The Third Policeman and The Land Across

Marc Aramini · 14 Sep 2014, 16:34 · from 2014-September.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at gmail.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 09:34:11 -0700
Subject: (urth) The Third Policeman and The Land Across
In-Reply-To: <BE8647CC-217F-4BE7-9106-95286DD6A4FA at icloud.com>
References: <CAMwO0gyHvwFA56FrnyW8UGwwfui_06RSm_Pa=TV4=Vgk51nz1w at mail.gmail.com>
	<BE8647CC-217F-4BE7-9106-95286DD6A4FA at icloud.com>
Message-ID: <CAF1072yzczu_rZw9SacgP5QncDucQNNOt_a50Wd9=3hLso+w7g at mail.gmail.com>

I read it years and years ago ... didn't really remind me of Wolfe at
all. Definitely reminded me of a bit of Beckett's Molloy trilogy/Waiting
for Godot and RA Lafferty (though much closer is At Swim Two Bird's, with
its very similar parallels to the Lafferty canon in The Devil is Dead, but
it could just be the "Irishness" of it all.) Maybe I will read it again
some day. I am thinking there are parts of Lanark that resonate with The
Third Policeman as well.  There is this sense of phantasmagoric mistaken
identity and a blurring between the living and the dead held forever in a
holding pattern that all those works seem to have in common.

I think Wolfe and Lafferty are actually very different, with Wolfe being
more rigorously logical in structure and Lafferty's stuff often not
adhering to strict ordering - more like dream logic.

On Sun, Sep 14, 2014 at 12:03 AM, Auspex Rex <auspexrex at icloud.com> wrote:

> I?d never heard of Flann O?Brien or The Third Policeman, but reading the
> synopsis on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Policeman)
> made me think again about The Land Across. Someone else pointed out the
> connection to The Third Man already: Grafton mentions Hotel Sacher. Lots of
> missing, presumed-dead, actually dead, ghost third persons? and TLA?s third
> border-guard who is sometimes invisible, sometimes not, and looks like the
> leader of the country, and also looks like Grafton?s father...
>
> Anyone familiar with The Third Policeman and The Land Across have thoughts
> on how the former might help us interpret the latter?
>
> -Jeff
>
> On Aug 17, 2014, at 9:39 PM, Gwern Branwen <gwern at gwern.net> wrote:
>
> > -
> http://antsofgodarequeerfish.blogspot.com/2014/08/lafferty-news-thats-right-news.html
> > -
> http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/aug/13/ra-lafferty-secret-sci-fi-genius-poised-for-comeback
> > "RA Lafferty ? the secret sci-fi genius more than ready for a
> > comeback: A reissue of the US science fiction writer RA Lafferty's
> > stories sold out rapidly this year, and his fans, including Neil
> > Gaiman, hope to see his novels reprinted"
> >
> >> There's something of the Irish comic tradition in there, the
> > absurdity and surreality of Flann O'Brien, author of The Third
> > Policeman. "I agree," says the author Neil Gaiman.
>
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