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Ninefox Gambit Q1: Nine-tailed foxes
The nine-tailed fox is a well-known mythical creature across East Asia, including in Korea. It's often a trickster. Features of the Korean nine-tailed fox include:
- Spirit that achieves great power through great longevity
- Power of shapeshifting, trickery
- Evil, known for possessing humans
- yeowoo guseul , small shards made of knowledge
Jedao shares many features of the nine-tailed fox. Did you know about this creatures before the book? Does your knowledge of it (either then or now) enhance your understanding of the book?
And, what do you think of Jedao's plan for overthrowing the system?
Comments
I did know about it. I am quite familiar with the Chinese (jiuweihu) and Japanese (kitsune) versions. One of the major adversaries in the legend of White Snake was a jiuweihu. Seems very apropos for Jedao.
As for his plan, I thought iit was over complex, and would probably result in a similar systemic structure differing only in detail, not in substance.
I'd never heard of it before, so it didn't help before (
) and doesn't really help now. I kind of floundered in this book and didn't understand much of what was going on. It felt like book 10 in a 25-volume series and I kept feeling that I ought to know (or care) about some of the background, but I'm afraid I didn't.
As for the plan, when it finally got revealed (about 80% through the book maybe?) it just seemed ridiculous to me - kind of like the "unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism" in Austin Powers.
I didn't know. It might have helped, though I looked up 'ninefox' and what I mainly got was references to this novel, so that wasn't too helpful. It does seem to fit the character.
Let's file this under "cultural references that didn't translate." I thought it helped reinforce Jedao's role as a trickster, attempting to bring a change to the status quo. As for the plan... it was irrelevant to the book, and I can't really remember any details of it. It came across more as a plot device to show that Jedao "had a point".