O'BRIEN, Flann

   Pseudonym of Irish writer and civil servant Brian O Nolan (1911-1966), who also wrote-mainly for a newspaper column - as Myles na Gopaleen, sometimes rendered Myles na gCopaleen. He is best known for work outside the sf field, such as the FABULATION, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939 UK), a fantasy "saga" at the heart of which mythological entities inflict themselves on a character within a book by a man about whom the protagonist of the actual novel is writing a book, and Faustus Kelly (1943) as by Myles na Gopaleen, a fantasy play about the Devil in Ireland;Rhapsody in Stephen's Green (1994 UK), which was produced in 1943, is a beast-fable, based on the Brothers CAPEK Insect Play of 1921, and dangerously satirical of both Ulster and Eire. FO's novels most closely resembling sf are The Third Policeman (written c1940; 1967 UK), a fantasy, featuring numerous sciencefictional devices, in which a murderer sets off (by bicycle) through a fantasmagorical posthumous POCKET UNIVERSE whosecircularity is not spatial but temporal, and The Dalkey Archive (1964 UK), which utilizes material from the previous book in its entrancingly eccentric presentation of a plot featuring a mad SCIENTIST eager to destroy the world, and the fantastic results of a gas he invents.

   JC/PN