jaw@ames-lm.UUCP (James A. Woods) (02/03/84)
#
But I have dreamt a dreary dream
Beyond the Isle of Skye;
I saw a dead man win a fight--
And I think that man was I.
Lafferty, "The Devil is Dead"
citing the ballad of Chevy Chase
Basic question: what is he up to these days? For the unwashed,
crazy Lafferty was one of the best. Borges meets Burroughs. Author of
short stories (collected in 900 Grandmothers, Strange Doings, Does Anyone
Else Have Anything Further to Add?), SF novels (Past Master, Fourth Mansions,
The Devil is Dead [arguably his finest], Arrive at Easterwine, Archipelago),
historical fiction (Okla Hannali, The Flame is Green), and general lies
(The Fall of Rome). A linguist and electrical parts buyer, born in Iowa
(well known breeding grounds for good writers, e.g. Coover, Vonnegut,
Sladek.)
He had the sense, unlike most of us, to not start writing until his
fifties. His later musings professed an embarrassing moralism, but the
early stories have indelibly etched certain archetypes, created out of
whole cloth, into my personal mythology.
You might think his work is too left field, but then fiction, like
music, is very tribal.
-- James A. Woods {hao|menlo70}!ames-lm!jaw
Note: this item was submitted to multiple groups, since Lafferty's cultish
prose has resisted categorization as simple fantasy and SF.keesan@bbncca.ARPA (Morris Keesan) (02/07/84)
------------------------------
What is Lafferty up to these days? Writing. I'm currently in the middle
of "Annals of Klepsis" (Ace, August 1983), which is run-of-the-mill Lafferty,
which means nothing to you unless you've read other Lafferty. I think he has
something out in hardcover and/or limited edition since then, but no names
come into my head.
--
Morris M. Keesan
{decvax,linus,wjh12}!bbncca!keesan
keesan @ BBN-UNIX.ARPA