Can I have fox book thoughts?? They sound very interesting
Sure thing anon! I was dying for someone to ask me!
What I was specifically thinking about in that post was the relationship of O-ha's second litter to their parents. Reading their cub chapters, the book is very keen on reiterating that A-salla (A-cam at the time) is his mother's favorite, in contrast to his father who doesn't like him very much. But picking up on the characterization more than what the narrator tells the audience I think the relationship is more nuanced.
A-cam is certainly the least complicated of the cubs. He's portrayed as a bit of a simpleton with the very simple desire to get his father to notice him. I can see O-ha gravitating towards him in contrast to his siblings. She's established to be very traditionally minded, which brings her to conflict with the more independent-minded Mitz, most strongly shown with how she still calls her O-mitz even after she rejects the use of the O- prefix. And A-sac shows vaguely defined mystical powers and behavioral tendencies that remind his parents of A-konkon, the fox mystic who started the whole rabies scare with his ritual suicide thing, so of course she'd have concerns about him.
But still, I don't see O-ha genuinely loving any of them less and I think it's less A-cam is her favorite and more he's the cub there's the least friction with. I do think O-ha is a very dedicated mother who does her damndest to raise her children the right way, even if her definition of it is rather narrow.
I flip-flop about whether he truly dislikes A-cam or if his parenting style is just O-ha's reverse and he picks up the slack with the more difficult children. Of course part of my perception is based on the pep talk before The Time of the Dispersal which A-cam never got to have on account of the getting his tail bit off incident, but still.
I think he did very good with reassuring Mitz regarding her insecurities about growing up. I feel like Camio's own lack of prefix may have influenced her to drop her own, which suggests a neat father-daughter connection I like. With A-sac though he is clearly frustrated with his whole non-chalant attitude about leaving home, I read in his pep talk very much a generally supportive tone. I can't imagine he's entirely happy considering his interactions with A-konkon, and with what we learn later about his interactions with A-gork I don't think he's too thrilled about the fact he decided to go study under O-toltol, but I think with A-sac he's trying. He's trying perhaps too hard for his son that's about to walk into a cannibal hermit's trap, but trying regardless.
As an aside, I find it bizarre the book implies A-gork was a one-time thing. I feel like A-sac, even as naive and predisposed to think himself special for his mystical experiences as he is, would've taken more than a single rangfar preacher before being indoctrinated into O-toltol's fox mystic philosophy. That's certainly something I would wanna expand on if I wrote fic for this book. What exactly is the recruitment process for O-toltol's rangfars? What do they get out of the deal?
