Blowfly

“Blowfly” is a wartime slur for Sirians, rooted in the purple coloration of their backsides and deployed as a counter-insult in an exchange between James Mowry and Terran soldiers. Its force in the scene is both physical and social: an anatomical difference becomes a ready-made ethnic label, while the soldiers’ banter makes clear that neither side’s name-calling is neutral.

Meaning and Use

A Terran voice tells Mowry, “Take it easy, Blowfly,” as the soldiers hold him. The narration explains the nickname through the Sirians’ purple backsides, making the word an openly bodily taunt rather than a formal designation. Mowry does not resent the rude counterstroke to the “Spakum” tag, placing the exchange within a reciprocal pattern of wartime abuse.

The Exchange

When Mowry asserts that he is speaking Terran, the sergeant answers, “Sure are. A hundred thousand Blowflies can speak it. They think it gives them a certain something.” The retort dismisses Mowry’s use of the language as no proof of distinction: in the sergeant’s formulation, many Sirians speak Terran, and they mistakenly imagine that doing so confers status. The nickname thus carries more than contempt for bodily difference; it also helps the speaker deny Mowry’s claim to individuality.

Narrative Significance

The word condenses the scene’s encounter between an individual captive and the group labels imposed on him. Mowry gives his name, while the Terran soldier answers him through the collective category “Blowfly.” The contrast makes the nickname an instrument of dehumanizing shorthand, even as the narration’s explanation exposes the crude bodily logic behind it.