01 Misc Laff

The first of a series of posts. For about a month, I have been typing up a Lafferty compendium, which is full of fascinating material: a partially written Camiroi story about a rhino fair, clues to the “Men Who Knew Everything” story sequence, an abandoned sequel to “Slow Tuesday Night,” reasonably worked out stories such as the "The Wheel and the Shoosh" about the invention of time/being and space, abandoned poetry, where Lafferty derived titles (“And Mad Undancing Bears”), how he cross-codes characters, the other Aurelia called Aurelia With Horns (the one he told Sheryl Smith about), and sundry projects that never came to pass, such as a plan to rewrite (or revise) "Cabrito” and dozens of unwritten stories. To give a sense of the fun things in it, I want to share a little of Lafferty’s busted material:

[1 — Glass eye passage:]

the glass eye. I used it after I lost one of my baby eyes and before I ~~got~~ [it?] got my permanent eye.

[2 — Narrator not real:]

the narrator gradually discovers that he is not real, that he is a standing joke made up by a bunch of young people as a ~~catch~~-all for their ~~[?]~~ imaginations.

[3 — ‘Browobust’ / witchcraft:]

‘[Pass?] — Browobust. / In contrast to this (witchcraft) it will be noted that the good miracles . . . one always [?] acts of [?] restoration.

[4 — Eagle / noble creature:]

Where has the eagle been denominated a noble creature? There must be some mistaken identity here. [Note: Past Master, Barry Malzberg poem, “Leptophlebo”]

[5 — Certain men / Comets:]

{circled:} Certain men return at wide intervals like Comets. And, after a while, the intervals become more irregular, and the men begin to break up [?] [?] falls off him. [Note: “Boomer Flats”]

[6 — Biological significance / adolescence:]

Is there biological significance, even signs of a mutation, in the greatly lengthened adolescence, the long receptive and nocturne period between thirteen and twenty-five?

[7 — Guardian angel / rat:]

Like guardian angels, there is a rat for every person in the world.

That last is particularly wonderful.