Kitty and the Midnight Hour.
Great book. Makes it really obvious that the messed-up part is the humans and the expression is influenced by their beast-- even if Kitty DOES personify her beast a lot, and doesn't explicitly say that it's as much based on the ideals and archetypes of a wolf as on real wolves.
Something that I really love? Since it hits on my pet peeve--the whole "Were" thing? At the end, there's a quote from a "government study" that Kitty hears on the radio; it refers to "Homo sapiens sanguinis...Homo sapiens lupis...Homo sapiens pinnipedia..." That's vampires, werewolves and selkies. I LOVE it! Selkies are the Celtic seals that turn into humans, there's all KINDS of stories where a sealmaid is caught on the beach, and her magical pelt taken so she's forced to marry the man with the pelt, and the resulting children are always great heroes or fishermen-- I had to look up pinnipedia, honestly, but I love Irish folklore and the second I saw it means seal, it was so neat!
I also like how *precise* the organization is-- I'd be Homo sapiens vulpis, Joe'd be Homo sapiens felis and if someone turns into a badger he's Homo sapiens taxidea and a bear would be Homo sapiens ursa! It makes it really clear-- unlike "kitsune"-- that I am a Human who becomes a fox!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Were Wolves
Have you ever thought about the word "Werewolf"? The Wolf part is easy enough-- duh, they turn into wolves. So you end up with stories about "werecats" and "werebears" and anything else you can find in the Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual XIV.
But "were" also means wolf. There aren't any cats that turn into wolves, or any bears that turn into wolves, and I am NOT a fox that turns into a wolf for the love of little green apples! So, despite the lack of elegance, I'm going to call myself a "fox-shifter" for accuracy and a "kitsune" for poetry.
In Japanese stories, kitsune are not humans that turn into foxes-- they are foxes that can turn into humans, or just about anything else that's needed to trick the story to an end. This blog's title-- "Kitsune bi" or foxfire-- is my way of trying to bring a little light to the situation.
But "were" also means wolf. There aren't any cats that turn into wolves, or any bears that turn into wolves, and I am NOT a fox that turns into a wolf for the love of little green apples! So, despite the lack of elegance, I'm going to call myself a "fox-shifter" for accuracy and a "kitsune" for poetry.
In Japanese stories, kitsune are not humans that turn into foxes-- they are foxes that can turn into humans, or just about anything else that's needed to trick the story to an end. This blog's title-- "Kitsune bi" or foxfire-- is my way of trying to bring a little light to the situation.
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