "date": "2007-07-21T19:13:33+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "<39ed084f0707211111p35be603fp8ccffbebe77e8dc6@mail.gmail.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "On 0, Matthew Groves scribbled:" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Wolfe seems to be a big admirer of R. A. Lafferty. (\"Has Anyone Seen\nJunie Moon\" from _Starwater Strains_ has a character named Roy T.\nLaffer.) Are there any readers of Lafferty here who can recommend a\ngood place for a Wolfe fan to start?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Start with ''Fourth Mansions'' for a good almost-mainstream immersion in Lafferty-style paranoia and story telling, and follow it up with ''The Devil is Dead'' and ''The Annals of Klepsis'' (in that order; Klepsis is even more paranoid and hallucinatory than the previous two put together, so I wouldn't start with it)." }, { "kind": "sig", "depth": 0, "text": "gwern\nmania 701 CTP CATO Phon-e Chicago Posse NSDM" } ] }, { "message_id": "<000a01c7cbf6$3017adc0$47c85a42@rclackey.stic.net>", "from": { "name": "Roy C. Lackey", "address": "rclackey at stic.net" }, "date": "2007-07-22T00:20:56+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "<20070721191333.GB16249@localhost>", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Matthew Groves wrote:\nWolfe seems to be a big admirer of R. A. Lafferty. (\"Has Anyone Seen\nJunie Moon\" from _Starwater Strains_ has a character named Roy T.\nLaffer.) Are there any readers of Lafferty here who can recommend a\ngood place for a Wolfe fan to start?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Echoing what others have said: Lafferty is probably most consistently at his\nbest in short stories, but it was _The Devil is Dead_ that first hooked me.\nThat's a fine book, as is its sequel, _Archipelago_. (Good luck trying to\nfind it! ) There are even a couple of related short stories in the\ncollections.\n\n-Roy" } ] }, { "message_id": "<1f7617370707211734o341e95ao903e3f17ba074adf@mail.gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes", "address": "danldo at gmail.com" }, "date": "2007-07-22T00:34:02+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "<39ed084f0707211111p35be603fp8ccffbebe77e8dc6@mail.gmail.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "i'm going to go against the herd here and recommend Lafferty's book\n_Apocalypses_, two short novels. The first, \"The Three Armageddons\nof Enniscorthy Sweeney,\" is about why the Twentieth Century never\nreally happened. The second, whose title I'm blanking on, is about\nan agent appointed to investigate the sudden appearance of a major\nlandmass.\n\nThey're both very, very funny." }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On 7/21/07, Matthew Groves wrote:\nWolfe seems to be a big admirer of R. A. Lafferty. (\"Has Anyone Seen\nJunie Moon\" from _Starwater Strains_ has a character named Roy T.\nLaffer.) Are there any readers of Lafferty here who can recommend a\ngood place for a Wolfe fan to start?\n_______________________________________________\nUrth Mailing List" } ] }, { "message_id": "<001401c7cc15$3d1c68c0$36cb5a42@rclackey.stic.net>", "from": { "name": "Roy C. Lackey", "address": "rclackey at stic.net" }, "date": "2007-07-22T04:03:15+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "<1f7617370707211734o341e95ao903e3f17ba074adf@mail.gmail.com>", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Dan'l wrote:\ni'm going to go against the herd here and recommend Lafferty's book\n_Apocalypses_, two short novels. The first, \"The Three Armageddons\nof Enniscorthy Sweeney,\" is about why the Twentieth Century never\nreally happened. The second, whose title I'm blanking on, is about\nan agent appointed to investigate the sudden appearance of a major\nlandmass.\n\nThey're both very, very funny." }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Yes, they are. The other one is _Where Have You Been, Sandaliotis?_\n\n_The Annals of Klepsis_ and _The Reefs of Earth_ are also funny.\n\n-Roy" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Andy Robertson", "address": "andywrobertson at clara.co.uk" }, "date": "2007-07-23T12:32:23+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "<39ed084f0707211111p35be603fp8ccffbebe77e8dc6@mail.gmail.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Matthew Groves writes: " }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Wolfe seems to be a big admirer of R. A. Lafferty. (\"Has Anyone Seen\nJunie Moon\" from _Starwater Strains_ has a character named Roy T.\nLaffer.) Are there any readers of Lafferty here who can recommend a\ngood place for a Wolfe fan to start?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I recommend ARRIVE AT EASTERWINE, a lovely, funny, wise book about the \nInstitute of Impure Science and their creaton, Epiktistes the Ktistec \nmachine. Reads like it's a fix-up even if it isn't. \n\nhartshorn \n\n \n\nhttp://www.thenightland.co.uk \n\n01273-488272 / 0777-214-9545 " } ] }, { "message_id": "<690003.11542.qm@web36907.mail.mud.yahoo.com>", "from": { "name": "Craig Brewer", "address": "cnbrewer at yahoo.com" }, "date": "2007-07-23T14:00:47+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "It's a bit hard to find, but the collection _Lafferty\nin Orbit_ (of his stories from Damon Knight's _Orbit_)\nis quite a good source for small doses of very strong\nLafferty. There are some great little gems in there:\n\"The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Street,\" \"One at a\nTime,\" and \"When All the Lands Pour Out Again,\" not to\nmention about 15 others.\n\nBut since that's hard to find, I'd second those who\nsaid _The Devil is Dead_." } ] }, { "message_id": "<46A4B87B.1020506@colby.edu>", "from": { "name": "Fernando Q. Gouvêa", "address": "fqgouvea at colby.edu" }, "date": "2007-07-23T14:17:31+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "<690003.11542.qm@web36907.mail.mud.yahoo.com>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Actually, many of these are not hard to find at all. Wildside Press has \nprint-on-demand editions of quite a few of Lafferty's books (including \nthese two). See http://www.wildsidebooks.com/LAFFERTY-R-A_c_31-1.html\n\nThey can also be ordered from Amazon.com.\n\nFernando" }, { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Craig Brewer wrote:\nIt's a bit hard to find, but the collection _Lafferty\nin Orbit_ (of his stories from Damon Knight's _Orbit_)\nis quite a good source for small doses of very strong\nLafferty. There are some great little gems in there:\n\"The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Street,\" \"One at a\nTime,\" and \"When All the Lands Pour Out Again,\" not to\nmention about 15 others.\n\nBut since that's hard to find, I'd second those who\nsaid _The Devil is Dead_.\n\n\n ____________________________________________________________________________________\nFussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us. http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7 \n\n_______________________________________________" } ] }, { "message_id": "<21747867.1185379561321.JavaMail.root@elwamui-royal.atl.sa.earthlink.net>", "from": { "name": "Adam Stephanides", "address": "adamsteph at earthlink.net" }, "date": "2007-07-25T16:06:01+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "<46A4B87B.1020506@colby.edu>", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Lafferty is one of my very favorite authors. I would start with _Nine Hundred Grandmothers_, his first story collection; it's his most new reader-friendly collection, and probably also his most consistent. Then probably _Strange Doings_, his next collection. _Lafferty in Orbit_ is good too, but SD has the advantage that you can probably find it cheap by hunting in used book stores. (_Ringing Changes_, another collection, is also good.) I'll also second the recommendation for _Apocalypses_.\n\nKeep in mind that Lafferty is a very different writer from Wolfe. If I were going to describe him in one word, it would be \"exuberant,\" as opposed to Wolfe's deliberateness. Conversely, Lafferty's work doesn't require the close reading that Wolfe's does. Also, Lafferty was even more conservative, politically and religiously, than Wolfe (he was a creationist, for example), though this is almost invisible in much of his fiction, including the collections I suggested.\n\nLafferty's catalogue as a whole is in a sorry state. In the 80s and early 90s, there were several small presses publishing Lafferty. Then, for some reason, they all stopped at around the same time (leaving two series up in the air), and most of what they published is probably unobtainable now except at collector's prices, if at all. There are also a lot of good stories that were afaik never collected. Somebody needs to publish The Complete Stories of R. A. Lafferty. (I'd like to see all the novels in print, too, but that's probably asking for the moon.)\n\n--Adam" } ] }, { "message_id": "<620AD7DA-AD9D-465A-A3AD-4332CA5F26F5@gmail.com>", "from": { "name": "Matthew King", "address": "automatthew at gmail.com" }, "date": "2007-07-26T14:43:09+00:00", "subject": "(urth) OT: Lafferty recommendations", "in_reply_to": "<21747867.1185379561321.JavaMail.root@elwamui-royal.atl.sa.earthlink.net>", "reply_link": "header", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Here is the introduction to Lafferty that hooked me:\n\nhttp://greatsfandf.com/AUTHORS/RALafferty.php\n\nLafferty is never \"realistic.\" However ordinary his settings may seem \nwhen first we start one of his tales, we must remember that for a \ncertainty they are surreal fantasies in the truest sense of those \nwords. I think the most apt analogy for Lafferty's works is animated \ncartoons. Things in Lafferty tales happen at the breathless, \nbreakneck pace--and with the madcap ad hoc paralogic--of a Bugs Bunny \ncartoon. We believe none of it because we are never for a second \nexpected to believe any of it, any more than we are expected to \n\"believe\" what happens to Bugs and Elmer; we do not participate to \nbehold \"slices of life\" but to behold madcap exaggerations and \ndistortions of it. The single worst error a reader new to Lafferty \ncan make is to think that a world Lafferty introduces in apparently \nordinary science-fiction terms actually is (even by science-fiction \nstandards) ordinary." } ] } ] }