The Critics’ Corner

Fiona Davis writes about the “Wonus”

The Wonus is an entity appearing in Leona Rigger’s “Marked for Eradication.”

Showa seems to set the mood when she responds to Allunai’s panicked reaction to the knowledge that something was coming by asking if it is a plant eater. I can’t imagine someone running fearfully from any type of herbivore (unless it’s the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog, from Monty Python and the Holy Grail), so the question struck me as funny.

The very image of Wonus also seems slightly funny, like his creators didn’t really know what they were doing. If the Lon priests were going to create a terrible creature that would hunt down (human) criminals, especially in mountainous, rocky, tree-filled terrain, putting it on top of ten unstable, skinny legs would seem to invite disaster. To me, it’s incredibly freakish and scary-looking but relatively easy to trip up.

Maybe the fact that he has ten legs is what makes him stable, but a monster created to hunt on land might be better equipped to do so if it had strong, muscular legs that could not only carry it quickly but also allow it to overpower its prey.

Maybe the paws could have claws too, something like those of a large cat. That would have seemed more imposing to me; but on the other hand it appears that Wonus is more insect-like than anything else, so that combination would have been pretty weird.

I feel a little sorry for Wonus. He can’t help being what he is, and when I was reading his little passage I found myself wondering how self-aware he is.

Does he know he’s hideous and repulsive to other creatures? Does he chase them down because he is compelled to by urges buried deep within himself, or is there more going on in his mind? Does he even have a conscious mind, or is he just a dumb brute who kills mindlessly, because that’s what he’s always done?

I wonder if Wonus could be befriended, shown the error of his ways, taught to love. It would be an entirely new story, but I think there could be a great deal in Wonus’ character that could be explored.

Fiona

Copyright © 2008 by Fiona Davis

Thank you, Fiona... That’s definitely thought-provoking! I take your point about the priests’ genetic engineering being impractical. If they wanted a kind of hound dog to do their chasing for them, they might have found better examples in nature.

But then maybe the intent is to make Wonus look scary. Even so, the idea of making Wonus a kind of pet is an idea for a truly Bewildering story — and a very sweet one, too. Dimmity Dumpling would approve!

Don