This Week in Google Alerts: R.A. Lafferty

Marc Aramini · 17 Apr 2012, 15:22 · from 2012-April.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at yahoo.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:22:06 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: R.A. Lafferty
In-Reply-To: <CAM0v-i6QXdfxF=T7D-qNuPhN+Exq7xR1i1j0mMZ0yqZweyVHnA at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <1334676126.61403.YahooMailClassic at web161802.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>

Shouldn't be too hard if you are willing to invest about $20.? My copy of the Devil is Dead was from a used book store and its got a NASTY stain on it ... until I find another I won't get rid of it, though - I've had no luck finding his stuff in used book stores.? (People in the Southwest don't read anything but junk).? 
?
I am trying to remember if it's Fourth Mansions or Past Master that had such a wonderful chapter title ... "I think that I will dismember the world with my hands".? In my angry adolescence I really related to that chapter title.? Luckily I've grown up, but I still love that title.

--- On Tue, 4/17/12, Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: R.A. Lafferty
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 8:16 AM

Thanks for the insight.? Unfortunately Fourth Mansions and The Devil is Dead are both missing from my collection.? Hopefully they aren't too hard to track down.

On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com> wrote:

Yes, they are very unrelated except with perhaps some eschatological ruminations.
?
Well, they are okay, but not as good as The Devil Is Dead or Fourth Mansions - some memorable scenes (like a more than natural reporter who always wanted to beat the heavyweight champion of the world morphing into some kind of big pugilist with impossible reach to defeat the current champion) but overall not Lafferty's best.? He really is best at the short story level or when doing something weird with langauge and storytelling like The Devil is Dead.? For sure worth reading, but not "great".

--- On Tue, 4/17/12, Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Antonin Scriabin <kierkegaurdian at gmail.com>

Subject: Re: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: R.A. Lafferty
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 6:51 AM

Not to go too off topic, but I was wondering what your opinion of Apocalypses was.? It is the last Lafferty I own that I have to read.? It is two distinct novellas, correct?

On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 6:41 PM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at yahoo.com> wrote:

Do you really have all those short stories? ?All the collected volumes are exorbitantly expensive except for the most common one, 900 Grandmothers.

I have always wrestled with the decision to purchase them or not - it's never a tough decision with Wolfe but I am not quite as devoted to Lafferty, though someday I really want to read the bulk of his work. ?I've read Past Master, Fourth Mansions, Apocalypses, The Devil is Dead, Reefs of Earth, and 900 Grandmothers and very little else except the odd story I happened to have in my magazine collection.

--- On Mon, 4/16/12, Dave Lebling <dlebling at hyraxes.com> wrote:

> From: Dave Lebling <dlebling at hyraxes.com>

> Subject: Re: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: R.A. Lafferty
> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
> Date: Monday, April 16, 2012, 3:19 PM

> Had I known about this, I probably
> could have done as well as the
> winner. Lafferty has been one of my favorite authors since
> the dawn of time.
>
> Lafferty's alcoholism was no secret even back in the early
> days, by the way.
>
> Dave Lebling
>
> On 4/15/2012 9:33 PM, Gwern Branwen wrote:
> > http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=18066
> >
> > http://www.grantvillegazette.com/articles/Secret_Crocodiles_and_Strange_Doings__or_Sometimes
> >
> > I hadn't read about his alcoholism before, although
> given all the
> > drinking in his stories, it doesn't surprise me.
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Urth Mailing List
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>
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