Ep 29: Lafferty Panel 2a: Two Anti-colonialist Planetary Tales (900 Grandmothers & Ride A Tin Can)

Had a truly insightful (and intermittently hilarious) discussion with ‪@vintagesf‬, ‪@LiminalSpaces03‬, and ‪@literallybooks‬ about one of Lafferty's most well known and best planetary tales, 'Nine Hundred Grandmothers', as well as the lesser known but equally important 'Ride A Tin Can'. What are your interpretations of these stories? Please comment! :)
Topics include: colonialism, capitalism, matriarchy, hypermasculinity, anthropology, folktales, indigenous peoples, ritual, aliens, golden age s.f., new wave s.f., and more!
#ralafferty #sciencefiction #colonialism #capitalism #patriarchy #matriarchy #indigenous #masculinity #anthropology #folktales #ritual #planetary #interplanetary #spaceexploration #goldenagesciencefiction #newwavesciencefiction #aliens

[@LiminalSpaces03]

Great editing and I loved all the book covers and pictures you included! This was fun to be a part of and fun to watch! I feel like we could have talked just about these two stories for hours!

[@Doctor_Rockter]

Thanks, Chris! I know! I had forgotten how rich we got with just these two until I edited this portion. It's kind of a landmark for public discussion of some of Lafferty's central and seminal works. Thank you again!

[@davea136]

I would like to hear this panel discuss Cordwainer Smith's stories, especially "Think Blue, Count Two". Thank you.

[@Doctor_Rockter]

duuuuudes, let's do a Cordwainer Smith panel! Love his stories.

[@NancyLebovitz]

I see Lafferty as opposed to tyranny. He's against tyranny whether it's by government or business. He's defending what might be called ordinary life, though he thinks it's extraordinary. It's outside the simple order that tyranny tries to impose. Cecil Swicegood shows courage in refusing to go along with the hypermasculine ship culture, but no one thinks of it that way. There are grandfathers, too, but they're only mentioned a couple of times. The grandmothers are *protecting* Swicegood, which isn't a usual role for aliens in sf. The story is surprisingly non-violent for Lafferty. I reread the story in The Best of Lafferty, and the afterword expects a tragic ending for the Protovitae, but I'm not sure it follows from the story. Lafferty is unusually kind to ugly women. This seems like a weird thing to say, considering that Holly dies a useless death, but there are damned few ugly women who are portrayed with respect in sf. Lafferty flips the usual (like Piper's Fuzzies) where the aliens turn out to be more impressive than they look. The goblins are unimpressive and they die. When the Pucca children take their true names, the names are Irish. The story of the Skoki could be about cultural appropriation.

[@Doctor_Rockter]

All excellent points as usual, Nancy. You're absolutely right about what Laff's against and what he's for. And that's a good point about the aliens protecting Ceran. Glad you mentioned 'ugly' women too. That is indeed a feature of Lafferty's fiction, 'ugly' men too (and lots of 'big' women). I love that about his work. It makes me think of how someone once wrote (sympathetically) about Tom Waits being 'not pretty' and certain advantages to that. And I'll be thinking about that Skoki interpretation in future reads.

[@wlinden]

"But that is another and much more unpleasant story."

[@Doctor_Rockter]

Yes!!