concept
The Tench (social type)
Tench
also: Линь
In "A Fishy Business"'s allegory, the tench -- in an old-fashioned civil-service uniform coat -- caricatures the elderly, torpid career bureaucrat coasting to retirement, petty and quietly predatory toward those weaker still.
Reading notes
- A Fishy Business §25 The Tench
The tench (lin'), in an old-fashioned civil-service uniform coat (вицмундир) and "serving out his time to a pension," caricatures the elderly, torpid career bureaucrat coasting to retirement -- petty, self-indulgent, and quietly predatory toward those weaker still (the crucian carp).