Of dogs and wolves

Peter Cash · 02 Mar 1998, 10:23 · from urth-v0007.mbox · original

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From: Peter Cash <cash at rsn.hp.com>
Subject: (urth) Of dogs and wolves
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 1998 10:23:15
Message-ID: <urth-v0007-0578 at digest.urth.net>
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[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other work=
s]

> From: David_Lebling at avid.com

> I think the narrator is a dog, specifically a domestic dog who has
> fallen out of (or ejected from) the car his humans are riding in. ...

> Of course, I'm not saying the narrator _is_ a dog literally, but in the
> same sense that the Wiggikki are wolves, and so forth.  The robots obey
...
> Again, I'm not claiming this story is the dream of a dog, but that that
> the narrator fills the dog's role in the story.

That makes a lot of sense to me. The fact that all the other "people" in
the story are animals (in the same sense, perhaps, that Cordwainer
Smith's "underpeople" are animals) makes one ask, "And what kind of
animal are _you_?" of the narrator. It's plain that he's not the same
sort of being as drives the Great Sleigh, since he doesn't have angelic
wings, but he seems to be closely associated with these beings.
Therefore, "dog" seems to be a very good possibility.=20

Just an enlisted man's opinion.

Sgt. Rock

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