tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post7505058373659372196..comments2024-01-27T13:41:46.815-08:00Comments on Yet Another Lafferty Blog: Ringing Changes 1: ParthenKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04415345283350861149noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-23714456474977050162015-06-08T13:42:33.281-07:002015-06-08T13:42:33.281-07:00Probably too late to converse with Andrew about th...Probably too late to converse with Andrew about this here, but I just wanted to say: I totally get what your saying about preferring other of Lafferty's women, Andrew, but actually Peggy Ronsard, though she has only a tiny role in a tiny story here, has always struck me as yet another of Lafferty's wonderfully strong and salty female characters. Her character, evinced in her few sparkling lines, flashes out potently. She's one for the books in my mind, a sister to Dottie and Valery and other gals that got larger roles.Daniel Otto Jack Petersenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07278782665152906956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-50801681512083610802014-01-29T10:57:27.673-08:002014-01-29T10:57:27.673-08:00Maybe that explains it. I just don't care for ...Maybe that explains it. I just don't care for the Barnaby Sheen stories I've read so far. Slippery was fun, and a couple others with Austro and not much Barnaby ("The Funny Face Murders," "All Hollow Though You Be") were good, but the bulk of the Sheen stories I've read are the ones from Golden Gate, and none of them were particularly memorable to me. <br /><br />But perhaps it's the fault of the way they're collected and not of the stories themselves. Or maybe I just don't like Barnaby. Jayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02025642622351905163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-90923969334227228912014-01-27T10:11:04.639-08:002014-01-27T10:11:04.639-08:00Oddly enough, Ringing Changes was originally publi...Oddly enough, Ringing Changes was originally published in Dutch with "Days of Grass, Days of Straw" as the title story; only afterward was it published in English.<br /><br />I think part of the lull you feel may be because we get a bunch of Austro/Barnaby Sheen stories here, but out of order and without much clear logic (unlike the pretty clear progression in the Through Elegant Eyes volume released only a year or two earlier). The two stories you single out there are actually half of a quartet (with Hellaceous Rocket of Harry O'Donovan and Two-Headed Lion of Cris Benedetti); I'm still not sure why they get split up.Andrewhttp://ralafferty.tumblr.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-75372361138118168612014-01-27T08:38:28.186-08:002014-01-27T08:38:28.186-08:00My suspicion is that Ringing Changes gets lost in ...My suspicion is that Ringing Changes gets lost in the shuffle because it gets pretty slow in the middle. Brain Fever Season isn't bad, but And Read the Flesh Between the Lines didn't live up to an excellent title, and the Ungodly Mice of Doctor Drakos and The Wooly World of Barnaby Sheen aren't particularly memorable. <br /><br />Days of Grass, Days of Straw is probably in my top five all-time Lafferty stories, but he doesn't have many collections that lull for quite as long as this one does. Jayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02025642622351905163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-19627395027086797102014-01-26T23:22:22.110-08:002014-01-26T23:22:22.110-08:00I've never actually fallen in love with this s...I've never actually fallen in love with this story, even as I recognize the consistently high level of the prose within. The fault, I'm sure, is within myself; when I come round to this story I'll do my best to seek it out and eradicate it. (Actually even as I say it, I think I know it's this: I prefer the Lafferty women who are fun-loving, tart, and brilliant: the Dotties, the Anastasias, and so on.)<br /><br />Anyway, some quotes from editions of Parthen:<br /><br />del Rey, in his Best of the Year: "When you find a story where all the logic is somehow slaunchways but where the result is pure delight, you don't need to see the author's name; it will be by R.A. Lafferty. And under all the strangeness will be a curious reality."<br /><br />And Wollheim's blurb, from *his* Best of: "Here's a statement on women's lib to end all such statements. Lafferty, as usual, takes a different view of it. We doubt the ladies will object—and as for the gentlemen, they all seemed to enjoy it."Andrewhttp://ralafferty.tumblr.comnoreply@blogger.com