Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970)

Author: R A Lafferty
Publisher: Wildside Press, NJ

Lafferty's wisdom was that of Trickster and Coyote, Anansi and Loki. This collection of his short stories frames the weirdly explicable and inexplicable as items in a canon far larger than either. Perhaps the gems of wisdom are too many for proper appreciation. It is almost like reading Vance, or Rabelais if you are so inclined.

I will leave you with the defamatory decalogue of the Camiroi, an interesting race who seek to codify everything by consensus - including the ways of causing others to vote against your rival political candidate. The Camiroi save much time in useless debate by offering the following. To defame your opponent, merely say something like, "He is a Ten and Five." Or somesuch.

Here is the decalogue, slightly edited to be more human-compatible:

My opponent... 1) is personally moronic, 2) is sexually incompetent, 3) is incapable of scoring sure points in games, 4) is gastronomically naive, 5) is physically pathetic, 7) is financially stupid, 8) is ethically weird, 9) is intellectually contemptible, 10) is morally dishonest.

I have looked for 6) and cannot find it.