Cocks and Bulls

Bull's transformation behind his knee reveals his tendencies towards "femininity" in his past. These tendencies are extremely scrutinized by Bull, and reasoned as the catalyst behind his transformation. This addition in his gender identity opens this story up to the concept of simulacra. Bull is both male and female, making him also neither of the two. He becomes a character who loosely represents masculinity and femininity, but can do neither to their full potential. Bull's situation is real in the world of fiction, but the work of fiction also recognizes that this mutation is impossible. The story is a representation of reality, and the characters are representations of themselves.Bull's addition of a vagina, along with having a penis, makes his identity murky to the reader and the characters in the story. Because his identity is shifting and can no longer be pinned down, the reader becomes both a witness to this abnormality and a part of it. The reader steps into the story at the moment of realization of Bull's new sexual organ, creating a voyeuristic type character for the reader. The reader watches Bull's life shift and change, and the reader turns his situation into a fetish, needing to know how this addition works and feels. There are many moments in the story where the vagina is spatially juxtaposed against Bull's penis, especially in the sex scene between Bull and his male doctor. Involving an homo-erotic element to the story, it no longer becomes about Bull's journey through difficult and confusing times in his life. The story begins to shift and change into a type of love story, although very adulterous and alternative. The story itself is unable to be pinned down into one theme at the point of sexual intercourse between the characters. Much like in Carol's story of Cock, the inability for the reader to "type" the story and the character archetypes, Will Self is given room to further manipulate and skew  the concepts and actions throughout the rest of the story.