This an an afterword to a short story “Llewyn the Cat”, which I published on Amazon Kindle in August 13, 2020.
About the location, inspiration, and model cat
I wrote “Llewyn the Cat” as a spin-off to a
travel journey about a small port town, Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom, “僕のファルマス滞在記(Boku no Falmouth Taizaiki, My Travel Journey in Falmouth), which I
am currently working on. It had been as many as eight years since I wrote a
decent long novel last. Therefore, I was in need of rehabilitation. “Llewyn the
Cat” was perfect for it. I took the inspiration from a movie which I happened
to be watching at that time, “Inside Llewyn Davis”, depicting a life of a legendary
folk singer Dave van Ronk. The cat in my story was of course named from the
movie. Later I learned “Llewyn” means a lion in Wales.
I found the model cat in “Saba-chan,” a
feral, mackerel tabby cat fed and looked after in my neighborhood. I liked his
round face, sharp, philosophy-like eyes, and extreme friendliness. He soon
became attached to me, and would sit on my lap, purring. He was such a nice cat
– so he would have never betrayed me just like Llewyn did in the story. At
least I hope not.
About the message from the story
The message from “Llewyn the Cat” at the
initial stage was transience of our daily life. Things taken for granted do not
always or forever stay the way they are. Although the triggers vary(disasters, quarrels,
timing, etc), something we always see, feel or experience can suddenly disappear, or someone we
contact with almost every single day can go out of sight. That is why we need
to treat things and people around us with more care and respect, which may
sound like an ordinary message. This is a review I got from one of the readers:
“We believe our everyday life is permanent,
but indeed, it is not.”
“Llewyn the Cat” has another storyline. It
is also a story for people who are introverts. When writing the story, I wanted
to learn about what introversive people always think and feel. The artist who
drew the cover art of this book is a professional psychologist, and he offered
analysis as follows:
“Sometimes people who are introverts or have
social anxiety, they go through life expecting that no one will connect with
them or like them. And so the man interprets the cat's behavior that way.
First, assuming the cat doesn't like him, and then slowly gaining affection and
connection. And then finally, he seems betrayed by the cat who just found
another lap to sit on.”
Llewyn was found on the old lady’s lap
instead of that of the man, but it was not because the cat grew bored of him or
hated him. It just happened because of some wrong timing. The man, however,
misinterpreted it and felt shocked. Furthermore, he decided to watch the two of
Llewyn and the lady from a distance feeling like a loser for no reason, and
then left the place. If he had ventured to say “hello” or something to the lady at
least, the situation might have been a little or very different. And then, when the man
visited the beach the following day, Llewyn, who would always greet him
whenever he found his human friend, was completely gone. The man left for his
country without any chance to say goodbye to Llewyn.
By the way, I had at first intended to
include the sentence “If I had taken any action, things may have been a bit
different…” in the story, but eventually I chose not to. As the author, I did
not want to impose anything on my readers. I wanted to leave some room for my
readers to judge on their own. And the judgement will vary according to each of
them. At the end of the day, there is no “right answer” for the man’s action.
Even if he approaches to Llewyn and the lady, or not, that is just his action,
and the consequence only accompanies it.
So, what would you do if you were in the
man’s shoes?
You can purchase the book from here:
US: https://amzn.to/31pPlo0
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08FD5KC6M
CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08FD5KC6M/
AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08FD5KC6M
Or, you can search by "Yuka Kato Llewyn the Cat"!
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