Short Fiction of Flann O'Brien (Irish Literature) (20 page)

Life is but a bridge; pass over but build not a house thereon. I have been sacrificed on the altar of Love in a most hideous way; the fires of my love for Florence Minerva Number One had only been allowed to cool slightly when Florence Minerva Number Two arrived to give me all my old love again, plus the scientific love. Now I am robbed of everything!

We had sent Florence Minerva for her usual morning walk on our private beach, thinking she was quite safe. What fools we were! We had overlooked the navy!

The cursed silver-pated sailor had been called to sea and, as his ship headed out the Golden Gate, that fatal magnetism caught our Florence Minerva. Standing at the other end of the beach, I saw, too late, what had happened. I pressed the controls in vain! With the spiritual poise of a Lady of the Lake walking toward her Jurgen, she walked toward the ship and the sunset, till, through my tears, I saw her sun-bonnet disappear beneath the waves!

Contributors

N
EIL
M
URPHY
teaches at NTU, Singapore. He is the author of
Irish Fiction and Postmodern Doubt
(2004) and editor of
Aidan Higgins: The Fragility of Form
(2009). He co-edited (with Keith Hopper) the special Flann O’Brien centenary issue of the
Review of Contemporary Fiction
(2011), and has published articles and book chapters on contemporary fiction, Irish writing, and theories of reading.

K
EITH
H
OPPER
teaches Literature and Film Studies at Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education, and is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Irish Studies at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham. He is the author of
Flann O’Brien: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Post-modernist
(revised edition 2009); general editor of the twelve-volume
Ireland into Film
series (2001–7); and co-editor (with Neil Murphy and Ond
ej Pilný) of a special “Neglected Irish Fiction” issue of
Litteraria Pragensia
(2013). He is a regular contributor to the
Times Literary Supplement
.

J
ACK
F
ENNELL
is a researcher at the University of Limerick. His research interests are Irish literature, science fiction, and cultural studies. He has published essays on Irish dystopian literature, the aesthetics of comic-book justice, and the politics of monsters and monstrous communities, as well as contributing informal articles to
The James Joyce Literary Supplement
and the Flann O’Brien e-journal,
The Parish Review
. His doctoral thesis is on the subject of Irish science fiction, from the 1850s to the present day.

E
DDIE
O’K
ANE
is an artist and a Director of Cavanacor Gallery, Lifford, County Donegal, Ireland. He won the first prize for painting at the Oireachtas National Art Exhibition in Cork in 2008. His artwork features in many public and private collections in Ireland and abroad. From 1975 to 2009 he was a lecturer at Letterkenny Institute of Technology, Donegal. He was also the Institute’s first Industrial Liaison Officer.

The painting featured on the cover of this book—“Flann O’Brien I” (50 x 40 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2011)—was first shown as part of a two-man exhibition of artwork by Eddie O’Kane and his son David O’Kane. The exhibition was entitled “I have looked everywhere that can be looked,” which was held at Cavanacor Gallery in 2011 to commemorate the centenary of Brian O’Nolan’s birth. The painting shows a view of the Bowling Green in Strabane from the window of the house where O’Nolan was born. The row of houses opposite is taken from a photograph from the early 1900s; the view has remained relatively unchanged up to the present day. A shadowy Flann O’Brien is included looking towards the window. To the right of the house was the town’s Police Station (not shown).

F
LANN
O’B
RIEN
, whose real name was Brian O’Nolan, also wrote under the pen name of Myles na Gopaleen. He was born in 1911 in County Tyrone. A resident of Dublin, he graduated from University College after a brilliant career as a student (editing a magazine called
Blather
) and joined the Civil Service, in which he eventually attained a senior position. He wrote throughout his life, which ended in Dublin on April 1, 1966. His other novels include
The Dalkey Archive
,
The Third Policeman
,
The Hard Life
, and
The Poor Mouth
, all available from Dalkey Archive Press. Also available are three volumes of his newspaper columns, as well as his
Plays and Teleplays
.

M
ICHAL
A
JVAZ
,
The Golden Age
.

The Other City
.

P
IERRE
A
LBERT
-B
IROT
,
Grabinoulor
.

Y
UZ
A
LESHKOVSKY
,
Kangaroo
.

F
ELIPE
A
LFAU
,
Chromos
.

Locos
.

I
VAN
Â
NGELO
,
The Celebration
.

The Tower of Glass
.

A
NTÓNIO
L
OBO
A
NTUNES
, Knowledge of Hell
.

The Splendor of Portugal
.

A
LAIN
A
RIAS
-M
ISSON
, Theatre of Incest
.

J
OHN
A
SHBERY AND
J
AMES
S
CHUYLER
,
A Nest of Ninnies
.

R
OBERT
A
SHLEY
,
Perfect Lives
.

G
ABRIELA
A
VIGUR
-R
OTEM
,
Heatwave and Crazy Birds
.

D
JUNA
B
ARNES
,
Ladies Almanack
.

Ryder
.

J
OHN
B
ARTH
,
LETTERS
.

Sabbatical
.

D
ONALD
B
ARTHELME
,
The King
.

Paradise
.

S
VETISLAV
B
ASARA
,
Chinese Letter
.

M
IQUEL
B
AUÇÀ
,
The Siege in the Room
.

R
ENÉ
B
ELLETTO
,
Dying
.

M
AREK
B
IE
CZYK
,
Transparency
.

A
NDREI
B
ITOV
,
Pushkin House
.

A
NDREJ
B
LATNIK
,
You Do Understand
.

L
OUIS
P
AUL
B
OON
,
Chapel Road
.

My Little War
.

Summer in Termuren
.

R
OGER
B
OYLAN
,
Killoyle
.

I
GNÁCIO
DE
L
OYOLA
B
RANDÃO
,
Anonymous Celebrity
.

Zero
.

B
ONNIE
B
REMSER
,
Troia: Mexican Memoirs
.

C
HRISTINE
B
ROOKE
-R
OSE
,
Amalgamemnon
.

B
RIGID
B
ROPHY
,
In Transit
.

G
ERALD
L. B
RUNS
,
Modern Poetry and the Idea of Language
.

G
ABRIELLE
B
URTON
,
Heartbreak Hotel
.

M
ICHEL
B
UTOR
,
Degrees
.

Mobile
.

G. C
ABRERA
I
NFANTE
,
Infante’s Inferno
.

Three Trapped Tigers
.

J
ULIETA
C
AMPOS
,

The Fear of Losing Eurydice
.

A
NNE
C
ARSON
,
Eros the Bittersweet
.

O
RLY
C
ASTEL
-B
LOOM
,
Dolly City
.

L
OUIS
-F
ERDINAND
C
ÉLINE
,
Castle to Castle
.

Conversations with Professor Y
.

London Bridge
.

Normance
.

North
.

Rigadoon
.

M
ARIE
C
HAIX
,
The Laurels of Lake Constance
.

H
UGO
C
HARTERIS
,
The Tide Is Right
.

E
RIC
C
HEVILLARD
,
Demolishing Nisard
.

M
ARC
C
HOLODENKO
,
Mordechai Schamz
.

J
OSHUA
C
OHEN
,
Witz
.

E
MILY
H
OLMES
C
OLEMAN
,
The Shutter of Snow
.

R
OBERT
C
OOVER
,
A Night at the Movies
.

S
TANLEY
C
RAWFORD
,
Log of the S.S. The Mrs Unguentine
.

Some Instructions to My Wife
.

R
ENÉ
C
REVEL
,
Putting My Foot in It
.

R
ALPH
C
USACK
,
Cadenza
.

N
ICHOLAS
D
ELBANCO
,
The Count of Concord
.

Sherbrookes
.

N
IGEL
D
ENNIS
,
Cards of Identity
.

P
ETER
D
IMOCK
,
A Short Rhetoric for Leaving the Family
.

A
RIEL
D
ORFMAN
,
Konfidenz
.

C
OLEMAN
D
OWELL
,
Island People
.

Too Much Flesh and Jabez
.

A
RKADII
D
RAGOMOSHCHENKO
,
Dust
.

R
IKKI
D
UCORNET
,
The Complete Butcher’s Tales
.

The Fountains of Neptune
.

The Jade Cabinet
.

Phosphor in Dreamland
.

W
ILLIAM
E
ASTLAKE
,
The Bamboo Bed
.

Castle Keep
.

Lyric of the Circle Heart
.

J
EAN
E
CHENOZ
,
Chopin’s Move
.

S
TANLEY
E
LKIN
,
A Bad Man
.

Criers and Kibitzers, Kibitzers and Criers
.

The Dick Gibson Show
.

The Franchiser
.

The Living End
.

Mrs. Ted Bliss
.

F
RANÇOIS
E
MMANUEL
,
Invitation to a Voyage
.

S
ALVADOR
E
SPRIU
,
Ariadne in the Grotesque Labyrinth
.

L
ESLIE
A. F
IEDLER
,
Love and Death in the American Novel
.

J
UAN
F
ILLOY
,
Op Oloop
.

A
NDY
F
ITCH
,
Pop Poetics
.