(urth) This Week in Google Alerts: R.A. Lafferty

[Jerry Friedman]

>On Tue, Apr 17, 2012 at 4:13 PM, Marc Aramini marcaramini at yahoo.com> wrote: 
>>--- On Tue, 4/17/12, Daniel Petersen danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>And Tim Powers, two steps below Laff literarily, and ONE BELOW Wolfe,
 
Oh no no.  Lafferty has "beautiful moments and bad quarters of an hour."
 
>>>I think is very worth checking out for another highly original Catholic writer of wonderfully bizarre fiction.

I did like /Last Call/ a great deal.  Not /On Stranger Tides/ so much.
 
>>Oh my! Well, I will admit Lafferty is a genius, but his failure to sustain a long narrative
 
Or even a short narrative.
 
>>of such consistently high quality definitely leads me to the opinion that Wolfe is the more disciplined and consistent writer.  Perhaps some of his stylistic explorations were more mundane, but ...........
>>
>>okay, different strokes for different folks. 

Apparently.
 
>From: Daniel Petersen <danielottojackpetersen at gmail.com>
>
>Heh, heh, knew I'd raise some hackles.  I totally agree that Wolfe is the more disciplined writer (maybe also more consistent)
 
No, Lafferty's pretty consistent, at least on the scale of fifteen minutes or more.
 
>  - it's just that Lafferty's fiction, at its best, speaks forth like something primal
 
I'd have said the other way around.
 
>- his main roots are oral and I think that might be what makes the main difference - that being the voice for his wildly unbelievable and amazing worldview.  Also, though, the more you read him the more you realise the INCREDIBLE verbal control he often has - his best fiction is very tight and disciplined and exquisitely well honed and crafted - really surpassing the best of Wolfe I think.  Wolfe definitely considered himself a significant step below Laff.
 
I can only attribute this to modesty and a failure to outgrow youthful enthusiasm (much as I haven't outgrown Tolkien).
 
>However, I have no qualms with people thinking them equal or reversed.  I can't expect everyone to have the gifted insight into literature I (and Wolfe) possess. 

And Damon Knight, apparently.
>
>-DOJP
>:) 
 
Yep.
 
Jerry Friedman