01 Worldwide Laff: Japan
This might be a rather far-fetched analogy, but Lafferty’s style is somewhat similar to that of Seabozu, the ghost monster that appeared in episode 35 of the tokusatsu drama Ultraman (the original series), titled “Monster Graveyard” (directed by Akio Jissoji, written by Mamoru Sasaki). As anyone who has seen this episode knows, Seabozu is a monster with a grotesque appearance, with its exposed skeleton, and is known as a “ghost monster.” However, Seabozu did not appear on Earth to harm humanity. A rocket launched by humanity into space simply brought Seabozu back to Earth by mistake, as it was drifting in the “monster graveyard.” In this “Monster Graveyard” episode, it is suggested that the Monster Graveyard was the last “place of rest” for the monsters, who are hated wherever they go. Indeed, Seabozu also seems to want to return to the Monster Graveyard, as he looks up at the sky and howls sadly.Thus, although Seabozu is grotesque in appearance, its actions and behavior, as described in the story, make it a helpless and pathetic monster, like a lost child, a “space orphan.” The way Seabozu walks with its head bowed sadly, and how it tries to kick a pebble (?) but misses and falls over, are clearly “cute” and designed to evoke a “child.” So, just as Seabozu is a “grotesque but cute monster” that was unwillingly brought to “Earth” from the “Monster Graveyard,” wouldn’t it be fair to say that some of the characters Lafferty depicts, and Lafferty himself, are also “monsters that were unwillingly brought from the other world to this world”? Of course, Lafferty has the appearance of an “adult,” and therefore he wears the appearance (image) of a “drunk, boastful old man,” which is not generally well-received, but I got the feeling that inside him there might be “a Seabozu.” —Nenkan Dokushojin (年間読書人), “The Endearing ‘Tall-Tale Monster’: On R. A. Lafferty”, note, December 20, 2021. Translated from the Japanese.
Cholfin's SINDBAD the 13th VOYAGE has been sold in both the Italian Version and the Japanese. I got a check yesterday from Virginia [Kidd] for $1,750.00 on the Japanese. So unlikely things do catch on. —Letter, April 20, 1991
Every morning I get a report on what people are saying about Lafferty across the internet, including posts from outside the Anglosphere, thanks to some agentic tools I built. It's one of the things I enjoy most about being a Lafferty reader in 2026, and I've learned a lot from it about how Lafferty is read elsewhere, so I thought I'd start sharing some here in case you haven't explored it yourself. Today: Japan, France, and Russia. I'll add others later. Italy and Germany are probably the most interesting. My idea is to give English readers a glimpse of what's going on elsewhere through browser translation, and open many hours of reading if you already know what is available in English. I recommend opening the links in a new tab and telling your browser to always translate.
As you might know, the Japanese seem to get Lafferty in a way other cultures don't. Lafferty's Japanese publication history now extends over more than half a century. ISFDB records Japanese translations of at least thirty-one stories, including "Rainbird" in 1967 and "Eurema's Dam" in 1974, as well as Nine Hundred Grandmothers, translated by Hisashi Asakura and published by Hayakawa in 1981, with a paperback edition following in 1988. Kiichirō Yanashita later translated Space Chantey in 2005 and Fourth Mansions in 2013. Shinji Maki's two-volume Lafferty Best Collection gathered thirty-nine stories in 2021, nineteen in the first volume and twenty in the second. A separate Hayakawa collection offered nine stories in their first Japanese translations in 2022.
