This is probably a long shot, but the Dope has pleasantly surprised me before with its breadth of obscure knowledge, so I’ll give it a try.
I love the novel “Little Fuzzy” by H. Beam Piper. I re-read it every few years. But one thing one of the characters says has always confused me.
After Little Fuzzy settles in with Jack Holloway, he goes off and brings his family back to live with him. Jack gives them all names. There are Mike and Mitzi, Mama Fuzzy, and Baby Fuzzy. And then, “I call this one Ko-Ko, because of the ceremonious way he beheads land-prawns.”
What does the name “Ko-Ko” have to do with ceremoniously beheading prey animals? (The Fuzzies use a long pole with a blade at the end of it). Is this some reference people in the Sixties would have gotten, but it’s now passed into obscurity?
This is the only place besides a con that I’ve ever heard these stories talked about. I think it’s time to re-read them. It’s been decades now since I read them, I think, and they are among my most favorite.
There are new ones now! A guy named Wolfgang Diehr has written three new ones, Fuzzy Ergo Sum, Caveat Fuzzy, and The Fuzzy Conundrum. They’re all very much in the same vein as the original, and continue the story with the same characters and some very interesting new ones. I highly recommend them.
I didn’t enjoy John Scalzi’s Fuzzy Nation, though. It was well written, but he took far too many liberties with the characters for my tastes (and left most of them out altogether). The thing I loved about Piper’s books (aside from the Fuzzies, of course!) was the underlying integrity of the main characters–especially how they were able to admit when they were wrong and make amends. Scalzi’s “modernization” of the story doesn’t work for me at all.
I concur, though I really enjoy Scalzi’s other writings, for the most part.
I read Little Fuzzy back in the 70’s and quickly devoured Fuzzy Sapiens and later enjoyed William Tuning’s Fuzzy Bones. Mayhar’s subsequent Golden Dreams: A Fuzzy Odyssey was also enjoyable.
I remember the excitement when Piper’s lost manuscript Fuzzies and other People was discovered, and enjoyed it when published. Reading a “new” Piper work 2 decades after his death gave me goosebumps.
Somehow I missed out on Diehr’s 3 sequels. I suppose I’ll have to check them out eventually.
It’s sad that Piper couldn’t have held out longer. Plagued by debt and rejection notices he committed suicide not long before SF started enjoying new popularity. I think he would have become successful had he not gotten so worn down. I enjoyed his Paratime works too.
It is unbelievably convenient that you had already posted something that was nearly identical to what I would have written; thank you for the time saver.
