{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/126", "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.", "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'" }, "archive": "urth", "thread": { "id": 126, "subject": "Tracking Moon", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1997-08-02T17:36:54+00:00", "last": "1997-08-03T20:11:00+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Alice Turner", "address": "al at interport.net" }, "date": "1997-08-02T17:36:54+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Tracking Moon", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR DEATH AND OTHER STORIES AND OTHER STORIES is newly out\nin the US in a trade paperback. I had never read it before, though I have\nread some of the famous stories collected otherwhere, for instance the\nthree famous Island/Doctor/Death stories and \"Seven American Nights.\" But\nthere's a great deal of meat in this collection, and I hope we can chew on\nit happily. I thought I might start things off with a discussion of\n\"Tracking Song,\" not a famous story (or at least I'd never heard of it). It\nwas published in 1980 in an anthology with a fairly significant title, IN\nTHE WAKE OF MAN. Spoilers galore follow, natch.\n\n\nSUMMARY\nThe format of \"Tracking Song\" seems to be completely conventional, the\nadventures of a stranger in a strange land trying to find his way\nhome---just like Odysseus or Dorothy. The epigraph is from the Aeneid,\nwhich has the same structure, though in it the hero is trying to find a\n–new- home. This hero is known to us only as \"Cutthroat,\" after a\nbirthmark, and he appears to have been a member of an anthropological\nexpedition studying a small planet just as its Ice Age is coming to an end.\nApparently, he fell off the \"Great Sleigh,\" the expedition's planetary\nvehicle, and, hitting his head in the fall, has lost his memory, though he\nretains much of his training, including the language of this planet—which\nhas low gravity, two moons, remnants of a technological past and at least\nfive humanoid species, all living on a primitive, tribal subsistence level.\nOr lower. All of these species serve as food for the others; the only other\nfood sources seem to be small animals and vegetation that grows under the\nsnow.\n\nCutthroat records his journal over 19 eventful days. He is found in the\nsnow by members of the Wiggikki tribe, taller and stronger than he. He\nhelps their women to kill a Lenizee girl for food, sees the giantess\nKetincha (wife to Ketin), then joins the menfolk in a killing raid on the\ngiant (apparently a different kind of giant) Nashwonk (Mankiller), who has\nbeen killed \"often before.\" Though Cutthroat acquits himself well, he is\nturned out by the tribe because he has hair on his face and is therefore\n\"not a man\"—i.e. he's potential food, so this is a well-meant gesture. With\na sail-powered sledge, he sets off westward on the well-marked track of the\nGreat Sleigh, hoping to overtake it.\n\nHe next encounters the short and stocky Pamigaka tribe, which also\nrecognizes him as from the Great Sleigh—which has laid some dietary\nstrictures on the tribe. They attack another, somewhat effeminate giant,\nMimmunka, with uncertain results; a man of the tribe dies and they prepare\nto eat him. Cutthroat, disturbed at this, leaves after spending the night,\nthen picks up, along the track, Cim Glowing, a woman of yet another tribe,\nwho is also trying to overtake the Great Sleigh after the death of her\nlover, whom she killed with her endieva wand, a futuristic weapon which may\nelectrocute victims (she says it \"poisons\" them, but game it kills can be\neaten). Cim slows down the sledge, which now seems to be only a short\ndistance behind the Great Sleigh. Cim suggests that he may not be one of\nthe off-worlders, but may only be dressed in their clothes.\n\nThat night, Cim is kidnapped by the Min, and Cutthroat is wounded in the\nchest. He must decide whether to follow the Great Sleigh (rejecting Cim's\nsuggestion, he now sees himself as one of its crew) or to go after Cim, and\nhe does the latter, having had to destroy his sail to bind his wound. The\ntall, thin Min live in a huge storeroom in a cavern infested with humanoid\nvampire bats, one of whom tears Cutthroat's uniform. The Min area is filled\nwith mostly broken ancient machines, one of which comes to life and finds\nsome futuristic food cubes for Cutthroat. The Min have replaced many of\ntheir own body parts with machine parts (hello Jonas, hello Rose). Stone\nflowers lead to a ramshackle palace built of rubble, and before it a Min\nplaces a strange forked shaft that Cutthroat grasps. They take him, as a\n\"perfect\" man (Cim is not considered human) to their leader, a dwarf named\nMantru (He Who Rules) who claims to be the only true human on the planet\nbesides Cutthroat (the Min have not, apparently, encountered the Great\nSleigh expedition). They suggest that Cutthroat is the sole survivor of an\nindigenous human village, and that he has the right to kill Cim, or anyone\nelse with his staff.\n\nThe Min imprison Cutthroat and Cim beneath the throneroom and release the\nbeautiful, graceful giant Ketin, hoping for a duel to the death. Instead,\nthey join forces and escape through a trapdoor. Cutthroat orders the three\nmachines that still function to dismantle the palace, provoking the dwarf\nto appear with another forked staff. They duel, and the dwarf dies\n(seemingly it is the staffs which duel rather than the men—Cutthroat feels\nthat \"the fighting of the staffs was taking place outside the ordinary\nworld.\") Cutthroat, Cim, Ketin and the three machines leave the cave and\ncontinue on their journey, Cutthroat riding on the head of the most\ntalus-like of the machines. The machines die from the cold, one by one, and\n Cutthroat suffers the cold on his wound through the rent in his uniform.\nKetin kills a girl of yet another species for them to eat, then leaves. A\nPamigaka boy, Whiteapple, joins Cutthroat and Cim, but Cim turns back the\nnext day saying \"I cannot love you as a husband\" and that they have \"little\nchance\" of finding the Great Sleigh. Then the Wiggikki Crookedleg joins\nthem, with a sail-sledge and a bow. Cutthroat intentionally leaves the\nstrange staff behind at the last camp. They eat the last of their food.\nCutthroat sees something that may be a spaceship.\n\nThe snow is melting and they must abandon the sledge. When Cutthroat cannot\nwalk further, the other two build a litter for him, but he drives them from\nhim by pretending to be afraid of them, and they continue without him. He\nmakes a little camp and the friendly beasts come out…and the Great Sleigh,\nhaving circumnavigated the planet, comes toward him. \"Who is that tall man\nwith you? I think he has…wings?\"\n\nCOMMENT\nWell, that last line will send Nutria into an eye-popping frenzy, I dare\nsay. There's St. Michael atop the juggernaut of Mother Church, coming to\nscoop up the Pilgrim who can Progress no more toward his Heavenly Home in\nthe spaceship. Hey, it could be an illusion, Ratty, a deathbed\nhallucination! \n\nBut who's to say that this isn't the right approach? Cutthroat, at first an\ninnocent, and pliable to suggestion, behaves with increasing virtue: he\nchooses to save Cim, to befriend Ketin, not to eat girls (he relies on food\ncubes, I infer); he momentarily brings members of four different tribes who\neat each other together. It's the cold, corrupt staff that kills the dwarf\nrather than himself, and he abandons that staff. Etc.\n\nBut, if you don't mind, I'd like to bring up some other things. (Sorry this\nis so long, but it's a long novella, and I wanted to provide a framework\nfor a good discussion.) First, I'm interested in how Wolfe has taken all\nthis John Carter of Mars material and put it in a modernist context.\nOrdinarily, I'd agree with many here that he usually takes Borges as the\nmaster when in this mode, but in this case I'd argue that it is Kafka.\nCutthroat's pursuit of the Great Sleigh feels very much to me like K's\nattempt on the Castle…though Kafka never, ever would have handed us that\nNutrified ending!\n\nWould love to hear more in this direction. \n\nSecond, as always in Wolfe, the names are interesting. Some of them sound \nNorthwest Indian or Inuit (like many of Le Guin's names), some of them\nsound Finnish (Wiggikki), and some Slavic Russian (Ketin, Ketinsha) and\nsome just sound sci fi (Minshu). Cim is described, but I don't quite get\nit, and it's not in the OED. But they're all northern. At times I was\nreminded of Gerda's pursuit of little Kay.\n\nApologies to those of you who know this novella well. I read it for the\nfirst time this week, and I'm sure I've missed key clues.\n\n-alga-" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "m.driussi", "address": "m.driussi at genie.com" }, "date": "1997-08-03T20:11:00+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Tracking Moon", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Reply: Item #9835448 from URTH at LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00#\n\nalga!\n\nWow, great stuff. First off, to add to your notes:\n\nRe: Ice Age, it seems that the Great Sleigh-ers (heh) are involved in\nclimate controlling terraforming operations with that orbiting solar\nmirror (which you identify as \"something that may be a spaceship\").\nThey are ending the ice age now by technological means.\n\nRe: John Carter, yes, this planet could be Mars (those two moons and\nthe lighter gravity), previously terraformed and then not maintained\nso that it slipped into an ice age. We don't see enough starscape to\nform much of an opinion (contrast with that other Wolfe story set on\nMars, where the savages are going to sacrifice the hero when the\nblue/green star [i.e., Earth] rises).\n\nRe: circumnavigation. It is a little bit more ambiguous than that,\nisn't it? I mean, Cutthroat sets out sailing after the Sleigh with the\nwind blowing from the west; i.e., he is going east, isn't he? Then\nin the end he looks to the west as the direction of the Sleigh and is\nsurprised to see it coming toward him from the east.\n\nRe: Le Guin echoes. I agree--part of it has to do with all that snow\n(LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS; PLANET OF EXILE) which also reminds me of\nJoan D. Vinge's SNOW QUEEN. And all the stone-age hunter gatherer\nanthropology. The Min theory of Cutthroat's origins is the Ishi\nscenario, which is, of course, the \"K\" of Ursula K. Le Guin. But I\ndon't think I've ever seen a Le Guin work where there was such\ncarnivorous matter-of-fact savagry, which reminds me of A VOYAGE TO\nARCTURUS as well as Wolfe's \"Hero As Werwolf\" (among others).\n\nOkay, now for my own impressions. Adjust mantomatic filter as\nnecessary . . .\n\nNarrator. Who is Cutthroat? Most characters in the story assume\nhe is a Sleigher, aka a higher human (since every group considers\nitself \"human\"). Cim Glowing casts doubt, suggesting that he is a\nchangeling, a beastman who found the clothes. The Min say\nhe is like Ishi, last of his tribe. Cutthroat has many doubts\nhimself, since if he was from the Sleigh then why didn't they send a\nrescue party?\n\nTwo options, it seems to me. First is the sleeping sailor from the\nOdyssey (was it?) who fell overboard in the night, drowning, and\nnobody knew (until later they saw his shade?). Second, much more\nlikely, is that he was killed and tossed overboard, either as a\n\"sacrifice\" (ala Jonah) or as a \"criminal.\"\n\nIf he is dead, then this becomes another Wolfean \"Occurance at Owl\nCreek Bridge.\" Which would go some lengths towards explaining the\nshamanistic death-voyage tone/timber/elements of the story.\n\nTribes. Who are these humanoids? No surprise that this story seems\na lot like \"The Tale of the Boy Called Frog\" from the brown book. It\nis an animal fable with things turned inside out and backward.\n\nI'm not sure about the Lenizee, who seem birdlike. But the Ketin are\nlions, the Nashhwonk are great deer like Giant Irish Elk (that \"chair\"\nweapon is for the antlers), Cim Glowing's unnamed people are bears\n(they fish), the Pamigaka are either foxes or cats (cache raiders), the\nMimmunka is some kind of intimidator animal (scavenger), and, yes, you\nguessed it . . . the running singing hunters, the Wiggikki who first adopt\nCutthroat, are wolves (just like the ones who adopted Frog).\n\nThis story showcases Wolfe's electrifying grasp of stone age\nsensibilities. According to Campbell et ali., the early hunters\nstarted getting guilty feelings about killing animals. Empathy. And\nfear of retribution from the animal \"families.\" So the hunters\ndeveloped ritual and taboo to pacify the animal spirits and to thank\nthem for providing the meat to feed the humans. Later on, when\nagriculture came along, they did the same thing to pacify and thank\nthe plants (think of all that grain god/human sacrifice stuff).\n\nSo here's this Cutthroat, and he's embracing the stone age\nsensibility (in a way that would make a Christian or a Buddhist or a\nTaoist, et cetera . . . proud) and trying to personally break the\ncycle of blood and death. He says words to the effect that, \"These\ndwarves want me to kill you so that I will see a division of\ncategories between `animal' and `human,' but I don't see that\ndivision now and I won't be their puppet.\"\n\nThat's enough for now.\n\n=mantis=" } ] } ] }