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Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to Add
Does Anyone Else Have Something Further To Add? Stories About Secret Places and Mean Men (16 stories): About a Secret CrocodileMad ManNor Limestone IslandsThe Man UnderneathBoomer FlatsThis Grand Carcass YetIn the GardenGroaning Hinges of the WorldGolden TrabantHow They Gave It BackMaybe Jones and the CitySeven Story DreamAdam Had Three BrothersPig in a PokeyThe Weirdest WorldThe Ultimate Creature
284 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
3 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
R.A. Lafferty
541 books307 followersRaphael Aloysius Lafferty, published under the name R.A. Lafferty, was an American science fiction and fantasy writer known for his original use of language, metaphor, and narrative structure, as well as for his etymological wit. He also wrote a set of four autobiographical novels, a history book, and a number of novels that could be loosely called historical fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 20, 2014
Gene Wolfe has said of writing short stories that it is not enough to simply show people your ideas. He uses the analogy of a lion-tamer. A writer can’t just say to people, “Hey, look at this lion” and expect them to be impressed with her skills at showing them a lion. A writer has to do something with the lion, preferably something daring and unexpected. Wolfe says that the writer has to put her head in the idea’s mouth.
For me, that is the most difficult part of writing. Often I simply want to show people my ideas-- an interesting imaginary place, for instance, or a character or device or image-- but finding that narrative twist and plunge that makes the idea spark and come alive as a leaping, writhing story is something very different.
As important as Wolfe’s advice is though, I don’t feel like his requirement applies to R. A. Lafferty. There are in his stories-- and specifically in the stories of this volume-- rarely those unexpected twists that make you feel as though the bottom has fallen out of the narrative. In many of the stories that make up this collection, a reader can feel the end coming, can get a sense for the ultimate trajectory of the story, within the first few paragraphs. Part of this is because Lafferty does not craft those literary artifacts called short stories. Instead, he tells fables, and most fables have been told in some form before. But I think there’s also something deeper going on here with Lafferty and Wolfe’s lion-tamer analogy.
To return to Wolfe's image, Lafferty does not need to stick his head in the idea’s mouth. Lafferty is the lion-tamer, but he’s a lion-tamer saying, “My God, it’s a lion. No, you haven’t ever really looked at a lion before. And you haven’t seen a lion like this. Look at it. This is the lionest lion that ever lived; this is the Ur-lion.” And then the lion-- which, you realize, is indeed wilder and more savage and yet more merry than any lion you’ve seen before-- rips out the lion-tamer’s throat and eats it with a wet chuckle, and both lion and lion-tamer have a good laugh together because that’s what lions are and that’s what lions do.
The story “Golden Trabant” in this volume is a good example of this approach. Narratively, the story is incredibly simple and has indeed been told many times before: a man discovers the El Dorado of asteroids, a rock not far from Earth formed completely of gold. What happens next? Exactly what you would expect. Pirates lay claim to it and become fabulously rich. Earth’s economy becomes unbalanced by the sudden influx of off-planet gold. The pirates build a kingdom with their new gold, sail the high skies hauling back their treasure in ship-loads, and ultimately turn each other. The asteroid becomes an irradiated waste haunted by a ghost. It’s every lost treasure story you’ve heard before with only the (now-blasé) element of being set in space. Maybe that was a new wrinkle when Lafferty wrote it, but beyond that there’s no unexpected twist that makes the story leap up out of the page like a living thing.
And yet it’s a fantastic story. Like so many of Lafferty’s, it simply works. The whole thing is alive. This is the case with many of the stories here. In some, it’s unclear what exactly is happening or has happened, plot-wise. “About a Secret Crocodile,” “Nor Limestone Islands,” and “Boomer Flats” are examples of this. “Boomer Flats” and “Maybe Jones in the City” in particular I found a bit frustrating, but the richness and jollity of Lafferty’s tone always wins me over eventually, even when they seem spun around nothing. If the bones of the story are a bit hollow, you still get Lafferty telling them. And that’s what you want. I’m convinced that had Lafferty taken it upon himself to re-write a phone book, it would be fun to read.
To be fair, there are stories with twists. There’s one at the end of “In the Garden” and “This Grand Carcass Yet” and “The Ultimate Creature.” “The Weirdest World” is all twist, and it may be one of the funniest Lafferty stories I’ve read yet. But the twist is secondary; the story is not built around it. And you probably saw it coming anyway. Moreover, the twist is usually twisted: this is a volume that highlights Lafferty’s brutal, grotesque humor, which is especially ripe in “This Grand Carcass Yet,” “Pig in a Pokey,” and “The Ultimate Creature.”
An annoying and puzzling (though easily ignored) feature of this volume is the needless division of the stories into those related to “Secret Places” and those about “Mean Men.” The stories in this work alternate back and forth between these two headings. In my edition of the book, this is even reflected by stories under each division having a differentiating font. Lafferty (not surprisingly) offers no explanation for this division, but it’s unlike Lafferty to offer much explanation for anything.
The reason the division doesn’t work though-- or at least seems unnecessary and arbitrary-- is that all of Lafferty’s stories are in some sense about secret places, and they’re all in some sense about mean men. They’re stories about the hidden, real world lurking just below the skin of this one and about the god or the devil lurking just below our own skins. That’s why their twists aren’t wholly unexpected: we feel them in our bones. We catch hints of them when we we’re not asleep.
If you’re new to Lafferty, this is as good a place to start with him as any. It’s hard to know what angle to approach his writings, but wading out into his short stories and learning how they rise and fall is easier than diving into one of his novels. Because, to be fair, you might not like his bright and bloody world. You might not want to get too close to that lionest of lions and hear its throaty chuckle. With his short stories, it’s easier to run away.
For me, that is the most difficult part of writing. Often I simply want to show people my ideas-- an interesting imaginary place, for instance, or a character or device or image-- but finding that narrative twist and plunge that makes the idea spark and come alive as a leaping, writhing story is something very different.
As important as Wolfe’s advice is though, I don’t feel like his requirement applies to R. A. Lafferty. There are in his stories-- and specifically in the stories of this volume-- rarely those unexpected twists that make you feel as though the bottom has fallen out of the narrative. In many of the stories that make up this collection, a reader can feel the end coming, can get a sense for the ultimate trajectory of the story, within the first few paragraphs. Part of this is because Lafferty does not craft those literary artifacts called short stories. Instead, he tells fables, and most fables have been told in some form before. But I think there’s also something deeper going on here with Lafferty and Wolfe’s lion-tamer analogy.
To return to Wolfe's image, Lafferty does not need to stick his head in the idea’s mouth. Lafferty is the lion-tamer, but he’s a lion-tamer saying, “My God, it’s a lion. No, you haven’t ever really looked at a lion before. And you haven’t seen a lion like this. Look at it. This is the lionest lion that ever lived; this is the Ur-lion.” And then the lion-- which, you realize, is indeed wilder and more savage and yet more merry than any lion you’ve seen before-- rips out the lion-tamer’s throat and eats it with a wet chuckle, and both lion and lion-tamer have a good laugh together because that’s what lions are and that’s what lions do.
The story “Golden Trabant” in this volume is a good example of this approach. Narratively, the story is incredibly simple and has indeed been told many times before: a man discovers the El Dorado of asteroids, a rock not far from Earth formed completely of gold. What happens next? Exactly what you would expect. Pirates lay claim to it and become fabulously rich. Earth’s economy becomes unbalanced by the sudden influx of off-planet gold. The pirates build a kingdom with their new gold, sail the high skies hauling back their treasure in ship-loads, and ultimately turn each other. The asteroid becomes an irradiated waste haunted by a ghost. It’s every lost treasure story you’ve heard before with only the (now-blasé) element of being set in space. Maybe that was a new wrinkle when Lafferty wrote it, but beyond that there’s no unexpected twist that makes the story leap up out of the page like a living thing.
And yet it’s a fantastic story. Like so many of Lafferty’s, it simply works. The whole thing is alive. This is the case with many of the stories here. In some, it’s unclear what exactly is happening or has happened, plot-wise. “About a Secret Crocodile,” “Nor Limestone Islands,” and “Boomer Flats” are examples of this. “Boomer Flats” and “Maybe Jones in the City” in particular I found a bit frustrating, but the richness and jollity of Lafferty’s tone always wins me over eventually, even when they seem spun around nothing. If the bones of the story are a bit hollow, you still get Lafferty telling them. And that’s what you want. I’m convinced that had Lafferty taken it upon himself to re-write a phone book, it would be fun to read.
To be fair, there are stories with twists. There’s one at the end of “In the Garden” and “This Grand Carcass Yet” and “The Ultimate Creature.” “The Weirdest World” is all twist, and it may be one of the funniest Lafferty stories I’ve read yet. But the twist is secondary; the story is not built around it. And you probably saw it coming anyway. Moreover, the twist is usually twisted: this is a volume that highlights Lafferty’s brutal, grotesque humor, which is especially ripe in “This Grand Carcass Yet,” “Pig in a Pokey,” and “The Ultimate Creature.”
An annoying and puzzling (though easily ignored) feature of this volume is the needless division of the stories into those related to “Secret Places” and those about “Mean Men.” The stories in this work alternate back and forth between these two headings. In my edition of the book, this is even reflected by stories under each division having a differentiating font. Lafferty (not surprisingly) offers no explanation for this division, but it’s unlike Lafferty to offer much explanation for anything.
The reason the division doesn’t work though-- or at least seems unnecessary and arbitrary-- is that all of Lafferty’s stories are in some sense about secret places, and they’re all in some sense about mean men. They’re stories about the hidden, real world lurking just below the skin of this one and about the god or the devil lurking just below our own skins. That’s why their twists aren’t wholly unexpected: we feel them in our bones. We catch hints of them when we we’re not asleep.
If you’re new to Lafferty, this is as good a place to start with him as any. It’s hard to know what angle to approach his writings, but wading out into his short stories and learning how they rise and fall is easier than diving into one of his novels. Because, to be fair, you might not like his bright and bloody world. You might not want to get too close to that lionest of lions and hear its throaty chuckle. With his short stories, it’s easier to run away.
December 7, 2009
Here there be stories of Media Lords, Angry Men, and Limestone salesmen that are gods; stage magicians, Abominable Snowmen, super intelligent computers, and Adam and Eve; double people, space pirates, and people hunters; The Perfect Place, murdering artists, and Rrequesenians; a scheming head collector, a visiting blob, and a galactic salesman that marries the most beautiful woman in the universe. The stories alter between one about a Secret Place and one about Mean Men, and they are all pretty damn good.
July 21, 2011
It is difficult to classify R.A. Lafferty's fiction. He is usually found in the science fiction sections of bookstores, but very little science is in his books. Idiosyncratic myth-making is more his business, myth-making often along the lines of Casey Jones-, Daniel Boone-, Davey Crocket-type larger-than-life characters.
January 20, 2021
You know, I have begun but never finished FOUR novels by Lafferty, liking some qualities, repelled by others. Some people say his short stories are superior to his novels, and when I found a cheap copy of this somewhat rare collection I figured I'd have a go. These people are apparently correct. The stories are bizarre, Lafferty's writing is totally unique, and I enjoyed nearly every one. I have not read short stories for what seems like 5 years or more. The format just lost its attraction for me. I am strictly novels and plays these days, yet I got through this book quickly and easily. I must seek out more.
March 1, 2023
Een aantal jaar geleden kocht ik regelmatig eens een science-fiction bundel in de plaatselijke kringloopwinkel(s). Na een paar tegenvallende auteurs (Jack Vance onder andere) besloot ik daar mee op te houden en eerst maar eens te bezien wat ik van de huidige auteurs vind. R.A. Lafferty is de laatste die nog met een aantal boeken (ik heb ook nog The Reefs of Earth en Strange Doings liggen) ongelezen in de kast staat.
Mjah, ik moet zeggen dat dit niet meteen uitnodigt naar meer. Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to Add? Is een verhalenbundel bestaande uit 16 op zichzelf staande verhalen (ze zijn wel in 2 categorieën verdeelt: Secret Places en Mean Men) en blijkbaar is de grote aantrekkingskracht van Lafferty zijn spitse gebruik van de Engelse taal. Ik heb het boek in het Nederlands gelezen (die categorieën worden in het Nederlands Buitenplaatsen en Booswichten) en ik vrees dat daar ook voor een stuk het probleem zit. Dit is gewoon enorm taaie en bovenal moeilijk te vertalen literatuur. Aan sommige verhalen is geen touw vast te knopen maar het vreemde is wel dat een daaropvolgend verhaal opeens wel de moeite kan zijn en de juiste snaar weet te raken. Dat zorgt er dus voor dat je telkens met een goed gemoed aan het volgende verhaal begint (en met 16 verhalen op nog geen 280 pagina’s zijn het sowieso geen lange verhalen) maar het merendeel is niet aan mij besteedt. Het is allemaal erg taai en ik vraag me af of hij het in een langer verhaal beter weet aan te pakken. The Reefs of Earth zal dan de volgende in rij zijn aangezien dat één lang verhaal is.
Strange Doings is terug een verhalenbundel (opnieuw 16 verhalen, maar deze keer in nog minder pagina’s) en dat zal de laatste reddingspoging worden. Als daar geen voldoende in zit, dan verhuist Lafferty naar de tweede rij boeken in de kast en komt hij niet meer prominent in beeld te staan. Dan zijn er toch heel wat meer interessante science-fiction schrijvers op te noemen. Wordt vervolgd maar niet voor direct waarschijnlijk..
Mjah, ik moet zeggen dat dit niet meteen uitnodigt naar meer. Does Anyone Else Have Something Further to Add? Is een verhalenbundel bestaande uit 16 op zichzelf staande verhalen (ze zijn wel in 2 categorieën verdeelt: Secret Places en Mean Men) en blijkbaar is de grote aantrekkingskracht van Lafferty zijn spitse gebruik van de Engelse taal. Ik heb het boek in het Nederlands gelezen (die categorieën worden in het Nederlands Buitenplaatsen en Booswichten) en ik vrees dat daar ook voor een stuk het probleem zit. Dit is gewoon enorm taaie en bovenal moeilijk te vertalen literatuur. Aan sommige verhalen is geen touw vast te knopen maar het vreemde is wel dat een daaropvolgend verhaal opeens wel de moeite kan zijn en de juiste snaar weet te raken. Dat zorgt er dus voor dat je telkens met een goed gemoed aan het volgende verhaal begint (en met 16 verhalen op nog geen 280 pagina’s zijn het sowieso geen lange verhalen) maar het merendeel is niet aan mij besteedt. Het is allemaal erg taai en ik vraag me af of hij het in een langer verhaal beter weet aan te pakken. The Reefs of Earth zal dan de volgende in rij zijn aangezien dat één lang verhaal is.
Strange Doings is terug een verhalenbundel (opnieuw 16 verhalen, maar deze keer in nog minder pagina’s) en dat zal de laatste reddingspoging worden. Als daar geen voldoende in zit, dan verhuist Lafferty naar de tweede rij boeken in de kast en komt hij niet meer prominent in beeld te staan. Dan zijn er toch heel wat meer interessante science-fiction schrijvers op te noemen. Wordt vervolgd maar niet voor direct waarschijnlijk..
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 10, 2024
Funny that I have read that some think this story collection is lesser than some of the others yet I leant it to a friend and he liked it more than 900 Grandmothers. I wouldn't go that far but with Lafferty, it all depends what you like. Boomer Flats, one notable story in this collection, has been recounted as a favorite of others but is not one of mine.
I love the stories here that breach into new ideas or at least have some old ideas given a fresh new presentation with guesswork as to the ultimate meaning or message.
Stories like the Man Underneath shine for instance about a stage magician who performs a trick he never understands which then brings a varied and talented little man into existence. Stories like About A Secret Crocodile with one of the most unique portrayals of mind control of people I have ever seen. Groaning Hinges of the World which offers an explanation as good as any for why a group of people can all of a sudden turn evil. Mad Man, This Grand Carcass Yet, Pig in a Pokey were also standouts.
Try this or any of his short story collections if you are an addict for the new and the strange.
I love the stories here that breach into new ideas or at least have some old ideas given a fresh new presentation with guesswork as to the ultimate meaning or message.
Stories like the Man Underneath shine for instance about a stage magician who performs a trick he never understands which then brings a varied and talented little man into existence. Stories like About A Secret Crocodile with one of the most unique portrayals of mind control of people I have ever seen. Groaning Hinges of the World which offers an explanation as good as any for why a group of people can all of a sudden turn evil. Mad Man, This Grand Carcass Yet, Pig in a Pokey were also standouts.
Try this or any of his short story collections if you are an addict for the new and the strange.
February 9, 2017
Excellent Short Story collection, though it is not as perfect as Lafferty's original '900 Grandmothers' collection.
March 29, 2013
Read this book because Neil Gaiman was holding it in a READ poster at the library... had to find out why. This is a difficult book, mostly full of men who kill people at the end of each story... lots of short stories, very dark...
Read
November 25, 2013These stories were weird, in a good way. Like early Vonnegut minus the socialism.
Did not finish this book as it was overdue and I wasn't compelled to finish. Might try it again after trying out some of his novels.
Did not finish this book as it was overdue and I wasn't compelled to finish. Might try it again after trying out some of his novels.
February 10, 2011
This book of short stories is divided into two alternating sections / paradigms, "secret places" and "mean men".
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews