3:44am August 23, 2014

Animorphs reread: Animorphs and cats

I don’t think Animorphs got cats right. I don’t remember which book I got this from but I can’t imagine it being much of a spoiler either way, so apologies if it’s from a later book. I haven’t read past 4ish though, so I really don’t think this is a spoiler.

Or rather, I should say, I think Animorphs got cats partially right. The sensory experiences of cats, their hunting instincts, many of those things were perfect.

But the idea that humans are just food-dispensing machines for cats… cliche, and totally not true. Fey does whatever the fuck she wants, she always has. If all she wanted out of me was food, she would not be snuggling with me right now.

If all she wanted out of me was food, she would not panic every time I end up in the hospital. And by panic, I’m certain a few times she was sure I was dying. When I come home, she’s incredibly protective of me, like a mother cat with her young. She gets angry at me for being away, and relieved that I’m back, and loving, and she clearly doesn’t know how to feel all three at once so she goes back and forth between purring and rubbing and biting as fast as she can.

She’s a person. She has thoughts, she has desires, she has needs, she has wants, like any other person. She is not human, and in many ways is alien to a human. But mammals are pretty similar emotionally, to each other. Hell, even my friend's parrot, who evolved totally differently than humans, has so much in common with humans it’s utterly uncanny, even including language abilities. Domestic cats are not just mammals, they are social mammals, like lions, and unlike their wildcat relatives. Humans are also social mammals. We share a lot in common, and the ability to love is one of those things.

I think cats are done a huge disservice when it’s portrayed as “cupboard love”, some kind of manipulative thing where they act like they like us so we will feed them. Not that there isn’t the odd cat who’ll do that, but you could say the same about humans.

I liked the glimpse inside the perceptual systems of a cat, I really did. But I wish they had given us a glimpse of the true emotional range of a cat, when dealing with humans or when dealing with littermates and other trusted cat friends. Because there is so much to be shown.

I think that The Book of Night With Moon and To Visit the Queen and The Big Meow, while they had their own fallacies when it came to cats, were the closest I’ve ever seen to what a true depiction of a cat in a fantasy setting would look like. Just in case anyone is looking for good, feline-oriented fantasy. I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s even a scene where they’re all stressed out by something and start going RRRRRRRRR and whapping each other in the dark and have to talk themselves down from a complete cat fight in the middle of a mission. And I could totally see that being a problem for real cats.

Anyway… I hope Animorphs gets better on the topic of cats but I’m not counting on it. I think for the most realistic cats in fantasy I’ll have to turn to Diane Duane. Even when she gets things wrong, she gets them right enough for them to work.