An Appreciation of R. A. Lafferty
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An Appreciation of R. A. Lafferty Volume 3 - November 7, 2015 Ktistec Press Feast of Laughter An Appreciation of R. A. Lafferty Feast of Laughter: Issue 3 Volume 3, November 7, 2015 Published by The Ktistec Press All works in this volume copyright © 2015, unless otherwise stated. All copyrights held by the original authors and artists, unless otherwise stated. All works used with permission of the copyright holders. Front cover: “The North Shore” © 2015, Lissanne Lake Front cover layout: Anthony Ryan Rhodes Rear cover © 2015 Anthony Ryan Rhodes, derived from “Lafferty's Tulsa Office Door” Photos © 2015 Warren Brown, http://warrenbrown.synthasite.com, used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. ISBN-13: 978-0692586518 ISBN-10: 0692586512 ii Editor’s Note Often on long road trips with my family, I tell shaggy dog stories. My favorite is the story of John the test pilot, Nate the 4672-year-old talking snake, and the lever that holds the world together. If I’m feeling inspired, and we have enough open road, I can spin the story out to 45 minutes or an hour, building larger and better plot elements and twists before arriving at the inevitable punch line, “Better Nate than lever.” This volume of Feast of Laughter was intended for publication on November 7, 2015 in honor of R. A. Lafferty’s 101st birthday. It is far larger than any of our previous issues, and has even better essays, stories, and interviews. It also was a lot of work for our dedicated core of Ktistec Press volunteers, all of whom have families and day jobs and other such distractions. So here it is December 26, and this has taken far longer than we expected. I hope you will accept my apologies and agree with me, better late than never. iii Feast of Laughter: Issue 3 Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................... 1 Introduction to the Boomer Flats Gazette by Dan Knight ........ 3 World Abounding - New Essays Ray by Rick Norwood ..................................................................... 7 One Cannot Give Too Many Instances by John Ellison ........... 11 Eudaimonism in R.A. Lafferty’s Aurelia by Gregorio Montejo ............................................................ 21 Outside the Cathedral by Kevin Cheek ..................................... 44 Copyright, Copyleft, Copyfuture by Rich Persaud ................. 52 Lafferty and His Monsters - Part 1: The Early Works by Daniel Otto Jack Petersen .............................................. 55 The Annals and Ace; or, The Textual History of an Historical Text by Andrew Ferguson ................................................... 93 All But the Words - Translating Lafferty From Russia with Laff: A Very Brief Report on R.A. Lafferty’s Russian Translations by Niyaz N. Abdullin ................... 100 Bright Coins in a Never-Ending Stream - Reprinted Essays R. A. Lafferty: Effective Arcanum by Don Webb ................. 105 A Sound of Lafferty by Roman Orszanski ............................... 115 R. A. Lafferty: The Function of Archetype in the Western Mystical Tradition by Dena C. Bain Taylor .................... 128 Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne by Paul Kincaid .................. 152 R.A. Lafferty, Sir Thomas More, and the Problems of Utopia by Robert Bee ....................................................................... 159 Introduction to R.A. Lafferty’s The Fall of Rome by Darrell Schweitzer ........................................................ 169 Introduction to The Devil Is Dead by Charles Platt ............... 175 In Deepest Pen and Ink - Laffertian Illustration Hound Dog’s Ear illustrations by Lissanne Lake .................... 186 iv Through Other Eyes - Reviews The Man Who Made Models - Review by Stephen Case ..... 189 Past Master by R. A. Lafferty by MPorcius ............................. 194 Utopia by Thomas More by MPorcius .................................. 200 R.A. Lafferty — Apocalypses (1977) by Gene McHugh ......... 205 Club Mentiros - Works inspired by Lafferty Three Poems by Bill Rogers ........................................................ 209 DOMOVOI ................................................................... 209 THE GREEN MORNING ............................................ 212 MARTINMAS WEEK ................................................. 214 The Lost Children of Boo-Hay World by Daniel Otto Jack Petersen ............................................. 216 Who Was That? by Martin Heavisides .................................. 233 People are Strange by Christopher Blake ................................ 242 Justice by Dan Knight ................................................................. 256 An Afterword to “Justice” by Gregorio Montejo ................... 266 Bone Girl by J Simon .................................................................... 271 Barstone by Stephen R. Case ...................................................... 292 Correspondence with the Cranky Old Man from Tulsa Letter from Alan Dean Foster to R. A. Lafferty ..................... 300 R. A. Lafferty’s Reply to Alan Dean Foster .............................. 302 Letter from Alan Dean Foster Nominating Lafferty for the Arrell Gibson Life Achievement Award ......................... 304 Guesting Time - Interview An Interview with Harlan Ellison by Andrew Mass ............. 306 The Man With the Aura - Lafferty's own words! Don’t Just Read Lafferty, Be Lafferty! by Anthony Ryan Rhodes ................................................... 318 Tell It Funny, Og by R. A. Lafferty ........................................... 320 Configuration Of The North Shore by R. A. Lafferty .......... 325 List of Contributors ...................................................................... 341 v Feast of Laughter: Issue 3 Dedication This issue is dedicated to the memory of Cuyler Warnell “Ned” Brooks, Jr. (1938-2015) of Lilburn, GA, USA. Ned was a science-fiction fanzine publisher and archivist of more than 12,000 fanzines and 300 typewriters. He collected R.A. Lafferty's works and met Ray several times at southern conventions. Ned generously provided Feast of Laughter with access to R.A. Lafferty fanzines such as Dan Knight's Boomer Flats Gazette and Guy H. Lillian III's Challenger, helping us to preserve priceless Lafferty history. vi This work © 2015 Anthony Ryan Rhodes vii Feast of Laughter: Issue 3 viii Introduction Once was a phenomenon, twice was amazing, three times—we may just be onto something. This is the third issue of Feast of Laughter in celebration of R. A. Lafferty’s 101st birthday on November 7. When we started this a little over a year ago, we had no idea how well it would turn out, how huge each issue would become, and just how much effort would go into it from a small army of artists, editors and publishers. Our originally conceived fanzine has grown into a “bookzine” (a neologism from Michael Swanwick, for which we are thankful). This is truly a collaborative effort, and tremendous thanks must be given to the members of the editing team, neglecting family and day jobs to bring this labor of love to fruition. See the list of contributors at the back of the book. We have something else to be thankful for in this issue. The rights to Lafferty's literary estate are now owned by the Locus Foundation, and represented by the JABberwocky Literary Agency. They are among the good guys. They are working to promote the literary recognition and success of writers of real impact and merit. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the fine folks at Locus and Eddie Schneider at JABberwocky for arranging permission for us to reprint “Tell it Funny, Og” and “Configuration of the North Shore.” And while I am thanking people, we need to acknowledge The University of Tulsa McFarlin Library. They are the only reason we have access to some of the manuscripts for which Locus and others have granted permission, from R. A. Lafferty, Alan Dean Foster and Dan Knight. And add another note of thanks to Warren Brown for the photograph of Lafferty’s office door that graces our back cover. Lafferty covered the door of his office with pictures he clipped from books, magazines, and posters turning it into a work of art in itself. The door was exhibited in Tulsa recently when Neil Gaiman came to give a public reading and honor 1 Feast of Laughter: Issue 3 Lafferty’s memory. Warren and several others are working on an analysis of the imagery on the door. I hope we will be able to publish the resulting article in a future issue of Feast of Laughter. Look at the images on the door and see if you can connect any of them to Lafferty’s stories. Mark your calendars and plan to be in New Jersey this summer for the first LaffCon in Lawrenceville, NJ on Saturday, June 4. You can meet some of the Ktistec Press and many fans and writers, small and great, inspired by Lafferty. You can share in the celebration of what most of us have discovered on our own. See the last page of this volume for details. This is what we are on to: Lafferty’s writing is inspiring. Many of the greats in literature, from Michel Houellebecq, the enfant terrible of contemporary French letters, to Harlan Ellison, the former enfant terrible of science fiction (former enfant, still Great and Terrible) have heaped praise on Lafferty and his influence. Many of us among the less great are inspired to create by Lafferty, be it literary or theological exploration, personal essays, or