Announcing the January–February 2022 topic challenge: R. A. Lafferty

Question

UPDATE: during its second month (February 2022), this topic challenge will be held jointly with Science Fiction & Fantasy SE. Note that, for written sci-fi stories, the two sites' scopes don't differ that much, so you can basically feel free to ask on either site: however, bearing in mind the different communities and audiences, it might be recommended, for example, to ask about science-fictional aspects on SFF and to ask about deeper literary analysis on Literature.

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In accordance with our meta agreement to have topic challenges and a later meta agreement to have topic challenges lasting for two months and overlapping by one month, it is time to announce the January–February 2022 topic challenge.

Based on the number of votes (+5), the first topic challenge of the year 2022 will be

the works of R. A. Lafferty

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What's a topic challenge?

See the meta posts linked above, and also this main Meta post. In short, during January and February 2022 you are invited to try to read at least one work by the American science fiction and fantasy author and ask questions about it.

Participation is not obligatory in any sense, and questions on other works are more than welcome during January and February too; they just won't count as part of this topic challenge.

How can I take part?

By getting hold of the one or more works by R. A. Lafferty and asking good questions about it (or them). Questions about these works should be tagged with r-a-lafferty and a tag for the work's title (for book-length works). We'll keep a list of all such questions in an answer to this meta post.

Below is Peter Shor's presentation:

R.A. Lafferty was an American science fiction author, who wrote a large number of short stories, as well as over a dozen novels. His works are relatively little known today.

His writing tends towards the literary end of the science fiction spectrum, and is very idiosyncratic. Wikipedia says

Lafferty's quirky prose drew from traditional storytelling styles, largely from the Irish and Native American, and his shaggy-dog characters and tall tales are unique in science fiction. Little of Lafferty's writing is considered typical of the genre.

He has also written two historical novels, The Fall of Rome and Okla Hannali. Okla Hannali covers the history of the Choctaw Indians from the viewpoint of the larger-than-life character of Hannali Inominee.

Many of his novels are out of print and very hard to obtain. However, The Best of R.A. Lafferty, a collection of his short stories, was reprinted in England in 2019, and it will appear in the U.S. in February 2021. A number of his short stories are online. There is a webpage with links to them.

What's next?

• Vote for the next topic challenge (February–March), or propose your own!

Answer 1

List of all questions posted in this topic challenge

1. What is the appearance of the protagonist in Lafferty's "All the People"? by Rand al'Thor, 03/01/2022 (4 votes, 1 answer).
2. Who are these historical people alluded to by R.A. Lafferty? by Peter Shor, 06/01/2022 (4 votes, no answers).
3. What is a Special Aspects Man in "Nine Hundred Grandmothers"? by Rand al'Thor, 07/01/2022 (2 votes, 1 answer).
4. What's the point of Bascombe Swicegood eating so much? by Rand al'Thor, 11/01/2022 (5 votes, 1 answer).
5. What is the lamp-post jag? by Rand al'Thor, 12/01/2022 (4 votes, 1 answer; HNQ).

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The highest-voted of these is What's the point of Bascombe Swicegood eating so much?, with a score of 5 at the end of February.

The most viewed is What is the lamp-post jag? (HNQ), with approximately 200 views during the months of January and February.

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In February, this topic challenge ran in parallel with an R. A. Lafferty challenge on Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack Exchange, which resulted in one (1) question.

Answer 2

(Sorry, too long for a comment.)

Lafferty short stories and novelettes which are freely available from Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, etc. (Starred stories are favorites of mine.)

• "Through Other Eyes" (1960 novelette)*

• "The Six Fingers of Time" (1960 novelette)*

• "McGonigal's Worm" (1960 short story)

• "Snuffles" (1960 novelette)*

• "The Polite People of Pudibundia" (1961 short story)

• "In the Garden" (1961 short story)

• "All the People" (1961 short story)*

• "The Weirdest World" (1961 short story)

• "Aloys" (1961 short story)

• "Rainbird" (1961 short story)*

• "Seven-Day Terror" (1962 short story)*

• "Dream World" (1962 short story)*

• "Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas" (1962 short story)

• "The Transcendent Tigers" (1964 short story)*

• "Name of the Snake" (1964 short story)*

• "Mad Man" (1964 short story)

• "What's the Name of That Town?" (1964 short story)

• "Pig in a Pokey" (1964 short story)

• "The Man with the Speckled Eyes" (1964 short story)

• "Slow Tuesday Night" (1965 short story)*

• "Guesting Time" (1965 short story)*

• "In Our Block" (1965 short story)*

• Hog-Belly Honey" (1965 short story)

• "Nine Hundred Grandmothers" (1966 short story)*

• "Goldent Trabant" (1966 short story)

• "Among the Hairy Earthmen" (1966 short story)*

• "Narrow Valley" (1966 short story)*

• "Primary Education of the Camiroi" (1966 short story)*

• "Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne" (1967 short story)*

• "Polity and Custom of the Camiroi" (1967 short story)*

• "The Man Who Never Was" (1967 short story)

• "Ginny Wrapped in the Sun" (1967 short story)

• "Camels and Dromedaries, Clem" (1967 short story)

• "The Ultimate Creature" (1967 short story)*

• "The Grand Carcass" (1968 short story)

• "Cliffs That Laughed" (1969 short story)*

• "Ride a Tin Can" (1970 short story)*

• "The All-At-Once Man" (1970 novelette)

• "About a Secret Crocodile" (1970 short story)*

• "Been a Long, Long Time" (1970 short story)*

• "The Man Underneath" (1971 short story)

• "All But the Words" (1971 short story)*

• "Boomer Flats" (1971 short story)

• "Bubbles When They Burst" (1971 short story)

• "World Abounding" (1971 novelette)

• "Parthen" (1973 short story)

• "By the Seashore" (1973 short story)

• "Rivers of Damascus" (1974 novelette)

• "Endangered Species" (1974 short story)

• "Three Shadows of the Wolf" (1975 novelette)

• "Old Halloweens on the Guna Slopes" (1975 short story)

• "Love Affair with Ten Thousand Springs" (1976 short story)

• "Thou Whited Wall" (1977 short story)

• "New People" (1981 short story)

• "You Can't Go Back" (1981 short story)

• "Square and Above Board" (1982 short story)

• "Pine Castle" (1983 short story)

• "The Ninety-Ninth Cubicle" (1984 short story)

• "Magazine Section" (1985 short story)

• "Inventions Bright and New" (1986 short story)

• "Along the San Pennatus Fault" (1986 short story)

• "Something Rich and Strange" (1986 short story)

Moreover, some of Lafferty's stories were originally published in anthologies, some of which can be "borrowed" from the Internet Archive (free registration required):

• "Configuration of the North Shore" (1969 short story in Orbit 5)

• "And Name My Name" (1974 short story in Orbit 13)

• "Royal Licorice" (1974 short story in Orbit 14)

• "Flaming Ducks and Giant Bread" (1974 novelette in Orbit 15)

• "The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Street" (1975 short story in Orbit 16)

• "Great Day in the Morning" (1975 short story in Orbit 17)

• "The Hand with One Hundred Fingers" (1976 short story in Orbit 18)

• "Fall of Pebble-Stones" (1977 short story in Orbit 19)

• "The Only Tune That He Could Play" (1980 short story in Orbit 21)