# Super obscure question about the novel "Little Fuzzy" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [May 29, 2021, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146 "2021-05-29T02:37:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146/1 "2021-05-29T02:37:29Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146/2 "2021-05-29T02:47:22Z")
Don’t know anything about this story but Ko-Ko is the Lord High Executioner in the Mikado > **[The Mikado](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mikado)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > > The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time.\[n 1\] By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe... ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146/3 "2021-05-29T03:02:28Z")
Oh, wow, that might be it! It makes sense with the comment, anyway! The Dope comes through again! Thank you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146/4 "2021-05-29T13:11:19Z")
Just popped in to say that now I’m hungry for some esteefee! ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146/5 "2021-05-29T13:35:35Z")
You never had to live on that stuff and nothing else for a month, that’s for sure! ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146/6 "2021-05-29T13:57:53Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146/7 "2021-05-29T15:29:05Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146/8 "2021-05-29T15:59:57Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I didn’t enjoy John Scalzi’s _Fuzzy Nation_ , though. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/super-obscure-question-about-the-novel-little-fuzzy/943146/9 "2021-05-29T16:20:11Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > 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 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. 😃