{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/128",
    "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": 128,
    "subject": "Tracking...clear as mud but it covah de groun'",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-08-04T12:26:22+00:00",
    "last": "1997-08-04T12:26:22+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0003-0199@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at ny.playboy.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-08-04T12:26:22+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Tracking...clear as mud but it covah de groun'",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "mantis,\n\nOhhhhh! Thank you! I don't know how I missed the orbiting solar mirror,\nwhich is perfectly clearly described. And no, you're wrong about the change\nin direction, though I see how you slipped (you don't often!). On the\nfourth day, the wind is, as you say, from the west---which makes it a good\nwind for him to tack north (or is it south?) to the trail. There he turns\nwest, sliding easily downhill \"despite the contrary wind.\" He always goes\nwest, which is psychologically and theologically right, whereas the\n(presumed) new life comes from the east. It truly is circumnavigation.\n\nWhen I refered to John Carter, I didn't mean to imply that this was\nliterally Mars! I meant simply a reference to the type of material,\nespecially in the Min cave. But it's okay by me if you want it to be Mars! \n\nPerhaps I flatter myself, but I was nearly halfway to the animals. I'd got\nto the point where I was grumbling, \"Why are there so many giants in this\ntale?...too many giants.\" And I was about to go back and read the\ndescriptions carefully, and I think the clue would have been the\ndescription of Mimmunka plus the fact that he talks just like Kipling's\nShere Khan. Still, it's a tremendous help not to have to work it all out. \n\nMay I differ with you on some of the animals? Nashwonk probably is a great\nelk or reindeer or moose, as you say.   The Lenizee are deer or antelope.\nThe Wiggikki are certainly wolves. The Pamiguka are gophers or prairie dogs\nor some other kind of social rodent that lives underground and bears naked\nchildren (you can tell by the weapons or tools they carry, as you can with\nnearly all the other animals). Mimmunka is a lynx or bobcat. And Cim\nGlowing is a dog! Carrying a stick! (Other clues: the collar and chain; the\nfact that she says \"I love you\" when she leaves---only a tame animal would\ndo that. And bears don't run as she does.) Ketin and Ketincha are certainly\nlions.\n\nWhich leaves the Min. Who are partly Men. I guess.\n\nWhew! Luckily, there's lots more to discuss in this story. I don't buy the\nIshi theory, here, though the connection to Le Guin is clear (\"Buffalo\nGal,\" for one, though it was written later). I too thought of VOYAGE TO\nARCTURUS, but rejected it first on the grounds that this is survival\nkilling, not pointless savagery, as there (and this is before I got the\npoint of the animals) and second, this story seems to operate on real\nlogic, not dream logic.  \n\nI'm going to assume that Cutthroat is definitely from the Great Sleigh. And\nI incline toward the fact that he has fallen, not that he has been thrown\nout, which jibes with the Nutriative ending. Arguments against that: (1)\nWhat if, instead of a welcoming angel, this is Harold Bloom's \"covering\ncherub,\" the angel with a sword who keeps Adam and Eve out of the Garden of\nEden? (2) What if, due to Cutthroat's habit of being in the middle of the\nroad rather than off to one side (we need to discuss that), the Great\nSleigh is going to ride right over him and squash him like a bug? \n\nI wouldn't swear to it, but I don't think he is dead, even though he is on\na journey west. Though I sure agree about the \"shamanistic death-voyage\ntone.\" What I was thinking of when I brought up Kafka---which I now\nretract. That was before I twigged to the animals.\n\nDid you notice that in the Peaceable Kingdom scenario just before the GS\narrives, the bear has a human face? (Like the bats---)?\n\nWhat I'd like to talk about in future: the whole Min underground thing,\ncomplete with those Elric-like staffs; the discussions of what man is; the\nmiddle-of-the-road thing.\n\nActually, with regard to the last, what Cim could be saying could be, \"You\nwalk in the middle of the road because you are the hero (or the human), we\non the side because we're sidekicks.\"\n\nEnough!\n\n-alga-"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}