Feast of Laughter #4

An Appreciation of R. A. Lafferty Fourth Edition - February, 2017 Ktistec Press Feast of Laughter: Volume 4 Feast of Laughter An Appreciation of R. A. Lafferty Volume 4, February 1, 2017 Published by The Ktistec Press All works in this volume copyright © 2017, 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: “Facing the Storm” © 2016, Ward Shipman Rear cover: “Thoughts on The Rod and the Ring” © 2017 Ward Shipman. Cover layout: Anthony Ryan Rhodes ISBN-13: 978-0998536408 ISBN-10: 0998536407 Contact: Feast of Laughter The Ktistec Press 10745 N. De Anza Blvd. Unit 313 Cupertino, CA 95014 www.feastoflaughter.org [email protected] ii Table of Contents At the Twenty-Fifth Hour – Introduction Introduction - It Must Not End ..................................................... 8 The Shape of Things to Come – New Essays Graced Narratives: Themes of Gift and Will in R.A. Lafferty by John Ellison ....................................................................... 12 Lafferty and Milford by Andrew Ferguson ............................... 27 “There Are Three Ways to Open a Secret Door”: R.A. Lafferty’s Bricolage Aesthetic by Gregorio Montejo ............................................................ 31 On Thunder Mountain – Lightning Essays R. A. Lafferty and the Praise of Power by Jonathan Braschler ......................................................... 137 An Incidence of Coincidence by Russell M. Burden .............. 139 What is The Cranky Old Man From Tulsa Cranky About? by Andrew Childress .......................................................... 141 Baby Talk by Martin Heavisides ................................................ 143 Ouch, My Foot! by Kevin Cheek ............................................... 145 Forked Lightning: Two Micro-essays by Bill Rogers ............. 147 On Re-reading Lafferty ................................................ 147 Shards .............................................................................. 147 Twitterview with Michael Swanwick by Stephen R. Case ... 149 On Happy Astrobe – Reports from LaffCon 1 Report from LaffCon1 by John Owen ....................................... 151 R. A. Lafferty and the New Wave by Michael Swanwick ..... 154 Viva Lafferty! by Rich Persaud .................................................. 156 LaffCon Memory by Alan Reid ................................................... 161 3 Feast of Laughter: Volume 4 My Grave, and I in It – Reprinted Essays New Dimensions: R.A. Lafferty Introductions by Robert Silverberg ........................................................... 164 Scribbling Giant: An Introduction to R. A. Lafferty and East of Laughter by Gene Wolfe - Available in print only due to copyright restrictions, see www.feastoflaughter.org Introduction to “The Configuration of the North Shore” by Gardner Dozois .............................................................. 168 Arrive At Easterwine: Some Arrant Roadmapping by Sheryl Smith ................................................................... 170 Varieties of Apocalypse in Science Fiction by Andrew M. Greeley - Available in print only due to copyright restrictions, see www.feastoflaughter.org Hooking the World on Lafferty By Kevin Cheek ................... 185 Remembering Ray Lafferty by Joseph L. Green ..................... 188 HUMAN by Dan Knight ............................................................ 193 King-Maker – Reviews R. A. Lafferty—Aurelia (1982) by David Langford ................ 197 Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to Add? by Stephen R. Case ............................................................. 200 At the Naked Sailor – Interviews with Lafferty Cranky Old Man From Tulsa An Interview With R.A. Lafferty by Darrell Schweitzer ........................................ 204 Maybe They Needed Killing & the Importance Of Happiness: An Interview with R. A. Lafferty by Robert Whitaker Sirignano ......................................... 216 The Deformity of Things to Come – Works Inspired by Lafferty A Crocodile Who Wanted to Fly by Yakov Varganov .......... 245 Three Mountain Works by Bill Rogers ................................... 250 Come to the Mountain ................................................ 250 Only a Magic Mountain ............................................... 251 Come to the Mountain ................................................. 252 The Carrion King by Logan Giannini ....................................... 254 Eccentrexity by J Simon .............................................................. 256 I See Through All of Me, I See For Parsecs by Daniel Otto Jack Petersen ............................................ 272 4 Driving East by Stephen R. Case ............................................... 279 Beginning or End of the Universe by Martin Heavisides ..... 288 A Little Song, A Little Dance, A Little Apocalypse Down Your Pants by Robert T. Jeschonek ........................................... 292 Why Mary Margaret Road-Grader? by Kevin Cheek .......... 309 Mary Margaret Road-Grader by Howard Waldrop ............... 311 Nine Day King – The Master’s Own Work Brief Thoughts on “The Rod and the Ring” by Lawrence Person .................................................................................... 329 Thoughts about Lafferty’s “The Rod and the Ring” by Darrell Schweitzer ............................................................................ 331 The Rod and the Ring by R. A. Lafferty ................................... 333 The Day After the World Ended by R. A. Lafferty ............... 344 The Ultimate People – List of Contributors List of Contributors ..................................................................... 354 The Ktistec Press ............................................................ 355 “Rimrock the Ansel” © 2017 Bill Rogers 5 Dedication Dedicated to my father, John Cheek (1935 – 2016), who taught me to read everything, and to question everything I read. This issue is also dedicated to Robert Bee and the staff of the Mercer County Library System in Lawrenceville, NJ, who so graciously hosted LaffCon 1, the first in what we hope will be a growing, living tradition of Lafferty Conventions. Thank you! 6 Illustration © 2017 Bill Rogers 7 Introduction - It Must Not End R. A. Lafferty exhorted the SF writers attending the 1979 DeepSouthCon to create new worlds with the words “It must not end.” He said the world we had known until very recently had vanished without notice or fanfare, and it was up to writers to bring new worlds into existence by the powers of their collective imaginations. This speech was published as the essay “The Day After the World Ended,” and we are lucky to have reprinted it here—turn to the last few pages of this issue. This issue of Feast of Laughter is loosely built around a theme of world building. We are trying to create and maintain the world of Lafferty studies and to preserve the worlds he so graciously gave us. The ingredients here are an eclectic mix of old names and new, well-known and unknown, of essays, artwork, poems, opinions, and stories. And one great first. In this issue of Feast of Laughter we are publishing for the first time, Lafferty’s story “The Rod and the Ring.” Let me say this again: we are publishing for the first time a new Lafferty story!! This is the first unpublished Lafferty story to see the light of print in fourteen years, since Steve Pasechnick published “There’ll Always be Another Me” in 2003. We owe a massive word of thanks to the Locus Foundation and the JABberwocky Literary Agency for making this literary coup possible. Read this apocalyptic, almost-the-end-of-the-world story for yourself and see how it complements the motif of world building. Darrell Schweitzer and Lawrence Person introduce and review “The Rod and the Ring” in this issue, and R. Ward Shipman created our magnificent back cover as a response and interpretation of the story. There are other worlds, worldlets, and pocket universes packed into this issue. Gardner Dozois and Robert Silverberg introduce several of Lafferty’s worlds. Gene Wolfe directly explores Lafferty’s role as a builder of worlds in his seminal essay “Scribbling Giant.” Michael Swanwick gives us a report on LaffCon. And we have another befuddlingly brilliant story from Howard Waldrop. 8 Kevin Cheek There are also literary cosmoses created by authors who are perhaps worthy of the same accolades and who I hope will soon be as well known. Experience the surreal worlds brought into existence by J Simon, Stephen R. Case, and Daniel Otto Jack Petersen. See a show in the almost-too-familiar world of Robert Jeshonek. Climb the mountains with Bill Rogers and dance with Logan Giannini. And many others—31 in all. Some creative world maintenance issues must be attended to here as well: Feast of Laughter is moving to a longer publication cycle. The first three issues increased in quality, each above the previous. Realistically, it takes about a year to maintain the same standards in publication. After all this is volunteer work by a dedicated group of enthusiastic Lafferty fans who all have families and day jobs. Therefore, the Feast will now be prepared annually. Deadlines for Feast of Laughter 5 • Expression of interest: August 31, 2017 • Content: October 31, 2017 • Tentative publication date, January 2018 Lafferty said we must write to build the new world, and we at Feast of Laughter are trying to

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