R. A. Lafferty 18 min read

In an insane universe, one man's only job is to notice something a little odd, starting with how many people a mind can truly hold.

R. A. Lafferty's 1961 story sends the strangely named Anthony Trotz to quiz a veteran politician about the limits of memory, in the sidelong, philosophical, utterly singular style that made Lafferty a cult treasure. Odd, funny, and profound by turns. Read it for a genuinely one-of-a-kind writer turning a simple question about memory into something wonderfully strange.

In its time

Published in 1961, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

18 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Jack Gaughan