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Now on day 6 without my phone. Not sure why I'm really counting but I guess I am. Without my phone, I've been reading a lot more, and scrolling a lot less which is nice. One of the things I'm reading is Garry Kilworth's Hunter's Moon. A fairly obscure British talking animal novel, Hunters Moon (1989) feels like a book written for me. Set predominantly in the rural UK, it follows a vixen (as in a literal female fox) named O-ha throughout her life, from her meeting with her first mate, A-ho to her death. It's not a very happy tale with a lot of tragedy in a realistic setting where the natural world is losing ground to human encroachment. As a grounded talking animal novel for adults it's the kind of thing I really like but haven't encountered often. Another thing that draws me into this book is the foxes have an interesting culture and mythology and relations with other animal species that Garry Kilworth infused with observable fox behaviors. They have a resiliant if solitary culture. Resiliant in that they frequently see themselves as resolute in the changing increasingly human dominated world. Unlike th wolves who fell fighting a losing battle against humans and the dogs who made themselves slaves. The foxes are capable of adapting to and surviving amongst human settlements. While foxes are cordial with each other they are still, as in reality, solitairy outside family units and so do not form complex communities with each other.
As well thought out as all this is, somthing that Kilworth did not include in his novel (unsurprising as he is a British man who wrote this novel in the late '80s) was queerness (a term I am using in the academic sense as an umbrella term for gender and sexual minorities). You may have noticed the peculiar chirality of the names of the protagonist and her mate: O-ha and A-ho. It is explained that when a pair is mated the dog-fox (or male fox) takes the name of the vixen. That is, of course, only half of what's going on here. What about the vowels "A" and "O"? Part of the foxes creation myth involves a giant fox of both male and female form names "A-O". While not directly explained it's made clear that "A" and "O" are gendered prefixes applied to names. All foxes, it seems, are given names with an "A" vowel, so when O-ha met and mated with A-ran, he changed his name to A-ho taking the name and gendered vowel of his partner. Now this intreagued me being queer myself I can't help but try to imagine what queer foxes in this culture might be like. Let's start simply with cis-homosexuality. Homosexuality presents a problem for the re-naming convention of mated pairs. If we have two dog-foxes say A-ha and A-ran; what happens if they mate? Tradition states that the dog-fox would take the other partner's name and gendered vowel. So the obvious solution would be that they trade names. A-ha would become A-ran and A-ran A-ha. A bit confusing, but it would serve a purpose in letting animals that know them know they're a mated pair. It also seems possible that, depending on relationship dynamics, one might agree to take the other's name. This would also be confusing in an entirely different way as they would both wind up with exactly the same name. Homosexual vixens have an easier time of it. Assuming O-ha and O-ran; if they were to trade names O-ha would become O-ron and O-ran would become O-ho. It's even clearer in this case that they are mated as the vowel change in their name would reflect that status. However, given that vixens usually keep their name, I imagine a more popular route would be that each would keep their own name, but change the vowel.
So, thats a start, but lets get more complicated: trans foxes. Binary trans foxes would be pretty straightforward. Presumably, they would change their gender prefix and the mating rules would follow as normal. Non-binary trans foxes, however, need some new rules. Lets start simple and put aside the issue of xenogenders and agender for now. Enby foxes within the vixen-dog spectrum might decide to combine the two gender prefixes. A-ran might decide, for example, to be AO-ran. But oops A-O is the name of their creator deity. Isn't that a bit presumptuous? Perhaps, in deference to A-O reversing the letter order would be appropriate. So now we have OA-ran. However, when OA-ran finds a mate things are gonna get complicated. Let's start with the hetero pairings with OA-ran and A-ha. Tradition would suggest that A-ha take OA-ran's name, and gender vowel. A-ha would then become A-roan; taking both the "O" and "A". However, OA-ran might not be comfortable taking the vixen's role in the name exchange and they could trade names. A-ha still becoming A-roan, but OA-ran becoming OA-ha. A vixen pairing ight be much the same. O-ha and OA-ran might become O-ha and OA-ho as the vixen keeps her name. But, we could interpret the vowel change as an exchange since all foxes start out with "A" vowels. Maybe, it might be more approprate for O-ha to become O-hoa. So what about a pairing of two non-binary foxes? OA-ha and OA-ran again have the same 3 basic options we have already discussed: choose a name they both share, trade their names or keep their own names. What happens here is less predictable as the non-binary experiance encompasses a broad range of identities so it would be highly dependant on the specific pairing and their relationship dynamics. However, if we interpret the vowel change as an exchange and not a gender specific ritual then a vowel exchange would be likely no matter what happens to the names. So even if they were to keep their own names I imagine OA-ha and OA-ran would become OA-hoa and OA-roan.
Before, I mentioned xenogenders and agender. These are non-binary identities that don't fall within the male-female spectrum. Agender, naturally, describes people that don't have a gender that they associate with at all. Xenogenders are a lot rarer and more difficult for most to understand. That term describes people whose gender is or is associated with non-human things or ideas. I'm not the best source for a primer on Xenogenders so I won't get too deep into the weeds here. I will say, xenogender foxes of this culture might be interested in neo-gender prefixes. Instead of an "O" or an "A" they might use another vowel such as E and call themself E-ran. Some may even get more creative and choose a consonate like T-ran. That would get really complicated, however, if T-ran's mate would wish to take on their gender prefix. A-ha would have a lot of difficulty pronouncing his new name A-ht. Agender foxes might be more straightforward. After all, they can just excise the prefix O-ha might come out as "ha". This presents a problem with the mating name change similar to T-ran's. A-ran would have difficulty taking ha's gender prefix if they don't have one. I don't have a broad solution to fix these holes in the foxes' culture. In fact were I writing a story set in Kilworth's world I would consider these cultural blindspots a feature not a bug.
Kilworth himself doesn't ignore that the culture he created could have blindspots that need to be worked around. I have been lying by omission. Not all foxes rigedly adhier to these naming traditions. Late in the book we meet a mated pair named A-rythe and O-rythe who do not have an "A" or "O" in their name, and A-rythe didn't alter one of his vowels to "O". Furthermore, O-ha, after her first mate dies, mates with a fox imported from America to a British zoo. He comes from a whole different culture where the "A" and "O" prefixes are not used owing to a different creation myth. His name is Camio. The pair elect to keep their own names disregarding the name change tradition. Kilworth even got ahead of me with clipping off the gender prefix too. O-ha and Camio's daughter, O-mitz elects to drop the "O" from her name because: "It's so old fashioned... I feel like a Mitz. All those silly distinctions between the sexes. Ask any of the foxes my age - they'll tell you they don't want all that labelling stuff." This is seen as a transgression on tradition albiet permitted by Mitz's family unit. This isn't an example of a queer character. It is not portrayed as a rejection of her agab, but rather as merely a disregard for tradition. The tension between the changing world and tradition being a major theme of the novel
So why spend hours of my day working out the possible impact of queer characters on the fictional culture of foxes in a book nobody but me seems to have read? Well, its fun quite frankly. Also, These holes in language and culture mirror similar holes in our culture and language that gay, trans, non-binary people and their friends and family all have to deal with on a daily basis. It's as much a part of the queer experiance as anything else and so, deserves to be examined and reflected in our stories and fictions
Contact me - marensdasein@gmail.com