Many of the stories are about power, and the violence, both implicit and explicit, imbued in its existence. The entirety of Ants reads When I crushed a large number of ants by accident with my feet, I realized that weakness is punishment without wrongdoing. It has that special quality that give allegories their power: It seems obvious, but only after you finish it. Many of the stories use animals or household objects as a window into the human. Later, in Greatest Creatures, a mother ant and a son ant are discussing which species is better, humans or ants. The story ends when the mother points out that, though humans have many geniuses among them, theyve been unable to prevent the catastrophic from occurring, and the fact that ants have prevented it makes them better. Like Alomars best work, it makes a point that is equal parts silly and compelling: By most metrics, humans seem a great deal more important than ants, but it also seems obvious that whichever species finds a way to avoid destroying itself is the better one.

In Who Deserves a Muzzle? a dog watches his owners shout at one another and considers whether it makes sense that he be required to wear a muzzle and collar when his behavior is so much better than theirs. Later, in They Dont Know How to Bark, two dogs reflect with sympathy and pity on humans poor sense of smell and ugly language. Again, Alomar is being fundamentally ridiculous while making an odd sort of sense: Hes writing against the arrogance that can come from a limited perspective. But these are not childrens fables: Alomar often centers greed, arrogance, cruelty, and above all, folly. When inanimate objects attempt to replicate what they see from humans as a means of self-determination, it has disastrous consequences, like in the collections title story:

Some of the teeth of the comb were envious of human class differences. They strived to increase their height, and, when they succeeded, began to look with disdain on their colleagues below. After a little while, the combs owner felt a desire to comb his hair. But when he found it in this state, he threw it in the garbage.

In Alomars world, human behavior seems destructive, even to people, as long as theyre not the ones theyre observing. The change in perspective is what reveals human beings as ridiculous: If it is ridiculous for a comb to be vain, how ridiculous is it for a person?

Throughout the stories, humanity is often portrayed as the enemy of everything within its striking distance. But the harm is often inflicted in the background, like its just something that happens. When Alomar turns his attention to the elements that make that harm possible, things begin to feel much less silly. In A Taste, the devil tastes a drop of human hatred, is poisoned, and dies. Alomar hits this note again in Human Malice, where an argument between a nuclear bomb and a grenade over which is more evil is ended when human malice intervenes and points out that it created them both. Alomar posits hatred and malice as elements of human nature, not its sum total, but in emphasizing their destructive powers, he recognizes their control over the way huge swaths of the world lives. The effect is that Alomars stories give brief flashes of insight into the magnitude of human evil, like staring directly into the sun for a moment before having to look away.

Its not that Alomar is cynical; hes exhausted. Journey of Life, the first story in The Teeth of the Comb, follows a nameless, sexless character as they pour over maps and walk through crowds shouting for a beloved they never find. The true object of the search is only revealed in the last line: I stood on my shaking legs and continued my journey, searching for humanity until the last moment. The character maintains hope because they are willing to continue searching, but the reader can see the truth: theyll be looking forever. Importantly, Alomar does not denigrate his character for their wrongheadedness; instead, he casts the quest as noble, in spite of its futility.

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