A
Conversation with Helena Puumala, author of the Kati of Terra Series
Sept
4, 2014 Garneau Pub, Edmonton, Alberta
Part Seventeen
– Cats and Science Fiction
Question: We have
long wanted to do a conversation about cats and Science Fiction, and just generally
about cats in fiction. This is highly
appropriate for an internet blog, since as we all know, the internet is made of
cats.
But, in addition to
these general considerations, an even better motivator is that your children’s
story “The Summer Cottage Mystery – A Children’s Story” , which
prominently features a lost kitten, made #1 in Amazon.com and Amazon.uk over
the Labour Day long weekend.
Answer (Helena): Yes,
that was nice, though I wouldn’t want to go overboard about it, since it was a
couple of niche children’s categories and it was a “free days” promotion.
Question: Well,
it was a mix of free downloads, Kindle Unlimited borrows, and later sales. And it’s not easy to get people’s attention,
even with “free”, as every blogger knows.
To be precise about the categories, they were:
·
Children’s Books/Mysteries and
Detectives/Detectives
·
Children’s Books/Mysteries and
Detectives/Animals
Answer (Helena): Well,
thanks for the ego boost.
Question: It’s
all part of the job. By the way, you
have featured a cat as a major character in your Witches’ Stones SF
series. Cats (the felines) also play a
minor role in the Kati of Terra series. We
will talk about all that a little later, after discussing cat tropes in Science
Fiction, and see where your “Green Cat” alien of Witches’ Stones and the
felines of Kati of Terra fit in. But
first, let’s talk about the cats that we have known and loved (or feared) in
popular SF. That way, we can discuss the symbolic
importance of cats to the SF genre by talking about particular cases.
To begin, let’s go to that semi-infinite well of SF lore
known as Star Trek. Any thoughts?
Answer (Helena): I
guess the first use of cats in Star Trek that comes to my mind, is in the final
episode of the original series. In that
one, Kirk and Spock have to stop the launch of an orbital nuclear weapons
platform during the 1960s cold war, that endangers the future of the Earth. But the meet an agent, Gary Seven, who is on
an identical mission. The key element
here is that Gary Seven has a peculiar cat he calls Isis.
Question: Isis
was the goddess of fertility in ancient Egypt, if I recall correctly. Cats were very important in ancient Egypt and
Isis was a key figure in their mythology. So, that’s an obvious hint to the cat
symbolism of in the episode.
Answer (Helena): Yes,
it is never shown on screen, but it’s pretty clear that Isis the cat and a
beautiful woman who also appears in the episode are one and the same. It also seems clear that she and Gary Seven
are romantically involved.
Question: Yes,
she is shown to be jealous of the other female character in the story, who was
played by a young Terri Garr. That was
an unforgettable performance, by the way.
Answer (Helena): Well,
a young Terri Garr would have that effect on you. At any rate, the symbolism here seems to
involve the intrinsic mystery of cats, as well as their (usually) feminine
nature and sexual overtones. Part of the
cats’ mysterious nature is portrayed by the character’s apparent ability to
shape shift or appear out of nowhere. Cats have a way of suddenly showing up in
the real world, too. And the fact that
the cat shapes shifts into a beautiful woman conforms to the stereotype of the
cat being associated with the feminine principle. It’s not often that you see tom cats in these
fictionalizations.
Question: I can think of at least one case where the
cat may be more representative of male sexuality. That’s the scene in the movie “Forbidden
Planet” where the captain is coming on to the very fetching virginal daughter
of the “mad scientist” whom the space craft crew discover on the planet. His attempted seduction is interrupted by the
attack of a protective big cat, a panther or cougar I think. It seems that the cat’s function is to
protect the innocent young woman’s sexual purity, to forestall the seduction,
which seems like a male role. It’s a
late 1950’s movie, so I suppose protecting a young woman’s purity was a major
preoccupation of the era.
Answer (Helena): I
think perhaps the big cat is meant to be a psychological manifestation in the
real world, a reification of the libido or the super-ego perhaps, protecting
the ego from the drives of the id. The
movie seemed to have a lot of Freudian theory baked into it.
Question: So, is the cat symbolic of a male or
female principle in this case? Does it
represent a sort of father figure, protecting the woman? Or is it a female energy that the woman herself
calls up, to maintain her “honour”?
Answer (Helena): It
all depends whether you see this through a Freudian or Jungian lens. In Freudian terms, the jealous or protective
male energy seems likely. In Jungian
terms, you could go with either the shadow of the animus.
Question: Expand on that a bit.
Answer (Helena): The
animus is supposed to be the male psychic counterpart of a woman - the inner
man. The shadow is the “less good” part
of the person, usually thought to be the same gender as the person in question. Either way, the scene in the movie seems to
involve protecting the young woman from becoming a sexual being, sexually
active. I suppose any creature could
have been used in this role, but the cat’s association with sexuality makes it
a natural.
Question: And, for the record, the captain kills the
cat with his laser pistol, but also snaps out of the intended
seduction. Make of that, what you will.
Answer (Helena): Sounds
like a perfect 1950’s resolution to the problem.
Question: OK, getting back to Star Trek, I want to
mention the Catspaw episode, which I always think of as a Halloween
episode. In that one, an alien from
another galaxy presents herself as a cat, and also transforms her male partner
into a giant cat, that threatens the landing party. How’s that for confusing sexual symbolism?
Answer (Helena): Yes,
very confusing. But, if I recall
correctly, this alien wants to destroy, to take over the galaxy. So, in addition to the sexual symbolism of
the cat, we have the trope that an evil impulse lurks in the mind of the
cat. That harkens to the notion of that
cat as the familiar of evil forces or as evil itself.
Question: And the
cat wants to rule the universe. What cat
owner hasn’t felt that way, from time to time.
Answer (Helena): Here’s
a final example of cats and SF from Star Trek.
This example is much more benign than the others. Data and his cat, Spot.
Question: Of
course. I would say that Spot was a kind
of teacher for Data.
Answer (Helena): Spot
was also a kind of antithesis of Data.
Data was logic, Spot was emotion.
Data was mechanical, Spot was the very essence of organic creature-hood,
a cat. Data was an analyst and a
planner, Spot was instinctive and reactive.
Data recognized that, and in a sense, learned a lot about being human
from Spot. Which is to say, Spot helped
him learn more about the creaturely side of our nature.
Question: Ok, so
much for Star Trek. How about another SF
series that very prominently featured a cat, or at least a sort of cat-human
hybrid?
Answer (Helena): That
would be the cat-human in Red Dwarf, who descended a pet house cat.
Question: In fact
a whole species of intelligent (but not very intelligent) cats evolved from
Lister’s cat Frankenstein. That was a lot
of fun, but perhaps not very profound.
Answer (Helena): Maybe
not, but it did play upon some of our other stereotypes about cats.
Question: Preening,
arrogant and narcissistic. That’s what
you mean, right?
Answer (Helena): And
I will just add the contradictory qualities shared by Red Dwarf’s “The Cat” and
our companion animal “the cat”:
·
Stupid, yet somehow sly and smart.
·
Brave, yet often cowardly.
·
Confident, but also very shy.
·
Sociable, but also very independent and
introverted.
Cats are a contradiction, which is probably a big part of
their attraction for humans.
Question: Let’s
quickly go through a few others. There’s
the final episode of the “Ace” Doctor Who, which featured a sort of Cheetah
people. They hunted down humans and
sometimes transformed them into one of the cheetah species.
Answer (Helena): Yes,
the cat as hunter. That’s fundamental to
its nature. As humans, we are impressed
by that, but also fear it. After all, we
have been hunted by big cats through the ages, and still are occasionally. It makes sense that SF would play upon that
fear, upping the ante by making the hunter cats intelligent as well.
Question: How
about Harry Potter?
Answer (Helena): Crookshank
had a sort of protector role. It kept an
eye out for Voldemort, protecting Harry.
Question: That
makes sense. Cats do protect us, from
mice if nothing else. Though I doubt
Voldemort would be happy being compared to a mouse.
Answer (Helena): And
for those who want to continue the exploration of the subject of Cats in SF,
they might want to look into the books of Andre Norton or CJ Cherry, who
featured cat aliens in several novels.
Question: Let’s
not forget to talk about your own use of cats in Science Fiction. In the
Witches’ Stones series, you feature an alien creature known as “the Green
Cat”. What role does it play?
Answer (Helena): Well,
my Green Cat is intelligent and helpful to the heroine, Sarah MacKenzie. It is highly psychic and helps Sarah develop
her own psychic powers, which are needed in a cold war against a galactic dictatorship
that wants to take over a democratic Earth and it’s alliance. It doesn’t require the amartos or Witches’
Stones to help it amplify its ESP abilities, the way that humans like Sarah
do. So, in this case the Green Cat plays
the helpful friend, mentor and protector role.
In fact, it is not just Sarah’s friend, but the friend of humanity in
general.
Question: The way
cat’s can be, on their good days. And
what about the Kati of Terra series. A
cat species plays a critical but minor role, does it not?
Answer (Helena): Yes,
the felines are the creatures that actually abduct Kati for Earth in the first
book of the series. They are in the
employ of the evil slaver Gorsh, though, hardly masterminds. Just criminals for hire.
Question: Well,
that’s the way cats can be on their bad days.
And for our blog audience, here is a somewhat “Cats in Science Fiction”
themed cartoon, from that storehouse of internet humour, xkcd.com.
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