the two cows that inspired this book , with their yellow identity tags and doomed life , reflect the two characters : ill fated gout ( our reptilian bte noir ) , and merlot ( our despairing , burnt-out , misanthropic hacker ) - both also numbered ( by days , and by hotel room ) , both doomed , as they sit out to graze at their own bar , munching their own fodder , in a kind of beckettian waiting for godot style .