Hec, I'll check to see if the library has The Magic Toyshop. After packing up all my books I'm not buying anymore right now.
I would be there right now.
Simon ,'Objects In Space'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
sj - May 07, 2012 11:21:54 am PDT #18603 of 28297
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
DavidS - May 07, 2012 11:30:24 am PDT #18604 of 28297
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Okay, but when you go shopping make sure you find one of the many cooler, older covers for it.
This one's lovely and evocative.
The first American paperback on Dell is pretty cool too.
Or this quite scandalous (though thoroughly apt) version.
DavidS - May 07, 2012 11:33:24 am PDT #18605 of 28297
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Most people are familiar with the movie A Company of Wolves based on her short stories in The Bloody Chamber, but there's also a little seen movie version of The Magic Toyshop that's worth finding.
Typo Boy - May 07, 2012 12:08:15 pm PDT #18606 of 28297
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
I love Lafferty too. But I never thought of him as obscure. Does he really have a more limited audience than your average genre writer/
Polter-Cow - May 07, 2012 1:55:52 pm PDT #18607 of 28297
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
The only reason I have heard of him is because of Neil Gaiman's short story, "Sunbird," which he said was his attempt to write a Lafferty story. I have never heard of him anywhere else ever.
Typo Boy - May 07, 2012 2:05:52 pm PDT #18608 of 28297
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.
Well then I've been remiss. Imagine that Salvador Dali, rather than being a Spanish surrealist painter had been an American sitting around a campfire telling tall tales. Those are the stories Lafferty wrote.
chrismg - May 08, 2012 6:20:48 am PDT #18609 of 28297
"...and then Legolas and the Hulk destroy the entire Greek army." - Penny Arcade
Kate P. - May 08, 2012 9:30:40 am PDT #18610 of 28297
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
Oh no, that's so sad. What a loss. Makes me wish I'd picked up a copy of his last book, Bumble-Ardy, at the bookstore yesterday. I think we only have Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen (M's and my childhood copies, respectively), but we'll definitely be stocking Rose's library with the rest of his books over the next few years.
And David, I really enjoyed your piece on Angela Carter, one of my favorite writers. I read almost all her novels in college and in the following years, and they formed a huge part of my worldview. (I even started with The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, which I almost certainly did not understand the half of, but it opened up my mind all the same.) And I totally do the same thing in used bookstores, looking to see what they have by her and hoping to find rare or bizarre editions. Love her.
JZ - May 08, 2012 9:37:50 am PDT #18611 of 28297
See? I gave everybody here an opportunity to tell me what a bad person I am and nobody did, because I fuckin' rule.
I feel mixed about Maurice Sendak -- it's such a loss to all the rest of us, but he had a good long 83-year run, and in all the interviews he'd given over the last decade he sounded increasingly tired and lonely, and the death of his partner never stopped being an ache and a hole in his life. I selfishly want him still around forever and ever (and I hope that if I ever get to visit Dream's library it has a whole annex devoted to everything he never had time to write and draw here), but for his own sake I can't begrudge him letting go once he was well and truly ready.
Amy - May 08, 2012 9:41:11 am PDT #18612 of 28297
Because books.
He will be around forever, thanks to all of his work. I'm sorry he's gone, but he was 83, so it's not a huge shock. I'm just glad he left such a fantastic legacy for the world to enjoy.