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Todd Sundsted posted Nov 12, 2020
About the name "Epiktistes"...
R. A. Lafferty is an amazing writer. Some people say he writes science fiction. I think he writes contemporary tall tales—so, of course they are going to be about computers and space explorers and other planets...
His style is impossible to mistake. I remember the first words I read in a story of his about the end of (or maybe the resumption of) the human race:
"I’m going to read my paper tonight, Dismas," Dr. Minden said, "and they’ll hoot me out of the hall. The thought of it almost makes the hair walk off my head."
Ginny Wrapped in the Sun
Characters frequently reappear in Lafferty’s stories (the eminent scientists Velikof Vonk, Arpad Arkabaranan and Willy McGilly) (the entire race of the Camiroi). Epiktistes, the Ktistec machine, with a sea-serpent head and the delivery of a vaudeville comedian, is a favorite of mine.
Epikt was a comic to his last para-DNA relay when he rested his huge, boggle-eyed, crested head on the table there and smoked the biggest stogies ever born.
Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne
If you’re a fan and want more, there’s the annual Laffcon and the zine Feast of Laughter, though you probably already know of both if you know of R. A. Lafferty...