{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/149",
    "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": 149,
    "subject": "Track on",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-08-13T10:27:46+00:00",
    "last": "1997-08-13T10:27:46+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0004-0230@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at ny.playboy.com"
      },
      "date": "1997-08-13T10:27:46+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Track on",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Rock (that makes you a chem; sure you don't want to be Roc?)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "In regard to \"Tracking Song\": are the \"underpeople\" animals that are\nevolving toward humanity, or humans who are devolving to an animal\nstate? The cave city is clear evidence of an ancient and technologically\nsophisticated civilization existing on the planet. We are led to believe\nthat the builders of the city simply died out. But perhaps they\ngenetically altered themselves to better adapt to the changing climate?\nIf so, then their plans went astray at some point, of course."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "That's a perfectly plausible scenario, though at this point I think all we\ncan do is accept Wolfe's own designation of the different tribes as\n\"half-men.\" That would go for the Min too.\n\nI'm going to make one last attempt at nailing \"Tracking Song,\" and then move\non. Unlike Nutria, I do think it's a religious story, on one level almost an\nallegory. A man is thrown (or falls) into an imperfect world which holds\nmany pitfalls. As innocent as a child at first, he still, according to his\nunderstanding, nearly always behaves with courage, honor and decency, and\nthese increase as he grows more knowing. He never condescends to the\nhalf-men; instead he treats them as (as he says to the Min) \"perfect of your\nkind.\" He grows to understand that he is different, but he rejects both the\ncolonial and the imperial attitude. (An example of the first: the Panigaku\nbeg him for wisdom, but he demurs; also when Eggseeker fears that he may\nhave retrospectively sinned, Cutthroat roundly reassures him---I like that\nmoment. Also he never judges the others by what they eait; his squeamishness\nis personal. The second is evident throughout the Mantru and Min episode,\nand by his casting away the staff.)  He stays on the path, or the way---the\nsymbolism is obvious---until what may be the moment of his death, at which\ntime the sought-for home appears. One may somewhat deplore the appearance of\na winged being but, in a story by a practicing Catholic, one can hardly\nignore it. \n\nMy initial thought was that the story was oddly Protestant, that the Great\nSleigh's appearance is a sign of grace, which has very little to do with\nCutthroat's behavior---i.e. he's in its way in a non-symbolic sense. But the\nmore I thought about it, it did seem as though his journey could be\nconstrued as a test, and one that, in my opinion, he passed. At the end, he\ncould be defined as a human being in the best possible (non-Mantru) sense.\nIs he dead or dying and is this an angelic being, or will he be cured on a\nreal-live Sleigh? I don't think it matters. Either way, he will be reborn,\ntogether with this planet, into springtime. (I know it was me speculating on\nhis being squashed by the Sleigh instead, but I was only joshing.)\n\n-alga-"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}