'Strong passions are more easily governed than are weak passions, just as a three-foot-long steel sword can be more deftly and swordfully manipulated than can be a three-foot-long piece of spaghetti.'
-R. A. Lafferty, Aurelia (1982)
4 comments:
Kevin Cheek
said...
This reminds me of a discussion I've been having with my kids. I've been asking them to consider why so much media (books, music, movies, tv) aimed at the teenage audience is full of dark emotions. I believe it is because that is an easier way to elicit a strong emotional response. It is far harder to gain a strong emotional resonance with your audience with upbeat material. That is why I love stories like "Narrow Valley" and "Slow Tuesday Night" so much, they are not dark at all, yet they resonate very strongly!
Sounds like a good discussion. I do think Laff handles both dark and 'upbeat' (what's a better word?) equally well. But he's definitely not into dark emotions for their own sake or for the cheap thrills that can be had from eliciting them. JOY is definitely a key note in his art. And it is a deep, musky, wild joy with teeth and tusks and woolly hide!
In that phrase, "a deep, musky, wild joy with teeth and tusks and woolly hide", you have summed up 99% of Lafferty's writing, better than any review I've read in 25 years.
4 comments:
This reminds me of a discussion I've been having with my kids. I've been asking them to consider why so much media (books, music, movies, tv) aimed at the teenage audience is full of dark emotions. I believe it is because that is an easier way to elicit a strong emotional response. It is far harder to gain a strong emotional resonance with your audience with upbeat material. That is why I love stories like "Narrow Valley" and "Slow Tuesday Night" so much, they are not dark at all, yet they resonate very strongly!
Sounds like a good discussion. I do think Laff handles both dark and 'upbeat' (what's a better word?) equally well. But he's definitely not into dark emotions for their own sake or for the cheap thrills that can be had from eliciting them. JOY is definitely a key note in his art. And it is a deep, musky, wild joy with teeth and tusks and woolly hide!
In that phrase, "a deep, musky, wild joy with teeth and tusks and woolly hide", you have summed up 99% of Lafferty's writing, better than any review I've read in 25 years.
Ha ha, thanks, Kevin!
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