The Man Who Didn't Tall Tales

"The principal difference is that Lafferty plays them for laughs and sheer absurdity—his mode is the tall tale. If Paul Bunyan had not come first, Lafferty would have made him up."

So here's a late-night Saturday rant after a nightcap or two. Once again, someone explained Lafferty to everyone in the Facebook Lafferty group, and it was what one would expect. Lafferty, teller of tall tales. Over there, that's Paul Bunyan. It puts me in mind of a savage moment from Douglas Nash Bush. Reviewing a book, he said, I have been unable to find one new fact. This is not about condescension. It’s a demand for a writer you care about: be smarter.

Here are a few reasons people might want to rethink this tiny box Lafferty gets placed in and consider why he might be an artist who appears to tell tall tales, and why the tall tale toe scuffle is a bit like saying that Mark Twain writes local color.

1. Myth, not mere exaggeration.

2. Serious philosophical scaffolding.

3. Wildly experimental forms.

4. Coherent long-game world building.

5. Ethical and theological gravity.

6. Precision under play.

7. Alternate logics with rigor.

8. Global, not just American resources: Irish, Biblical, etc.

9. Characters as communities.

10. Genre range that breaks the tall tale box.