kipple

She made the whole era seem worthwhile as it came to its end. R. A. Lafferty, “St Poleander’s Eve” (1979)

Otto had outdone Otto again tonight.

“I have a notion,” said the young female bear Dubu, “that the answer to all the hard questions are written on the inside of one single Acorn somewhere. This particular acorn, if placed in lye-water, will swell to a billion times its original size, and then it will burst open. And whole mountains-full of writing will come tumbling out of it. Then everyone can come and read it and enjoy it and know everything. The only difficulty is knowing which acorn in the world is the right one. I believe that there are clues pointing directly to the right acorn, but we do not notice them because they are so big and so plain and so close to our noses.” R. A. Lafferty, Serpent’s Egg (1987)

‘It was all strong talk with the horns and hooves still on it.’ (R. A. Lafferty, The Devil is Dead)

There was a chorus of cicadas about them and below. And Papapaleologus the donkey was chomping grass in the narrow glen beneath their feet. The moon lacked a week of being full, but the night was very bright. Here on top was nothing but rocks and gnarled old branches and stump trees. That is the way the top of the world always looks. But by Greek moon it was even stranger. Moonlight is different in Greece. As you know, it was the Greeks who invented the moon.

Anastasia sat on the blanket and could see the sea on all sides of the island. Finnegan lay with his head on her lap. Her legs were the color of moonlight and her head was like that of Diana.

[…]

Finnegan’s head was that of a gargoyle, but no matter. They also are noble, or at least they are fitting on a night like this.

(R. A. Lafferty, The Devil is Dead, 1971)

Each of us has his mirror, and mine is more often the microscope. But we cannot see ourselves as we are until we see ourselves distorted. That is why Snuffles is also a mirror for all of us here. We can’t understand why we’re serious until we know why he’s funny. (R. A. Lafferty, “Snuffles”, 1960)

“It’s an open question whether women or bears are the stranger species.” (R.A. Lafferty)

I stand and say that I am the medium of all things, that there are as many things smaller than me as there are larger. But the meanest parasite in a sub-atomic civilization may say the same thing, and so may the shambling oaf whose outline is made up of clustered galaxies. But I ask you: Does this go on forever, or is it circular? The people (or is it the robots?) say that people and robots alternate in cycles. People make robots. Then, after a million years, the robots make people again. Then the robots die out and the people reign alone. After a decent interval, the people make robots again. And the people die once more. There have been many of these cycles. We ourselves are neither people nor robots, though I do not at the moment remember just what we are. R. A. Lafferty, “Symposium” (1973)

There are those who pretend to a greater antiquity for mankind on earth, but the fact is that we are boys only and have all the awkwardness of boys. R. A. Lafferty, Okla Hannali (1972)

Doctor O’Claire, it has been said that a heresy is the revenge of a forgotten truth. I say that every monstrous appearance or movement is the revenge of a strength or variety unused, of a vitality untapped in us. And it looks like a good year for monsters.

R. A. Lafferty, Fourth Mansions (1969)

Mary Deare Dander now had large and glittering thousand-facet insect-type eyes. They would have appeared very ugly to anybody who was born before yesterday, but there were now no such persons. Now everybody was wearing a button that read “I was born anew this morning.” Such persons will soon come to accept and even love thousand-faceted, ugly, insect-type eyes. At least a dozen of the facets of the strange eyes were meaningful, for with them Mary could focus in on scenes on a dozen different worlds including Cloud-Nine Planet. This might be an advantage some time. The enlarged eyes were too big to remain in Mary’s head, so now they were two throbbing, living, baseball-sized, bloodshot-in-seven-colors eyes on the front of Mary Deare’s face.

These new eyes would be the next fashion for the beautiful women of the world, the Augen-Laugen or Lye-in-the-Eye look. Already such orbs were being installed in leading ladies at a million dollars a throw, and both the numbers of them and the price would pick up. Oh yes, objectively they were very ugly, but who was still objective nowadays? Their introduction was part of the upgrading of the sense of beauty for the people of World, the upgrading that would have to be completed before the Cloud-Nine people themselves could appear.

~R. A. Lafferty, ‘Something Rich and Strange’ (1986)

Evita had finally emerged from the monster, glistening with blood and gore, and bearing a great arm-load of Devil brains. R.A. Lafferty, Past Master, 1968.

Look at the mean eyes of that catfish! R.A Lafferty: ‘All Pieces of a River Shore’ (1970)

There is plenty of mud and all of it is good. Spirits of Catfish protect us now! R.A. Lafferty: ‘Boomer Flats’ (1971)

She hugged a lamp post and her heart beat like it would fight its way out of her body. R.A. Lafferty: ‘Through Other Eyes’ (1960)

Can a fish be only an imagining in the mind of a parasite that’s in its own stomach? R.A. Lafferty: Annals of Klepsis (1983)

Wolves often dig graves for giants, and then they direct the people away from them so the giants won’t be disturbed. R.A. Lafferty, East of Laughter, 1988

Rusty McSlim observed and reveled, and bided his time. R.A. Lafferty: ‘Make Sure the Eyes Are Big Enough’ (1982)

His claws were retractable and his digits projective. (R.A. Lafferty, ‘Snuffles’, 1960)

Harry Stonefoot, Gaster Blaster, & Helga Navel (three other high members of Glomerule) entered the meeting room. (R.A. Lafferty)

“When the mouse shall trumpet with the voice of thunder on the mountain, then you will know that the lightning man has wakened from his death,” —so it is written in The Book of Jasher.

The mouse is working on it, he is working on it.

R.A. Lafferty, ‘Flaming-Arrow’ (1985)

Black buzzards were hanging in the hot air discussing whether this would be ‘carrion evening’ or not. (R.A. Lafferty, ‘Tongues of the Matagorda’, 1982)

Only those who walk barefoot can walk on magic ground without crushing small kingdoms. (R.A. Lafferty ‘The Emperor’s Shoestrings’, 1997)

She winked at the machine, and Epikt winked back at her with three tiers of eyes. (R.A. Lafferty, ‘What’s the Name of That Town?’, 1964).

She picked him up, lovingly broke his arms and legs for easier handling, spread him out on the floor, and began to devour him. (R.A. Lafferty)

There are not eyes enough to see the wonder that was rising. (R.A. Lafferty, “Arrive At Easterwine”, 1971)

“Are we magicians that we can boil a man in cold water?” (R.A. Lafferty, “Name of the Snake”, 1964)

The grass pulled the dust over itself again and groaned. The junk reverted to junk. (R.A. Lafferty, “Horns On Their Heads”, 1976)

“And really elegant writing can only be done on the shoulder-blade bones of the Wooly Rhinoceros.” (R.A. Lafferty, “Calamities Of The Last Pauper”, 1982)

“One evening in the Latter Days, Helen brought over some bones and rocks that belonged to her late husband John Palmer. She brought the Moon Whistle too. And she left those things with us. Helen had married again, and to a man who hadn’t known John. And she left all those things with us. And she thought that she’d better get some of those funny old things out of her house. “The Moon Whistle will be no good without you to blow it, Helen,” Hector O’Day said.” (R. A. Lafferty, “You Can’t Go Back”, 1981)

He is a klog pog. He knows the Oslo Puds and the Copenhagen Streg. R.A. Lafferty ‘Adam Had Three Brothers’ (1960)

“The best time to write a story is yesterday. The next best time is today. By tomorrow, you may have lost something.” – R.A. Lafferty

r.a. lafferty ville være blevet 100 år i dag … det 249 sider lange fødselsdagsfanzine i anledning af r.a. laffertys 100-årsdag i går kan nedhentes i pdf-format via dette link: Feast of Laughter.

A thoughtful-man named Maxwell Mouser had just produced a work of actinic philosophy. It took him seven minutes to write it. To write works of philosophy one used the flexible outlines and the idea indexes; one set the activator for such a wordage in each subsection; an adept would use the paradox, feed-in, and the striking-analogy blender; one calibrated the particular-slant and the personality-signature. It had to come out a good work, for excellence had become the automatic minimum for such productions.

“I will scatter a few nuts on the frosting,” said Maxwell, and he pushed the lever for that. This sifted handfuls of words like *chthonic* and *heuristic* and *prozymeides* through the thing so that nobody could doubt it was a work of philosophy.

Maxwell Mouser sent the work out to publishers, and received it back each time in about three minutes. An analysis of it and reason for rejection were always given—mostly that the thing had been done before and better. Maxwell received it back ten times in thirty minutes, and was discouraged. Then there was a break.

Ladion’s work had become a hit within the last ten minutes, and it was now recognized that Mouser’s monograph was both an answer and a supplement to it. It was accepted and published in less than a minute after this break. The reviews of the first five minutes were cautious ones; then real enthusiasm was shown. This was truly one of the greatest works of philosophy to appear during the early and medium hours of the night. There were those who said it might be one of the enduring works and even have a holdover appeal to the Dawners the next morning.

-R. A. Lafferty, ‘Slow Tuesday Night’ (1965)

“We go now,” said the Skandia leader from the top of the monument. “We have enjoyed every minute of our short visit. Do not despair! We will not abandon you to your emptiness. Our token force will return home and report. In another week we will visit you in substantial numbers. We will teach you the full happiness of human proximity, the glory of fruitfulness, the blessing of adequate population. We will teach you to fill up the horrible empty places of your planet.” (R.A. lafferty: Guesting Time)

“Since everything is permitted, you will need no permit,” the permit man said. “Go, man, go.” R.A. Lafferty, ‘The World as Will and Wallpaper’ (1973)

And already the Dawners had set Wednesday morning to jumping. (R.A. Lafferty)