Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Re-Readability

Re-reading some of my favorite stories in Nine Hundred Grandmothers last night I revisited the thought that Lafferty's stories reward re-reading. This is not true of everything I read. I read a lot, and some books, while well written and fun to read, do not bear re-reading as much as Lafferty's and a few other authors' as well. Take for example Tolkien. How often do you re-read The Lord of the Rings? It is a rewarding experience, and I catch something else with each pass through the trilogy. Tolkien's text is so richly layered and dense with ideas, that each reading prepares me to understand themes and techniques that would not have leaped to mind without the prior reading. This happens to me at least once a year with Lafferty's Fourth Mansions. In my most recent re-reading, I was looking for instances of the "prose foot" described by Don Webb in his essay on "Effective Arcanum." Needless to say, Fourth Mansions is loaded with examples--every time he refers to Bedelia as a cinnamon cookie, he recalls the first chapter and his description of Bedelia's character when Harvesters invaded the mind of Miguel Fuentes.

It is much harder to write a short story that has the re-readability of a richly layered novel. Yet Lafferty achieved exactly that. Re-read "Hole on the Corner" or "Narrow Valley." Even though I know the jokes and the twists far in advance, I burst out in delighted laughter every time I come across them again. Like with his prose foot in his novels, re-reading his turns of phrase and cleverly developed situations recall to me the sheer delight I experienced the first time I read through them. Re-reading a Lafferty story is a full-body experience.


4 comments:

  1. I'm looking forward to fixing Fourth Mansions when I get the chance, the editors messed around quite a bit with the nicknames to no apparent benefit. I'm betting the prose foot comes out even more strongly then.

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    1. I would love to see what the changes were. Lafferty's text was so careful and deliberate, I can't imagine editors changing anything beyond spelling.

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  2. I know this comment is way late and nobody may ever see it, but I agree 100% on the re-readability of Fourth Mansions. However, I think the most re-readable short story I've ever read is probably "Hog-Belly Honey." Lafferty's use of language amazes me more and more every time.

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    1. Oddly enough, I find "Slow Tuesday Night" to be among his most re-readable. I say "oddly" because it is such a short story, and there is actually very little story (while events rush past at an unimaginable breakneck pace). "Hog-Belly Honey" is also up there in re-readability, as it contains the best abuse of dialog and narrative voice I have ever read! Entire college courses could be taught on his use of language in that story (which I hope is something you are able to accomplish at some point).

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