From: "Kevin J. Maroney" <kmaroney@crossover.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) Zoetics
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 19:14:56 

At 01:37 PM 2/26/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Alzabo - replacement for hyenas (I have my doubts about this, but...)

Wolfe has explicitly stated that the Alzabo was the replacement for the
hyena because it was an animal that laughed. I don't remember if this was
in _Castle of the Otter_ or in some other work. 

>I suggested that according to the Wolfean Naming
>Convention (put forth in CASTLE OF THE OTTER I believe) of "everything
>is exactly what it says it is" and so perhaps, if the text refers to a
>"dog" we should assume that this is indeed a dog (a rather large
>one).  

Difficult question: Are the rats in the library actually "writing", or is
this a metaphor? If the former, they are no longer terrestrial rats; if the
latter, "everything is exactly what it says it is" doesn't hold. 


Wombat, a.k.a. Kevin Maroney kmaroney@crossover.com
Kitchen Staff Supervisor, New York Review of Science Fiction
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html

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