El Morro in 1868 We will not record what he carved, as he has already done so, and besides, as we said, it was too stilted and stylish. But yet like all the other marks it was capable of variant and fuller translation. Lafferty’s short story “The Cliff Climbers” seems to have been inspired by El Morro National Monument in western New Mexico. It is a massive sandstone bluff, rising some two hundred feet from the high desert floor like a spire. Because of a reliable waterhole

Finnegan had the barrel of the rifle in his hands. Then he had Saxon Seaworthy in his hands, far underwater in a turmoil. Saxon did not die easily or willingly. To lull the grip he went limp as though already gone. Then, thirty seconds later, he erupted with violent writhing so as to break away. It was not easy to throttle a man with so sinewy a neck that was also protected by the pherea , the throat protuberances of an old satyr: and to choke off the air of a man already und

You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late, But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate. Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. — Sarah Williams, “The Old Astronomer to His Pupil” “Tell me when I'm dead,” High Rider mumbled. The girl hammered the two stalks into his eyes. Bam! Bam! “You're dead now,” she said. “This part is fun. Stars for th

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

I refrain from writing "The End" here. It must not end. — "The Day After the World Ended" “C’mon, Justin,” came an ankle-high voice from a small lady, with the red-thread or fairy mark on her throat and with a Jewel-Bird egg in her navel. “These illuminated people get mighty murderous if you don't use their brand of light. They'll kill you. Let's go to the thirteenth. C’mon.” Today I want to look at Lafferty’s “The Emperor’s Shoestrings,” a fun story that doesn’t get much att

“The berserks speak of light as though it were white or golden and as though it were singular. Apparently they cannot even see the shattered and dynamic psychedelic lights nor even the kaleidoscopic psychedelic sun. And the berserks, the marching virgins, are serious in their madness.” Only at first glance. In reality he had the plastic smooth, primordial, unfinished look of a typhonian. He could still bemolded into anything. But the noise of him and of his apparatus! Most re

With this hobby blog approaching three hundred posts, it is time to codify the assumptions that have been guiding it. If you are here mainly for commentary on specific Lafferty stories, this post serves as a blueprint for how the blog approaches his work. Understanding Science Fiction and Lafferty's Unique Perspective A helpful way to define science fiction is as a shared set of expectations—what writers tend to assume is possible in the genre, and what readers have been trai

“He is fifty-three years, seven months, and nine days old. His calculated worth is three hundred and twenty-two thousand dollars (my own calculation but a close one); you are his heir, Clinton. He is, moreover, highly insured withsuch a multiplicity of policies that it is almost impossible to tabulate them, or even to be sure that I know about the mall. He is unsound of heart, liver, lung, kidney, and stomach; has high blood pressure, ulcers, and Evan's Disease; in short, he

Over the Christmas break, I have been considering teaching Past Master next summer and posting the lecture recordings. I would probably begin with Heideggerian categories and work backward, letting the novel’s Thomistic and other Christian elements come into clearer focus by contrast. I would also likely assign Paul Kingsnorth’s recent Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity as a supplementary text, given how directly it speaks to the questions Past Master raises

Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way asthe others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened: and one must becontent to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is God’s myth where the othersare men’s myths: i.e. the Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds ofpoets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himselfthrough what we call "real things." — C. S.

“Well, I had been wondering about a thing in me, but I hadn’t thought of him as a bookworm. I hadn’t connected him at all with my new love of reading. ‘Are you a bookworm?’ I asked him. ‘Do I look like a bookworm?’ he asked. ‘Brainless oaf!’ As with the workman Pyoter, I had no précis type for this thing either. He was the other, the stranger. He was the outsider inside me. ‘What are you then?’ I asked him. (If someone is inside me I have theright to know who he is.) ‘I’m a

Some wonderful person is selling this "Hadmade Realistic Silcone Mask, Mr Hamadryad, Halloween Mask" on Etsy. It will only cost you $729.98 https://www.etsy.com/listing/547013835/handmade-realistic-silicone-mask-mr I do not deny in the least that the rational nature will always keep its free will, but I declare that the power and effectiveness of Christ's cross and of his death, which he took upon himself toward the end of the aeons, are so great as to be enough to set right

Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday, We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning, We shall have what to do after firing. But today, Today we have naming of parts. — Henry Reed, "Naming of Parts" (1942) An opinion. It is unhelpful critically, as a matter of Lafferty-talk, to call him reactionary , and I mean to make a case for that. No one needs to be told that the word reactionary is a political insult. That is beside the point. The problem is that it fails to touch on

Philosophy today. Lafferty pretty clearly rejected what the philosophy of science calls the demarcation problem , the idea that one might establish clear, objective criteria separating real science from non-science. Put simply, it is the benighted hope that there exists a line, discoverable in principle, between science and everything else. Today’s story signifies it as the line between sheep and goats, kids and lambs. People want such a line for all kinds of reasons. A major

“No, no, our heads don't itch at all,” Horace Rand protested. “The Pruritus-meters are running and they say that your heads do itch,” the chief of the WHEW crew said. “This Boding Itch” is not widely read, but the in-story appearance of Arpad Arutinov makes it a treat. Lafferty readers know that Arutinov is one of the great paratextual reservoirs of Lafferty’s conceits, a scholar-character who usually appears only in headnotes or passing references. Here, he steps out of his

“What would not I give to wander Where my old companions dwell? Absence makes the heart grow fonder; Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!” — Thomas Haynes Bayly, “Isle of Beauty” The noonday devil is walking among the Cepheids, and Lucifer who fell like lightning is still falling. At the same time Christ has not been born, and the time is today, and the world has already ended and exploded into something bigger. We are all of us contemporaries for we all live in eternity. Belloc

The chrysolite of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air. — Job 28:19–21 But in another visible world, completely unrelated to the first and occupying absolutely a different space (but both occupying total space), were the green swamps of Africa . . . The Elliptical Grave (1989) is one of L

“All of you children go into the dollhouse, and stay there for the present,” said Captain Keil. “I don't want you running around.” “I explained once that it was a clubhouse,” said Carnadine, her jaw grim . . . So first, the facts. We end with metaphors. “Enfant Terribles” (originally " Blood Off a Knife ") is an early Lafferty mystery, written in 1959 but not published until 1971, when it appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine . Two years after finishing it, Lafferty wro