From: Alice Turner <al@ny.playboy.com>
Subject: (urth) Re: Digest urth.v005.n035
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 1997 13:19:14 


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]



John,

Actually, I place Nashwonk as a moose rather than an elk, but a moose is a
kind of elk, so either would be ok. But a buffalo can't cut it. Read the
description of the fight with the chair, then  mantis's clever gloss on how
the points of the chair correspond to the points of the antlers. A buffalo,
even the beloved sambhur, doesn't have that kind of equipment.

An African lion is what you're thinking of, and indeed he has the mane that
Ketin enjoys. But there is a tawny mountain lion with a big shaggy head in
the northwestern New World too, who stands in very well for Mr. and Mrs.
Ketin. And the description of Mimmunka is, to my mind, clearly that of a
lynx or bobcat; a leopard would be described quite differently (and would
have spots!) What's more, dog was just a first guess for Cim; she is a mink,
as the actual quotation from Wolfe (it's back there in the archive
somewhere) and her own erratic behavior make clear.

The Min as monkeys is certainly a new idea---but not one that I take to.

-alga-