“We all say the same things, we all think the same thoughts, we all have the same feelings and pleasures,” the precis machine played. “Both love and hate disappear, for they were two aspects of the same thing—a mantle that was worn by our species in its childhood. We stand unencumbered before the grian-sun. We are the sun. We are everything. We merge. We lose both being and non-being, for both are particulars. We become the extensible and many-dimensioned sphere that has neit

“I have watched the wheels go round in case I might see the living creatures like the appearance of lamps, in case I might see the Living God projected from the Machine. I have said to the perfected steel, be my sister and for the glassy towers I thought I felt some beginnings of his creature, But A, a, a, Domine Deus , my hands found the glazed work unrefined and the terrible crystal a stage-paste . . . Eia, Domine Deus .” — David Jones , “ A, a, a, Domine Deus ” I caught th

“Accordingly, in this two-cleft arrangement of administrative functions, it is the duty of the technicians to plan the work and to carry it on; and it is the duty of the captains of industry to see that the work will benefit none but the captains and their associated absentee owners, and that it is not pushed beyond the salutary minimum which their commercial traffic will bear. In all that concerns the planning and execution of the work done, the technicians necessarily take

But the synthetic Trislan was not a remembering metal. What did it have to remember? It had just been born. It was not a talking stone. It was not the Philosopher’s Stone, nor the Alchemist’s Stone, nor the Touchstone by which all things could be tested, not the King’s Stone that would cure almost all diseases and deficiencies. It hadn't the knack of inculcating sanity, piety, rectitude, good humor, and happiness. And the owners of the small totalities from the fractured ston

Gershom Scholem was a unique exception in his field, as he persistently tried to investigate the relationship between 2 Enoch and the Jewish mystical traditions. Even though his observations on possible parallels between 2 Enoch and Jewish texts are not systematic, they are perceptive and can provide many insights for students of 2 Enoch . — Andrei A. Orlov, “Secrets of Creation in 2 (Slavonic) Enoch,” in From Apocalypticism to Merkabah Mysticism: Studies in the Slavonic P

“There is Cavour. He has hardly begun in the world, but look how well-developed his web is. There is Lord Acton in England. There is Montalambert. There is poor Lamennais who will officially go to Hell. There is Mordecai or Marx who has been spinning a web in Paris and other places. Notice the exceptionally long anchor lines of his web, though the body of his web will always be paltry.” — The Flame Is Green (1971) “There is a secret society of eleven persons that is behind al

Lafferty drew on ideas from Gnosticism for many of his most important short stories, from "Snuffles" to "The All At-Once Man" to "In the Turpenine Trees": The gaps in historians' knowledge about Gnosticism were grist for his metaphysical imagination throughout his writing career. I’d like to have a post on this blog where I can keep updating my understanding of this side of Lafferty’s work. That’s the purpose of this space. It will include a timeline of how the West has under

“What we eat out of your minds are the most serious things that your minds are capable of holding. What we steal and eat out of your bodies are the tastiest things in your bodies. We come to table on you, and we feast on you.” Lafferty returns often to the idea of privation as a threat to the person. Of the many examples one could point to, his best-known is probably Ouden in Past Master —Ouden, the nothingness. “It displeased Ouden that any be . . . He has a jealous maw.” “W

“The answer to the Mystery of Matter (why should there even be so cumbersome a thing as matter? Why did the Word have to be made Flesh? Was not the Making of Matter rather a cheap, and also difficult, trick for a Spirit to indulge in?) — the answer to this contains the answer to the question ‘How Did God Get to be God?’” — “In the Turpentine Trees” (1983) "Snuffles" on my mind. It was a good excuse to reread the edited transcript of the LaffCon3 panel on the story. It was a

“People are easily fooled. But there are tests for reality." — The Three Armageddons of Enniscorthy Sweeny This will be the last I have to say about Lafferty’s Holocaust denial for a while, unless it becomes directly relevant to an argument about a specific story. I have thought a great deal about what an intellectually serious counterargument to my work on Lafferty and Holocaust denial would require, as any responsible person would. The first and most significant obstacle i

Oh, as to details, the music of the opera, though rotten, is superbly rotten. The costuming and staging is splendid. And all the singing...

That’s Blarney Castle in County Cork, which Lafferty likely had in mind when he wrote “Square and Above Board.” The story has a strong 1940s feel. It plays like Lafferty’s version of a supernatural romantic comedy— Blithe Spirit (1945), I Married a Witch (1942), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), Topper (1937), or The Canterville Ghost (1944). Lafferty wrote it in the 1980s, and it appeared, appropriately, in the October 1982 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Ficti

Andrew Ferguson’s view of how L.H. fits in Lafferty’s early career development as a writer seems right to me on all the key points. This kind of bibliographic work is Ferguson’s strength. Lafferty also made it easy for us because often wrote on his MS his submission histories with dates, and he kept note cards . By 1961, he had written Dotty and Archipelago , though Archipelago had not taken final form. He was starting to think about how to bring characters scattered acr

HILOBROW is an internet treasure, with its smart group of contributors and good taste. Two of my favorite features on the site are the lists of adventure fiction and adventures for young readers. The latter are adventures that preceded the YA marketing category's transformation of the publishing space into what it is now, impoverished. Of course, Lafferty didn’t write straight adventure fiction, and he didn’t write juveniles, but among his fragments and unfinished stories is

“What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.” — Francis Bacon, “Of Truth,” Essays, 3rd ed. (1625) “But is your information and discoveries correct?” Judy asked. “What is correct?” Austro asked, looking like an owl. “What do you think of the ethics of wearing such a face, Austro?” “What is right?” asked Austro, looking like an owl. “What is not-quite-right? What, on the face of it, is a face?” “What's behind this funny false face caper anyhow?” “W

Today, theistic evolution and an unexpected connection to Lafferty's unpolished “Claudius and Charles.” By the time I was growing up, most Catholics had made their peace with theistic evolution, an ongoing attempt to bring Christian theology into harmony with the modern synthesis . That effort is not new, and it long predates Darwin. Early Church Fathers like St. Augustine of Hippo spoke of rationes seminales , or “seminal reasons.” He believed that God had placed hidden pote

"LAUGHING KELLY' Black comedy about the burials of several Lafferty characters. The titular Kelly won’t go quietly. His laughter continues from the grave. Here one thinks of The Devil is Dead and its "Diabolique." " A STRINGLESS-FIDDLE NOTION" This nonsense verse tells the story of an inventor. He creates an impossible stringless fiddle and uses its music to bake waffles. He and his partners open a successful restaurant. Lafferty having fun. "SYLVESTER" Surreal and melanchol

Imagine that in front of you are four Lafferty levers: plot, character, madcap, and tempo. My favorite Lafferty story (not his best by far) is what he called his Collier ’s Piece, the early "Saturday You Die" (1959)—an autobiographical account in the psychological sense: it captures what it must have felt like to be Lafferty as a child. I think it’s a story that opens a clear view into many of his extraordinary children and why he creates them. But I’m already getting off top

“That may well be,” I argue. “Sex may be implicit in everything. But I want it out of everything and right here in one piece where I can see it and smell it and taste it and feel it and watch it. When is the main act? When do the people do it? What is this run-around that you keep giving me?” — “Sex and Sorcery” (1973) There are more than a few unrealized but fascinating story premises and unfinished fragments in Tulsa . One of the stranger and more interesting is “Told as Tw

“Bertigrew Bagley was fat and ungainly, grown old ungracefully, balded and shaggy at the same time, rheumy of eyes and with his mouth full of rotten teeth, discredited, violent and vulgar: an earthen pot, and a cracked one at that.”— Fourth Mansions (1969) The French surgeon René Leriche once said that “Health is life lived in the silence of the organs.” Lafferty’s “Rang Dang Kaloof” is about what happens when a gnome makes them scream. It’s one of his funniest stories, and