Subject: (whorl) Tick Tock

From: David_Lebling <david_lebling at avid.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 09:19:33 +0000

[Posted from Whorl, the mailing list for Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun]

I think Tick is most likely male.  I believe a Trivigaunti (Saba?) calls
the catachrest "she" at one point, but that would be expected, wouldn't
it?

I don't think we know as much about catachrests as we might think.  I
know I always viewed Tick as being a "cat" rather than a "humanoid,"
although the latter word is also used to describe him.

He has orange and gray(?) fur, small sharp teeth and claws, can stand on
his hind legs if he wants to (according to the animal seller). 
Upper-class women on the Palatine use catachrests as baby substitutes
(they nurse them, again according to the animal seller), although there
is a definite sexual implication in that reference, a "perversions of
the rich" sort of thing.  Like Silk and (likely) Oreb he is probably a
product of genetic tinkering.

I still tend to see him as a cat rather than (say) a golden lion
tamarind.

Where does he go? He's not with Hy in the final scenes. Does he end up
another homeless kitty in the ruins of Viron?

On a slight tangent, there are no dogs on the Whorl that I recall, aside
from the "bufes" (who are probably hyenas rather than wild dogs, the
palindromic possibilities of dog <-> god aside). Right?

     -vizcacha
     (david_lebling at avid.com)

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