About​

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This blog is a personal project in which I explore the works of R. A. Lafferty in my spare time. Lafferty was a devout Roman Catholic. My blog tries to read him on his own terms and be clear when I break with him. I start from the premise that Lafferty is always intelligible if one accepts that he is trying to convert one’s sense of reality. I differ from almost all other Lafferty readers because I treat him as an esoteric text—a deliberately coded, systematic theological architecture that uses the outer shell of science fiction to smuggle in difficult, orthodox, and radical metaphysical arguments.

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A typical post might include three parts: a summary, an interpretation, and some visual aids or other curiosities to help readers approach Lafferty’s writing in their own way. The directive is, I mostly love this thing, but I won't lie for it, nor will I run reputational cover. If you read the blog, you will see that I am critical of how Lafferty has been handled by most Lafferty scholars, especially on the issue of Holocaust denial. There are some signs that this is changing after my work here.

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The Resources section features tools I built for my own use as I learned Lafferty over six months. They're really learning documents, but I thought others might find them useful too. If you are brand new to Lafferty, some tips can be found on the Getting Started with Lafferty post and the one on The Whole Lafferty. 

 

You can reach me at mumbrumber101@gmail.com. Reach out if you want to talk about Lafferty or if I can help with your own Lafferty research. 

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Other Resources

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The R. A. Lafferty Papers – University of Tulsa – Archival collection at the University of Tulsa.

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The R. A. Lafferty Papers – University of Iowa – Manuscripts housed at the University of Iowa.

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The Lafferty Estate – Official estate website.

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The Bibliography – Indexed at ISFDB.

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Luminist Archives – Science Fiction – Digital archive of science fiction magazines and publications.

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Blogs & Discussions

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Failing Even Better – A Lafferty-focused blog.

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Continued on Next Rock – Andrew Ferguson’s Lafferty blog.

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The Ants of God Are Queer Fish – Daniel Otto Petersen’s Lafferty blog.

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Yet Another Lafferty Blog – Kevin Cheek’s Lafferty blog.

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Dedicated to R. A. Lafferty – A Lafferty appreciation site.

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