All the People

Raphael Aloysius LaffertyProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.5

Word count: 21K words
Chapters: 3

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.All the People by R. A. LaffertyAuthor: Lafferty, R. A., 1914-2002,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Mar 30, 2016

Editor's review

All the People is a novella by American science fiction writer R. A. Lafferty, available in the Project Gutenberg public-domain ebook collection. Lafferty is known for his grotesque humor, folkloric color, and theological speculation, and this story continues his style of blending science fiction premises with anthropology and myth. Through a strange conceit about "all the people," it opens questions about identity and the relationship between the group and the individual. As a public-domain ebook, the text is easy to search, quote, and read across devices, making it a good entry point for understanding the diversity of twentieth-century American science fiction. Reading scenarios include reading on an e-reader during a commute, selecting it for a science fiction book club discussion, or using it as supplementary material when studying Lafferty's style. Because it is short but densely packed with ideas, first-time readers may need to slow down and watch for irony and gaps in the narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy grotesque humor and speculative science fiction
Fans of twentieth-century American science fiction short stories
Organizers looking for public-domain electronic texts for book club selections
Readers used to reading English fiction in fragments on electronic devices

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer hard science fiction with technical detail and rigorous worldbuilding
Readers looking for a full-length novel with a complete worldbuilding
Readers who have significant difficulty reading English and need a translation

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the overall premise, then go back to the opening to look for foreshadowing and irony.
While reading, note the points of identity confusion created by the "all the people" premise, and sort out the logic afterward.
Read it alongside other Lafferty short stories to appreciate the consistency of his narrative style.
If using it for a book club, mark three absurd episodes worth discussing in advance.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short work?

According to the Project Gutenberg information, this is a novella by R. A. Lafferty, not a full-length novel. The electronic text is limited in length and can be read in one or two sittings. The exact page count varies by formatting; refer to your reader's display.

Do I need to know Lafferty's background before reading?

Not necessarily, but knowing that he often mixes science fiction with myth, folklore, and religious speculation will help you understand the absurdity and irony in the narrative. If you read it as an ordinary science fiction story, you may be confused by its leaps in logic.

Is the electronic edition suitable for quoting or taking academic notes?

The Project Gutenberg public-domain electronic text is easy to search and copy, making it suitable for notes and quotations. When quoting, note the source edition and check the location of the specific passage in the format you are using.

How difficult is the English?

Lafferty's sentences often have a colloquial and grotesque rhetoric. The vocabulary is not especially difficult, but the narrative logic jumps, so the difficulty comes more from the premise than the language. Try reading a passage first to see whether you are comfortable with its rhythm.

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About the author

Raphael Aloysius Lafferty Author · American · 1914–2002

R. A. Lafferty (Raphael Aloysius Lafferty, 1914–2002) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, born in Iowa and long resident in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He worked as an electrical engineer and served in the Pacific theater during World War II, and did not begin writing until his forties. Over his career he produced more than thirty novels and over two hundred short stories. His style was idiosyncratic and singular, marked by absurdity, ingenuity and a strong relish for language, giving him a distinctive place in genre fiction. He won the Hugo Award in 1972 for "The Devil Is Dead" and received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1990. Six of his works are held in the collection, including "The Six Fingers of Time," "The Weirdest World" and "Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas"; other representative works include "Dream World," "Aloys" and "All the People."