If Jim Steinman wrote science fiction novels then they would probably be a bit like Elizabeth Bear’s All the Windwracked Stars.
It starts with Ragnarök and goes forward from there. Ragnarök is, after all, merely the final battle, not the end of the world. In Bear’s book, three gods survive into the Age of Men: Fenris, a young and bookish Valkyrie (someone has to write the histories), and one of the winged horses. Two thousand years later, when men have brought about their own techno-apocalypse, it is time for the cycle to begin again.
Of course this is not exactly our world. To start with the horse has two heads (one stag, the other antelope) which looks great on the cover but is perhaps of dubious value (this particular feline finds ordinary horses quite dim enough without giving them two heads to argue with, both from prey animals even dimmer than themselves). And then there is technomancy, including bio-plagues and the moreaux (yes, you should be able to work out what they are). One of the latter is one of my mountain cousins, whom I’ve always thought were a bit dim too on account of living in snow, but they do look fabulous. (By the way, Bear, us big cats can’t purr, though I’m sure feline moreaux could have had the ability designed in.)
Parts of the book are overwrought, in a punning sense, and in a way that Thomas Covenant is overwrought, but then how else is one to tell of the end of worlds, and of two thousand years of survivor guilt? Perhaps it is best to leave this sort of thing to Milton, or at least to poetry.
And all the windwracked stars are lost and torn upon the night
Like candleflame they flicker, and fail to cast a light.
To begin with there was darkness, darkness, Light and Will
And in the end there’s darkness, darkness sure and still.
And yet…
…the angels had guitars even before they had wings.
And when you really, really need it the most, that’s when rock and roll dreams come through.
Cheetahs purr. I have personally patted one and verified this for myself.
Without wishing to get speciesist about this, I have to point out that Cheetahs are not members of the genus Panthera and are therefore not Family. They can’t climb trees well or properly retract their claws either, but they sure can run.
Purring is a specific ability of our little friends Felis Catus and their close relatives, and is quite precisely defined. Many cats (and even some humans) can make purring noises, but the true purr is sustained even when the purrer is breathing in, which requires special vocal structures to achieve. Our little friends are very proud of this ability and get sniffy about incorrect use of the term. You should probably be careful about describing cheetahs as “purring” in the hearing of any of your feline friends, as it may take copious offerings of tuna to get back into their good books.
Alas to disillusion you, but snow leopards purr. They do not roar.
Like the clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa of Malaysia, the snow leopard is intermediate between big and small cats. Like the small cats, snow leopards purr but cannot roar, and they feed in a crouched position. Their skull is large, shortened and broadened with a short muzzle, high forehead and vertical chin. Irises are pale yellowish to greenish grey, and the pupils are round. The backs of their short rounded ears are black at the tips and the base, with grey median bars. Short rounded ears are thought to be an adaptation for stalking prey in areas of little cover, an adaptation shared by other mountain dwelling species. Their broad foot pads are covered with a cushion of hair which increases the surface area and distributes their weight more evenly over snow. This cushion also protects their pads from the intense cold.
Ah, fascinating. I knew about the not roaring thing, but not that the issues with the vocal set-up that prevented roaring also allowed them to purr. Still, another reason to look down one’s nose upon smaller relatives. They do have the most gorgeous fur and the rest of us need reasons to sneer back. Thank you!
Hee.
Apparently it’s purr or roar: you get one or the other. Interesting, huh?
I’m tempted to argue that if you are tough enough to roar you don’t need to be cute enough to purr. However, being deeply devious as only felines can be, I can see advantages in being able to do both. Surely it can’t be beyond medical engineering?
And the big question now is, does Bast purr and Sekhmet roar?
If we’re not all one big happy Felidae family, fair enough then. I guess a cheetah is a big cat, but not a Big Cat. It does purr on the inhale, though, so I think my tuna is safe. I have mentioned its purring to some smaller purrers and they raised no objection.
Ur tuna is nevuh safe. We can smellz it. Give uz it, neow!