tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post2960404924743928793..comments2024-01-27T13:41:46.815-08:00Comments on Yet Another Lafferty Blog: Infecting AcademiaKevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04415345283350861149noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-84480927784234805462014-01-13T13:22:50.552-08:002014-01-13T13:22:50.552-08:00I've taught a couple intro to philosophy class...I've taught a couple intro to philosophy classes at UNC, and when we study Berkeley, I've read aloud the relevant chapter of Space Chantey to the class. Jayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02025642622351905163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-3463546850355428072013-09-27T03:35:20.952-07:002013-09-27T03:35:20.952-07:00Hi again Kevin. The reading group was quite inform...Hi again Kevin. The reading group was quite informal although we did come up with some interesting ideas about making parish life more friendly, transforming the world, etc. It lasted for about six months and then when people moved away from the area it just kind of fell apart. It was the case that they didn't seem to get 'Rainbird' or Lafferty when I explained his wider work. My feeling over the years is that you can't compel people to like anything but enticing them or drawing them in can be a painfully slow process. At one time I used a strategy of giving away books to friends and relatives and just waiting for their reactions. Some enthused about Flann O' Brien but most didn't get him at all. No one at all seemed to have the similar enthusiasm for Lafferty as I did. Yet everyone I ever gave a copy of John Kennedy Toole''s A Confederacy of Dunces to thought it was brilliant and wanted to know more about the writer. This seems strange as Toole's idiosyncratic world-view and ironic take on modernity seems to me to be so similar in outlook to R.A. Lafferty and Flann O' Brien... Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-80919014634624620032013-09-26T14:16:40.471-07:002013-09-26T14:16:40.471-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04415345283350861149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-80373006713730348112013-09-26T13:49:34.834-07:002013-09-26T13:49:34.834-07:00John, thank you for stopping by and commenting. I ...John, thank you for stopping by and commenting. I love your story about "Rainbird." What kind of reactions did you receive, or were the group largely unaffected by the story?<br /><br />I would imagine there might be some lines in <i>Fourth Mansions</i> that might work very well in that setting, or is that content a little too strident and strong in its imagery for that venue? Perhaps the "Father of monsters" bit would be a bit much, but it is such a deeply religiously rooted and simultaneously hopeful book, there must be some text appropriate to a group discussion such as you describe.<br /><br />Given Lafferty's erudition and the fact that many of his fans have an acacemic bent, I'm surprised I haven't heard more stories of his work being snuck in to course syllabi on the secondary and post-secondary level. <br />Kevinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04415345283350861149noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2381454689166649574.post-52561303201610966992013-09-26T12:33:44.817-07:002013-09-26T12:33:44.817-07:00Hi Kevin, this is John Ellison who comments on And...Hi Kevin, this is John Ellison who comments on Andrew Ferguson's blog. My Lafferty 'interventions' outside of mainstream academia have been quite low-key but may be of interest to you. A few years ago 'spiritual reading groups' were quite fashionable and I was involved in an active group in a local catholic parish. There would be a rota whereby people would select a particular passage from the gospels or any associated kind of writing with a theological theme. These passages would be prepared a week before so that the group had the chance to read it in advance. So after a few months my turn for selecting material had come up a few times. I felt the group discussions had been quite successful given that I had picked passages from Balthasar who is seen as a notoriously difficult thinker for people to understand. Feeling my enthusiasm had carried things off I decided to try another writer on whom I could open up fruitful discussions about the nature of time, being and consciousness...<br />Whereas I had labelled the photo-copied passages for the previous sessions when I decided to use R.A. Lafferty's Rainbird I had the idea of just copying the story without the name of the author or the title of the story. My idea in doing this was to provoke discussion about reading and recognition, to ask at what point they realised they were reading a story rather than an historical account. In the idealised lesson-plan I had prepared the discussions would then have moved on to memory and Augustine, etc. It didn't work out that way and my enthusiasm for Lafferty wasn't enough to save that particular meeting from being something of a flop. <br />There have been other times I've used Lafferty in a church-related context. I'm a member of the lay catholic organisation, The Society of St Vincent de Paul. Each meeting of the organisation starts off with a spiritual reading followed by a brief discussion. So over the years I have at different times used paragraphs from Lafferty's non-fictional writings, most usually the passages where he speaks about happiness and the duty (not the right) of us all to be happy. These have usually worked quite well with not many realising I was actually quoting from a still-too-unknown science-fiction writer. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com