Somewhat earlier the more than astute mantis, amaneunsis to M. Vladimir,
2 quoted lines
wrote:
Then there is the Edgar Allen Poe sequence: the officer is distracted by a one-eyed black cat; then by a mysterious black bird that flies in and perches on the picture frame--one almost expects the bird to croak, "Nevermore." Both creatures in Poe's work signal missing women: the first a murdered wife, the second a wife lost to disease. Regardless of that, animal messengers are a part of the abo world rather than that of the colonist.
The cat is lifted nearly wholecloth from "The Black Cat," from monocularity to its name, Pluto. As the officer tells us he's a graveyard cat.
Also a semi-autobiographical note, since Gene Wolfe attended a school named after Eddy Poe.
Re the IGene colors: Green: Victor's mother; Lucius Shepherd.
ta-tap-tap
YOU STILL THERE NINETY-NINE?
I SEE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE CAVE.
FAITEZ ATTENTION... ROY'S HANDS? HIS ABONESS?
RECORDS DESTROYED IN WAR, N'EST-CE PAS?
START THINKING FROGTOWN.
POSSIBLE SIDETRIP BLOUNT.
POSSIBLE CLUTISH TIE-IN/STANDALONE: TANTE'S GIRLS.
taptap-taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap-taptap
"...Suddenly I heard a tapping."
NEVERMORE