Both Oliver and the shell had these deep, black, shiny eyes that were either mockingly lively or completely dead — with such shiny, black things it was hard to say which. Men have become the tools of their tools. — Henry David Thoreau Lafferty seems to have liked the idea of shells being communication devices. This is most evident in today’s short story and in his novel Sindbad: The 13th Voyage . They share a pattern. In each, shells are deceptive (at least in appearance) com

“In Outraged Stone." This is the stubborn refusal to accept that there is no transcendence, that there is no ultimate reality. When they try to tell you that you are only an artifact in a collection, that you are not alive, that you have never been alive, that is the time to get mad ”— "Introduction," Ringing Changes (1984) And the five young mind-scientists from Earth. Five? Not six? Christopher, George. Philip, Bonta, Helen,Margaret. Do they not come to six? No. There

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. — Psalm 1:1–3 “Scorner’s Seat” is a pungent, funky slice of Lafferty—a story full of algae and sewer stench. It grew out of his correspondenc