Flights of fancy were Harrison's stock in trade.
Ones who caught his particular fancy were invited to his study and asked to drop their trousers.
These native products of fancy were, in the early 18th century, reinforced by the first English translations of the classically simple French fairy tales of Charles Perrault and the more self-conscious ones of Madame D'Aulnoy.
And for her delightful Table of Feathers from 2007, she coated a tabletop with erect quills: as if flights of fancy were pouring from the sky and our only hope of capturing them was the written word.
These stories partook of American absurdism, à la Donald Barthelme, Guy Davenport, Robert Coover: effects of cryptic collage, hostile whimsy, and learned fancy were presented in a clipped, deadpan style.
In those days, French and fancy were synonymous, so as I sat in some Gallic sanctuary with an unpronounceable name, tugging at my necktie and struggling not to kick my brother and sister under the table, I would order the same thing again and again: "The tornadoes, please".
