Felis Sapiens - Culture, Religion and History

Culture, Religion and History

Cat culture is strongly dependent on their religion, believing that a god known as Cloister the Stupid will lead them to the promised land, Fuchal (pronounced "Fyooshal"), where they would open a Temple of Food. In the novels, the promised land is named "Bearth" for Earth, rather than "Fuchal" for Fiji. Cloister is said to be the father of the Cat people. He is reported to have lived years ago, at the Beginning, and was willingly "frozen in time" so the cat race could exist. This religious dogma parallels the true story, and Cloister is in fact the anti-hero Dave Lister. A religious conflict erupted due to differing interpretations of dogma; in the novels, this was over the name of God (Cloister/Clister), whereas the television series had the war concerning the colour (red or blue) of the hats that the people who served at the Temple of Food were to wear (according to Lister, the hats were actually supposed to be green). One of the most notorious goofs of the television series is that the painting of the holy war depicts both sides wearing the same color hat. However, this itself could be satire of the fights between denominations of the same religion.

In both continuities, the war raged for thousands of years and most of the Felis sapiens population was killed in the fighting. A truce was called, and each faction built a spacecraft and left Red Dwarf in search of Fuchal. In the television series, the faction who believed the hats should be blue followed a sacred writing of Cloister, that they had interpreted as a star chart (actually Lister's laundry list), and immediately flew into an asteroid. It is not known what became of the second spacecraft, although it may have encountered the Holoship at one point in the past. In either case, only the healthy cats left Red Dwarf; the maimed, deformed and insane were left behind, eventually dying out until only The Cat was left.

In the original episodes, the last remaining Cat Priest was able to provide further insight into the nature of the cat religion. He tells Lister that he sublimated his natural instincts to be neat, clean and well groomed, instead choosing to emulate Cloister, by "wearing the holy custard stains and the sacred gravy marks".

In the novels, the Cat race had Seven Cat Commandments. They are as follows:

1. Thou shalt not be cool
2. Thou shalt not be in vain
3. Thou shalt not have more than ten suits
4. Thou shalt not partake of carnal knowledge with more than four members of the opposite sex at any one session
5. Thou shalt not slink
6. Thou shalt not hog the bathroom
7. Thou shalt not steal another's hair gel.

In the TV series the Cat race were given "five sacred laws" by their God Cloister. Lister once mentioned he'd broken all but one of the laws himself - "I'd have broken the fifth but there're no sheep on board."

Cats found guilty of being vain were forced to wear fashion styles from the previous year.

The Cat maintains that the cat commandments stretch back to a "Dark Age" of religious fanaticism, which explains why he hardly adheres to them.

The Cat race apparently had wise old people in its history who formulated several "wise old Cat sayings". These sayings range from the rather intelligent "It's better to live one hour as a tiger than a whole lifetime as a worm" to the not-so-brilliant "What are you talking about, dog-breath?" It is debatable whether this is a genuine saying, due to the Cat only learning of dogs when Lister shows the Cat a picture of his father; more likely the Cat was calling it an old saying merely for effect. Often, while going against some of the Cat sayings that would involve facing danger, Rimmer would invent a counter-saying: e.g., "There's an old human saying—Whoever heard of a worm-skin rug?"

Food (fish and birds in particular) is of central cultural and economic importance. A cat with five fish might feel like a millionaire. Appreciation is shown to someone who gives them food by licking the giver. In true feline fashion their food is given a chance to escape, which means they taunt it with a song. Whenever an unknown presence (including strange humans and humanoids) is met they make themselves look big by raising their arms above their head and pulling a snarling face, as a defense mechanism. Cats also love what they call "shiny things" and will play with such objects much as would a modern housecat. Any attempt to take the "shiny thing" from a Cat may result in the offender being eaten.

As a whole, Cats are extremely vain and love mirrors almost as much as their actual selves. In fact, they are so self-centred that if they have to give someone a present, it will most likely be a belonging of their own which they hate and want to get rid of.

A Cat relationship lasts for three minutes, and they do not refer to each other by name at any time, preferring to say "Hey you!". True to character, the Cat in the series rarely ever addresses or refers to members of the crew by name, but invents nicknames for them, often insulting ones for Rimmer, making references to the H on his forehead or the fact that he is dead.

In one parallel universe cats do not exist. Rather, a race of creatures evolved from dogs exists instead. Unlike the cats, Dogs are very smelly and dirty and hate baths. They offer their bottoms for strangers to smell and are terrible dancers.