Short Story 45: Feather Tigers

Marc Aramini · 09 Sep 2012, 13:47 · from 2012-September.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at yahoo.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2012 06:47:59 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) Short Story 45: Feather Tigers
In-Reply-To: <504C8B8F.7090108 at verizon.net>
Message-ID: <1347198479.85930.YahooMailClassic at web160704.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>

--- On Sun, 9/9/12, David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net> wrote:

From: David Stockhoff <dstockhoff at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: (urth) Short Story 45: Feather Tigers
To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net>
Date: Sunday, September 9, 2012, 5:29 AM

I'm inclined to think that the humans did not really go extinct, nor that they really were recreated by the feather tigers. That would be magic. But it is almost as though they have been awakened---perhaps not so much by the appearance of tigers but by the appearance of prey. But there is so much going on that it is hard to tell exactly what was intended.

Also, the bunnies' names put together make me think of "et in Arcadia ego," for some reason.

On 9/9/2012 7:53 AM, Sergei SOLOVIEV wrote:
> I agree with Mo that the eyes should be human - but I asked myself, whether Quoquo was right claiming that
> the humanity was extinct - may be the most discrete part - "people of yellow leaves" - survived? Quoquo was
> arrogantly wrong on many points. Wolfe could want to be ambiguous here, as he often does.
> 
> Another point - I had a very strong feeling that Quoquo and Dondiil remind somewhat Japanese, that
> is, these alien rabbits have the culture that GW wanted to be over-respectful to authority and hierarchical,
> which is bad for science (this concerns also "body language"). I considered the story
> as fiercely humoristic about science based on authority.
> 
> "Feather tigers" - the title I believe plays also with a clich? of Maoist propaganda, that spoke about "paper tigers" -
> meaning all western powers, that, according to this propaganda, look more dangerous that they are.
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Sergei Soloviev\
?

All good points, though "magic" as we know it in a Wolfe story is never quite as out of place as it would be in Hemingway or a more "hard" science fiction writer (grasping for an example here - Niven, Vinge?) because of Wolfe's spiritual proclivities - genre seems a bit less clearly delineated in Wolfe. 

?
Wolfe writing Hamlet could have the ghost be an alien, a friend playing a trick, a delusion, a real ghost, or somehow all four at once. 

If humanity is gone, the fear and terror of oppression and war in the jungle, Vietnam style, clearly lives on in the paranoia that hits Quoquo. There are spiritual remains; the house of man has not forgotten its owner and his habits.
?

Mankind may have changed, but the People of the Yellow Leaves (in the story) are reputed to come out and be seen when they are hungry - and no doubt they have been hungry for a long time on a depopulated and despeciated earth, but whether the sustenance they crave is terror and attention or actual protein is unclear.
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