"R. A. Lafferty - Narrow Valley" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

R. A. LAFFERTY
Narrow Valley

R. A. Lafferty is not usually listed as one of the major authors of the New
Wave era, and yet, for me, the stories he published in the magazines and
anthologies of the mid-тАЩ60s had as much to do with establishing the special
excitement of that era as anything by Delany or Zelazny or Disch. Certainly
they were, in their own quirky way, just as radical and revolutionary, and
every bit as effective in shattering worn-out old molds and, letting us
suddenly see wild new possibilities in what could be done with the science
fiction short story. If nothing else, the sheer wonderful brass it took to give
characters names like Aloysius Shiplap, Willy McGilly, Diogenes Pontifex,
or Basil Bagelbaker, and get away with it, was admirable.

Lafferty has published memorable novels that stand up quite well
todayтАФamong the best of them are Past Master, The Devil Is Dead, The
Reefs of Earth, the historical novel Okla Hannali, and the totally
unclassifiable (a fantasy novel disguised as a non-fiction historical study,
perhaps?) The Fall of RomeтАФbut it was the prolific stream of short stories
he began publishing in 1960 that would eventually establish his reputa-tion.
Stories like тАЬSlow Tuesday Night.тАЭ тАЬThus We Frustrate Charlemagne.тАЭ
тАЬHog-Belly Honey.тАЭ тАЬThe Hole on the Cor-ner.тАЭ тАЬAll Pieces of a River
Shore.тАЭ тАЬAmong the Hairy Earthmen.тАЭ тАЬSeven Day Teror,тАЭ тАЬContinued on
Next Rock.тАЭ тАЬThe Configuration of the Northern Shore.тАЭ тАЬAll But the WordsтАЭ
and many others, are among the freshest and funniest SF ever written. At
his best, Lafferty possessed one of the most outlandish imaginations in all
of SF, a store of offbeat erudi-tion matched only by Avram Davidson, and a
strong, shaggy sense of humor unrivaled by anyone. His stories have been
gathered in the landmark collection Nine Hundred Grandmothers, as well
as in Strange Doings, Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to
Add? and Ringing the Changes.

Outlandish and richly strange, тАЬNarrow ValleyтАЭ is one of LaffertyтАЩs
best, and is wildly imaginative even by his standards. It is also very funny.

Lafferty retired from writing in 1987, at age seventy. Much of his work
in the decade of the тАШ80sтАФlike the very strange novel ArchipelagoтАФis
available only in small press editions or as chapbooks. His novel My Heart
Leaps Up is being serialized as a series of chapbooks, three chapters at a
time, a project that could take years to complete. But his other books in
trade editions include The Flame Is Green, Arrive at Easterwine, Space
Chantey, and Fourth Mansions. Lafferty won the Hugo Award in 1973 for
his story тАЬEuremaтАЩs Dam,тАЭ and in 1990 received a World Fantasy Award,
the prestigious Life Achievement Award. He lives in Oklahoma.

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In the year 1893, land allotments in severalty were made to the remaining
eight hundred and twenty-one Pawnee Indians. Each would receive one
hundred and sixty acres of land and no more, and thereafter the Pawnees