The womb of the Zanzibar cat
I recently reread Joanna Russ' short story, "The Zanzibar Cat," when I discovered that it was an homage to Hope Mirrlees. The Zanzibar Cat is also the name of one of Russ' short story collections. I've never understood the title, and now I find that it's most likely a reference to Thoreau's comment in Walden, "It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar." The commentary I've found on the internet says that Thoreau was denigrating travel to foreign places as a path for growth or self-discovery and was advocating development of the soul instead. He was specifically advocating that we follow our dreams rather than try to find happiness in the material world.
It's interesting to try to connect these ideas (as garbled as they may be at second hand) to Russ' story. The cat in the story is a familiar of the evil Duke, who seems to represent Fairyland, which is perhaps a dream world. Yet this would seem to contradict what I'm understanding of Thoreau's quote, where the cats represent the triviality of the material world. At the same time, however, the protagonist of the story, the Milleress, defeats the Duke by asserting her authorship of the story, if I'm following things correctly. Thoreau is said to be preaching that we be the authors of our selves, that we rely on our own being for self-worth, rather than pursuing material wealth or worldly power. Is that the moral of Russ' story? Do the Duke and his cat actually represent the illusion of worldly power, thus reversing the usual significance of Fairyland?
It's interesting to try to connect these ideas (as garbled as they may be at second hand) to Russ' story. The cat in the story is a familiar of the evil Duke, who seems to represent Fairyland, which is perhaps a dream world. Yet this would seem to contradict what I'm understanding of Thoreau's quote, where the cats represent the triviality of the material world. At the same time, however, the protagonist of the story, the Milleress, defeats the Duke by asserting her authorship of the story, if I'm following things correctly. Thoreau is said to be preaching that we be the authors of our selves, that we rely on our own being for self-worth, rather than pursuing material wealth or worldly power. Is that the moral of Russ' story? Do the Duke and his cat actually represent the illusion of worldly power, thus reversing the usual significance of Fairyland?