Category:

Tricksters

Sat 1 Mar 2008

The evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of North Park after the Change

Saturday, Mar 1st, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Categories: Death; Dogs; Literature; Anthropology; Johnson, Kij; Tricksters
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Kij Johnson: The evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of North Park after the ChangeThe evolution of trickster stories among the dogs of North Park after the Change

Short fiction by Kij Johnson. Excerpt:

6. One Dog Invents Death.

This is the same dog. She lives in a nice house with people. They do not let her run outside a fence and they did things to her so that she can’t have puppies, but they feed her well and are kind, and they rub places on her back that she can’t reach.

At this time, there is no death for dogs, they live forever. After a while, One Dog becomes bored with her fence and her food and even the people’s pats. But she can’t convince the people to allow her outside the fence.

“There should be death,” she decides. “Then there will be no need for boredom.”

- Kij Johnson: Link.

Via Futurismic.

Interesting idea, nicely realized. The story is a finalist for the 2007 Nebula Award — best wishes Kij!

Reminiscent of The Author of the Acacia Seeds
And Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics by Ursula LeGuin, as well as Our Neural Chernobyl by Bruce Sterling.



Thu 26 Oct 2006

Trickster Gods in Business

Thursday, Oct 26th, 2006 at 4:05 pm
Categories: Money; Hermes; Business; Tricksters
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If you want to succeed in business, you sooner or later have to deal with trickster gods.

Infant Hermes Steals Apollo's CattleLoki, Hermes, call them what you will — they’re practically everywhere, whenever commerce flows and men make deals.

You may be somewhere else at the time, but if your somewhere else has any potential for dough-ray-me, you can assume that a trickster god is on the way, right now.

Trust me, these guys are relentless. Not to scare you, I’m just saying. If they want a piece of the action, might as well open the front door, because they’ve already cased the back.

But then — who can tell with trickster gods? They may not want a cut of the action. Sometimes they’re just curious. And often enough, they’re good people to know: trading on their tips can bring windfall profits.

What they insist upon is knowing about the action: knowledge is the currency of trickster gods.

PS, anyone who says “Trust me” is cutting a deal, somehow or another. Mark my words.

PPS, image = detail from coin: infant Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle. Clever lad ….