Alliegiance: Gobbolino The Witch’s Cat
Sep. 20th, 2020 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pobble_readsThis is the penultimate chapter and it’s quite long - and ends in a cliff hanger! So that’s exciting. And gives me a lot to think about
When I was picking the theme I wanted to read this chapter through I wasn’t sure if I should word it as loyalty or allegiance? I’m not even sure if I fully know what the difference between the two is now! I tend to think of myself as a fairly loyal person - I’m definitely someone who finds it hard to let go/give up/walk away rather than a person who is slow to invest in someone/something emotionally. But I also have a lot of confusion around the idea of allegiance - the idea of patriotism has never made a huge amount of sense to me. And the idea of pledgIng allegiance to a flag - a piece of cloth - seems downright bizarre. I’m probably missing something because symbols can be important...
Anyway, in this chapter Gobbolino gets to explore who and what his allegiance is, and should be, to several times. Before we look at that it’s time for a recap
9 Sentence Recap:
Gobbolino starts to work with the Pedlar-Woman
He doesn’t like the way she treats her customers
They slowly travel towards the mountains
Eventually they end up at the cave where Sootica and her witch-mistress live
The Pedlar-Woman tells them Gobbolino is useless and abandons him there
Sootica begs her witch to take her brother in.
Gobbolino can’t do even the simplest witch’s cat tasks.
He refuses to help with a spell to curse a princess.
The Witch throws Gobbolino into her cauldron.
3 Sentence Recap
The Pedlar-Woman is horrible and Gobbolino is miserable.
Gobbolino and his sister, Sootica, are reunited.
Gobbolino fails again as a witch’s cat and is cursed.
The chapter starts with Gobbolino trying to ally himself with his new “owner” the Pedlar-Woman. After all his adventures in the non-magical world he finds himself the companion of a witch again and he tries to accept that fate While sticking to his own moral code
This seems to be fundamental to the cat-human relationship in this world. The cat will do there best to fit in with the human’s priorities and goals - at least as much as they are able and if it doesn’t conflict with their basic morality and needs. A cat like Sootica seems to have never even tried to develop a code of ethics separate from her human’s (at least as far as we can see - maybe she has thought about these things deeply and just happens to have reached the same conclusions as the Hurricane Mountain Witch?). If Gobbolino hadn’t travelled so widely and met so many different kinds of humans would he have been able to develop a moral code of his own? He always wanted to be a kitchen cat but he didn’t seem to see much beyond being accepted and being good at fulfilling the kitchen cat “job description” rather than thinking much about being a good cat/person when he first went out into the world as a kitten.
The Pedlar-Woman certainly expects Gobbolino to be loyal to her, to obey her without question - and without error. She is very much in charge of the partnership - but she does seem to see it as a partnership, talking about her cruel method of fortune telling will mean
She doesn’t seem to think she owes her customers anything - not even the truth or goods that won’t fall apart. The (Gobbolino-centred) narrator describes this is
As they travel into the mountains Gobbolino feels “out of place“ - this is the world he chose to leave and he dreads returning. He doesn’t feel any allegiance to the way of life he was born into - but he feels guilty about that. Now that he is back sharing his life with a witch he believes he should feel happy in that life and grateful to her
I can’t fully untangle this - I think Gobbolino could do with some therapy! He believes he is bad for having un-witch’s-cat-like thoughts and feelings and at the same time blames that badness on being a witch’s cat! Even though that thought process doesn’t make sense to me I can relate to having twisted up and unhelpful thinking when I am depressed. Returning to the mountains seems to have trigged a trauma-type response for him and in the ideology he grew up in he just can’t win. Poor Gobbolino.
When he finally recognises Sootica he does feel some kind of bond with her, he’s overwhelmed but happy to see her. His sister is pleased too even though the first thing she says to him is critical. Although he doesn’t meet her standards for a proper witch’s cat she’s still much more welcoming and accepting of him that either of the witches.
The Hurricane Mountain Witch is proud of Sootica and encourages her to show off her magic but the Pedlar Woman disparages Gobbolino. It makes me wonder if there is a vicious circle happening here - does the negativity dampen his ability to do magic and then does his failure make the Pedlar Woman even more critical? If she made the effort could she actually build up his confidence and his magical ability instead?
Ultimately the Pedlar Woman’s lack of loyalty or any real bond with Gobbolino result in her abandoning him in the Huricane Mountains cave without saying anything either to him or to the people she is leaving him with. I suppose there is a tiny scrap of kindness in her leaving him in a cavern with people rather than in the wilds of the mountains.
The Hurricane Mountain Witch is angry about having Gobbolino dumped on her and wants to throw him down the mountain side to die. Sootica can not bare that, for all of her criticism of Gobbolino she still feels an allegiance to him as her brother
She shares her food with him and helps him with the tasks he is assigned. The tasks are supposed to be the most basic things that a witch’s cat might be expected to do and even though Sootica is dismissive of him for not being able to do them she puts herself out to help him and to teach him how to do better in future.
It’s not clear how long Sootica’s sibling loyalty would keep her defending Gobbolino and pretty much doing all of his work as well as her own Would last. Or how long the Witch’s bond with Sootica would keep her listening to her cat’s pleas for her brother. On the third night Gobbolino’s task is to help prepare a spell that will curse a 21 year old princess because of something her parents did at her christening. Gobbolino’s ethical and empathic allegiance to an innocent human is greater than his loyalty to his new mistress. Unlike untangling spells or catching lizards this is a task he is capable of - but he refuses to be part of harming someone, even someone he doesn’t know. Sootica doesn’t try to defend him - we don’t know if she would have tied because she doesn’t have time. The Hurricane Moutain witch is so angry about what she sees as Gobbolino’s disloyalty to her, after she has taken him in and put up with his incompetence for Sootica’s sake, that she immediately grabs him and throws him into her cauldron.
As far as the Hurricane Mountain Witch is concerned Gobbolino’s refusal to work on the spell is nonsensical. It’s completely inappropriate for a witch’s cat to talk about cruelty or to choose which orders from their mistress they are going to obey. She expects his loyalty and obedience and it matters far more than magical ability.
For Gobbolino doing the right thing turns out to be more important than his allegiance or gratitude to the mistress who took him in after he was abandoned (again). He is not morally capable of being a witch’s cat as well as not being skilled at it.
For now we will leave Gobbolino in the witch’s cauldron. I will try to do the Reading Practice (we are back to Floralegia) and the Blessings soon. Next time (Which will probably be more than a week away because I’m busy all next weekend, sorry) we will be looking at the final chapter of the book (16) Gobbolino the Kitchen Cat through the theme of Love
(It’s a tradition on the HPST podcast to always read the final chapter of a book with the theme of love and that’s something I appreciate and would like to keep on doing In my own reading)
What do you think? Did I miss something really obvious? Are there other things you would like to say about allegiance or about this chapter in general?
When I was picking the theme I wanted to read this chapter through I wasn’t sure if I should word it as loyalty or allegiance? I’m not even sure if I fully know what the difference between the two is now! I tend to think of myself as a fairly loyal person - I’m definitely someone who finds it hard to let go/give up/walk away rather than a person who is slow to invest in someone/something emotionally. But I also have a lot of confusion around the idea of allegiance - the idea of patriotism has never made a huge amount of sense to me. And the idea of pledgIng allegiance to a flag - a piece of cloth - seems downright bizarre. I’m probably missing something because symbols can be important...
Anyway, in this chapter Gobbolino gets to explore who and what his allegiance is, and should be, to several times. Before we look at that it’s time for a recap
9 Sentence Recap:
Gobbolino starts to work with the Pedlar-Woman
He doesn’t like the way she treats her customers
They slowly travel towards the mountains
Eventually they end up at the cave where Sootica and her witch-mistress live
The Pedlar-Woman tells them Gobbolino is useless and abandons him there
Sootica begs her witch to take her brother in.
Gobbolino can’t do even the simplest witch’s cat tasks.
He refuses to help with a spell to curse a princess.
The Witch throws Gobbolino into her cauldron.
3 Sentence Recap
The Pedlar-Woman is horrible and Gobbolino is miserable.
Gobbolino and his sister, Sootica, are reunited.
Gobbolino fails again as a witch’s cat and is cursed.
The chapter starts with Gobbolino trying to ally himself with his new “owner” the Pedlar-Woman. After all his adventures in the non-magical world he finds himself the companion of a witch again and he tries to accept that fate While sticking to his own moral code
“ A witch’s Cat I was born, and here I am a witch’s cat again. If only I can escape from harming people, I will do my best to serve my mistress well, but make the innocent unhappy I never will.”
This seems to be fundamental to the cat-human relationship in this world. The cat will do there best to fit in with the human’s priorities and goals - at least as much as they are able and if it doesn’t conflict with their basic morality and needs. A cat like Sootica seems to have never even tried to develop a code of ethics separate from her human’s (at least as far as we can see - maybe she has thought about these things deeply and just happens to have reached the same conclusions as the Hurricane Mountain Witch?). If Gobbolino hadn’t travelled so widely and met so many different kinds of humans would he have been able to develop a moral code of his own? He always wanted to be a kitchen cat but he didn’t seem to see much beyond being accepted and being good at fulfilling the kitchen cat “job description” rather than thinking much about being a good cat/person when he first went out into the world as a kitten.
The Pedlar-Woman certainly expects Gobbolino to be loyal to her, to obey her without question - and without error. She is very much in charge of the partnership - but she does seem to see it as a partnership, talking about her cruel method of fortune telling will mean
our pockets will be full of silver
She doesn’t seem to think she owes her customers anything - not even the truth or goods that won’t fall apart. The (Gobbolino-centred) narrator describes this is
the witch’s treacherysuggesting that there should be some kind of allegiance and a relationship of trust and goodwill between merchant and customer. Gobbolino does try to tell customers the truth — he seems to be motivated mostly by compassion and empathy towards any thinking/feeling creature rather than being specific to the buyer/seller relationship - perhaps his allegiance is to all living beings?
As they travel into the mountains Gobbolino feels “out of place“ - this is the world he chose to leave and he dreads returning. He doesn’t feel any allegiance to the way of life he was born into - but he feels guilty about that. Now that he is back sharing his life with a witch he believes he should feel happy in that life and grateful to her
Gobbolino looked forward rather fearfully to spending a night in another witch’s cavern.
“But after all,” he said to himself, “what else can I expect? Who am I to expect anything different? How ungrateful I am! - and how wicked! It comes with being born a witch’s cat, I suppose I had better spend the rest of my life being a proper one.
I can’t fully untangle this - I think Gobbolino could do with some therapy! He believes he is bad for having un-witch’s-cat-like thoughts and feelings and at the same time blames that badness on being a witch’s cat! Even though that thought process doesn’t make sense to me I can relate to having twisted up and unhelpful thinking when I am depressed. Returning to the mountains seems to have trigged a trauma-type response for him and in the ideology he grew up in he just can’t win. Poor Gobbolino.
When he finally recognises Sootica he does feel some kind of bond with her, he’s overwhelmed but happy to see her. His sister is pleased too even though the first thing she says to him is critical. Although he doesn’t meet her standards for a proper witch’s cat she’s still much more welcoming and accepting of him that either of the witches.
The Hurricane Mountain Witch is proud of Sootica and encourages her to show off her magic but the Pedlar Woman disparages Gobbolino. It makes me wonder if there is a vicious circle happening here - does the negativity dampen his ability to do magic and then does his failure make the Pedlar Woman even more critical? If she made the effort could she actually build up his confidence and his magical ability instead?
Ultimately the Pedlar Woman’s lack of loyalty or any real bond with Gobbolino result in her abandoning him in the Huricane Mountains cave without saying anything either to him or to the people she is leaving him with. I suppose there is a tiny scrap of kindness in her leaving him in a cavern with people rather than in the wilds of the mountains.
The Hurricane Mountain Witch is angry about having Gobbolino dumped on her and wants to throw him down the mountain side to die. Sootica can not bare that, for all of her criticism of Gobbolino she still feels an allegiance to him as her brother
”Pray, mistress, think again. He is my bloodbrother and although I am very ashamed of him, I do not wish to see him die. Perhaps if we were to keep him a little while, mistress, you might teach in better ways for you are very clever, and, after all, if you do not succeed there is plenty of time to throw him down the mountain by and by.”
She shares her food with him and helps him with the tasks he is assigned. The tasks are supposed to be the most basic things that a witch’s cat might be expected to do and even though Sootica is dismissive of him for not being able to do them she puts herself out to help him and to teach him how to do better in future.
It’s not clear how long Sootica’s sibling loyalty would keep her defending Gobbolino and pretty much doing all of his work as well as her own Would last. Or how long the Witch’s bond with Sootica would keep her listening to her cat’s pleas for her brother. On the third night Gobbolino’s task is to help prepare a spell that will curse a 21 year old princess because of something her parents did at her christening. Gobbolino’s ethical and empathic allegiance to an innocent human is greater than his loyalty to his new mistress. Unlike untangling spells or catching lizards this is a task he is capable of - but he refuses to be part of harming someone, even someone he doesn’t know. Sootica doesn’t try to defend him - we don’t know if she would have tied because she doesn’t have time. The Hurricane Moutain witch is so angry about what she sees as Gobbolino’s disloyalty to her, after she has taken him in and put up with his incompetence for Sootica’s sake, that she immediately grabs him and throws him into her cauldron.
As far as the Hurricane Mountain Witch is concerned Gobbolino’s refusal to work on the spell is nonsensical. It’s completely inappropriate for a witch’s cat to talk about cruelty or to choose which orders from their mistress they are going to obey. She expects his loyalty and obedience and it matters far more than magical ability.
For Gobbolino doing the right thing turns out to be more important than his allegiance or gratitude to the mistress who took him in after he was abandoned (again). He is not morally capable of being a witch’s cat as well as not being skilled at it.
For now we will leave Gobbolino in the witch’s cauldron. I will try to do the Reading Practice (we are back to Floralegia) and the Blessings soon. Next time (Which will probably be more than a week away because I’m busy all next weekend, sorry) we will be looking at the final chapter of the book (16) Gobbolino the Kitchen Cat through the theme of Love
(It’s a tradition on the HPST podcast to always read the final chapter of a book with the theme of love and that’s something I appreciate and would like to keep on doing In my own reading)
What do you think? Did I miss something really obvious? Are there other things you would like to say about allegiance or about this chapter in general?
