(urth) The Third Policeman and The Land Across

[Auspex Rex]

I’d never heard of Flann O’Brien or The Third Policeman, but reading the synopsis on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Policeman) made me think again about The Land Across. Someone else pointed out the connection to The Third Man already: Grafton mentions Hotel Sacher. Lots of missing, presumed-dead, actually dead, ghost third persons… and TLA’s third border-guard who is sometimes invisible, sometimes not, and looks like the leader of the country, and also looks like Grafton’s father...

Anyone familiar with The Third Policeman and The Land Across have thoughts on how the former might help us interpret the latter?

-Jeff

On Aug 17, 2014, at 9:39 PM, Gwern Branwen <gwern at gwern.net> wrote:

> - http://antsofgodarequeerfish.blogspot.com/2014/08/lafferty-news-thats-right-news.html
> - http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/aug/13/ra-lafferty-secret-sci-fi-genius-poised-for-comeback
> "RA Lafferty – the secret sci-fi genius more than ready for a
> comeback: A reissue of the US science fiction writer RA Lafferty's
> stories sold out rapidly this year, and his fans, including Neil
> Gaiman, hope to see his novels reprinted"
> 
>> There's something of the Irish comic tradition in there, the
> absurdity and surreality of Flann O'Brien, author of The Third
> Policeman. "I agree," says the author Neil Gaiman.