Malazan Empire: Gardens of the Moon Reread Questions - Malazan Empire

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Gardens of the Moon Reread Questions Makes a ton more sense this time but now I'm baffled by new stuff

#1 User is offline   Kruppe of Darujhistan 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 04:55 AM

I will put my reread questions here. Only one to start.

In Kruppe's first dream sequence, before he reaches the Inn on the hill, he is passing by the lepers outside of Darujhistan. The women lepers are at the well and "dunking cats."

"Old men wrapped in the dingy yellow rags of lepers squatted over nearby cookfires. falling silent as he [Kruppe] passed. Similarly clad women stood by the muddy well, pausing in their endless dunking of cats---a bemusing activity, its symbolism lost on the man [Kruppe] as he hurried past."

Kruppe isn't the only one the symbolism of leper women dunking cats in a well is lost on. Anyone know what the hell this "dunking cats" business is all about? I'm completely baffled.
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#2 User is offline   HoosierDaddy 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 04:59 AM

They hate Abyss.

Either eating them or peeling them for fur. ;)
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#3 User is offline   Andorion 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 05:03 AM

I don't think this points to anything important in the story, but given SE you never know.

Also in early modern Europe random murder and torture of cats was a thing. There's a pretty famous book on it called The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton.
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#4 User is offline   Kruppe of Darujhistan 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 05:37 AM

View PostHoosierDaddy, on 11 May 2017 - 04:59 AM, said:

They hate Abyss.
Either eating them or peeling them for fur. ;)


I get those possibilities, but the mention that it was symbolic of something is what I don't understand. It was a dream, and symbolism is supposed to be language of dreams, but I can't begin to imagine what it could be symbolic of. Maybe one of those dream interpretation books could shed some light.


View PostAndorion, on 11 May 2017 - 05:03 AM, said:

I don't think this points to anything important in the story, but given SE you never know.

Also in early modern Europe random murder and torture of cats was a thing. There's a pretty famous book on it called The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton.


I doubt it's of any real import either. It just strikes me as a very strange passage.

Unfortunately, the random torture and murder of cats is STILL a thing. :(
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#5 User is offline   worry 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 05:51 AM

HD could be right, and either Kruppe is displaying willful ignorance (humorously) or genuine ignorance (also humorously).

Alternatively it could be a joke about how niche a custom it is, like even a native of the same city has no idea why they're doing it. Beyond being funny, if you want to go another step, there is commentary there about how esoteric so many customs are in their origins.
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#6 User is offline   Kruppe of Darujhistan 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 05:59 AM

My ignorance is genuine, worry. Ha ha, I guess. ;)
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#7 User is offline   Gorefest 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 11:59 AM

Or they could be prostitutes being cryptic.
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#8 User is offline   Kruppe of Darujhistan 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 03:51 PM

View PostGorefest, on 11 May 2017 - 11:59 AM, said:

Or they could be prostitutes being cryptic.


LOL! Being lepers, their charms as prostitutes would likely be limited to other lepers. I can't see leper prostitutes making a very good living. And according to The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, erectile dysfunction is the rule of the day, vis. lepers. ;)
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#9 User is offline   Gorefest 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 05:54 PM

It is probably just a convoluted setup for a joke. A bit further on during the rooftop chase stuff someone falls off a roof amidst a bunch of seriously pissed off cats. Possibly they were agrieved by the dunking.

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 11 May 2017 - 05:55 PM

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#10 User is offline   Kruppe of Darujhistan 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 08:35 PM

View PostGorefest, on 11 May 2017 - 05:54 PM, said:

It is probably just a convoluted setup for a joke. A bit further on during the rooftop chase stuff someone falls off a roof amidst a bunch of seriously pissed off cats. Possibly they were agrieved by the dunking.


Yes, but the connection seems tenuous since the cats of the leper women were in Kruppe's dream. And it still doesn't explain the "symbolism" of the dunked cats, which brings us back to my original question.
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#11 User is offline   Abyss 

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Posted 11 May 2017 - 10:16 PM

View PostKruppe of Darujhistan, on 11 May 2017 - 08:35 PM, said:

View PostGorefest, on 11 May 2017 - 05:54 PM, said:

It is probably just a convoluted setup for a joke. A bit further on during the rooftop chase stuff someone falls off a roof amidst a bunch of seriously pissed off cats. Possibly they were agrieved by the dunking.


Yes, but the connection seems tenuous since the cats of the leper women were in Kruppe's dream. And it still doesn't explain the "symbolism" of the dunked cats, which brings us back to my original question.





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#12 User is offline   Bentract 

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Posted 12 May 2017 - 12:44 AM

I think the symbolism has to do with the fact that the woman were dunking cats as a form of population control. Without any natural predators or the means to limit reproduction it was actually quite common for cities to become infested with cats. Concerned citizens would often (and still do in modern times) destroy unwanted cats, often by drowning them. So I think the symbolism has to do with the irony of managed life or how overabundance can lead to punishment. Too many people and the poor are forced to live on the outskirts of town and yet those same people now kill unwanted cats as if to say "it's okay that I live like this, but not you"
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#13 User is offline   BedofGold 

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Posted 06 July 2017 - 04:43 PM

When I read it, I just assumed it was a joke, playing off of how dreams are meant to be interpreted as all symbolism while having Kruppe's dream be so utterly confusing and odd and Kruppe himself being humorously ignorant. It may also just have been a way for the reader to be somewhat confused and bewildered by Kruppe's dream world, so to speak, as most of his dream sequences are very odd and have strange symbolism and events. Maybe I'm a bad fantasy reader, but I didn't really give it too much thought after it was never expanded upon in this book, as far as I can tell, and I doubt Erikson would make us wait for the resolution of a one-off sentence in GotM
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#14 User is offline   Mera II 

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Posted 05 July 2018 - 03:17 AM

You may not understand kruppe like I was then I said this guy sound nah but later you gonna understand everything just don't forget to take them along everything he say has a meaning though but is too confusing like mentioning his own name kruppe and odd and yon and... But trust it all worth it
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