And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. And Adah bare Jabal: he was the father of such as dwell in tents, and of such as have cattle. And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. —Genesis 4:19–22 Those students who are now developin

Condillac angrily beat on the lower part of the statue with his leaded cane, breaking off toes. “I will not be lectured by a rock!” he crackled. “You have not these ideas originally, and mature brain matter will reject such. Therefore, you have them not! Reason is the thing, Statue, rationality. We promulgate it. It spreads. It prevails. The tomorrow world will be the world of total reason.” “No, it will be the Revolution,” said Rock-Head. “A world condemned to such short far

ALEX Yes, I've known him a long time, Mary. I knew him when he was a boy named John Salt. And before he was a Faith Man he was a Pitch Man. He brought the pentecostal touch even to peddling potato peelers. He came very near to calling down the fire of Heaven on those who would not buy. He left a lot of house-wives shaken up, with that little peeler in their hand, and the dazed look in the eye. Before that I knew him as a boy. There are legends about him even from his boyhood,

“Mr. Hamadryad” is a wonderfully weird Lafferty story. It follows a traveling coconut salesman who has three encounters with an eccentric cosmologist whose explanations of ancient monuments lead to a disturbing account of the world’s past and future. Meeting in Dongola, Oklahoma City, and Easter Island, the two figures discuss fallen races, faith that moves mountains, and, a topic that Lafferty explored quite a few times, the approaching replacement of our muddled human world

MINDWEBS was a weekly half-hour radio series created by Michael Hanson and Steve Gordon for WHA/WERN, Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison. Instead of conventional radio plays, listeners heard readings of science-fiction and fantasy stories, usually performed by Hanson and accompanied by music, sound effects, and a handful of other voices. The series began in 1975 and continued into the 1980s. Although the Lafferty letters I have read never mention it, MINDWEBS adapted his “Hand