{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/182",
    "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'"
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  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 182,
    "subject": "Tracking wolves",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-08-27T10:45:44+00:00",
    "last": "1997-08-27T10:45:44+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0004-0272@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Ron Crown",
        "address": "crownrw at slu.edu"
      },
      "date": "1997-08-27T10:45:44+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Tracking wolves",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Vacation and the start of a new semester have kept me away from several\nweeks, but catching up with the discussion on \"Tracking Song\" has been\nsehr interessant!  (sorry, vacation was 2 weeks in Germany).\nLet me toss in my own 2 cents (or less) worth and see what others make\nof it.  \nIn the interview Gordon quotes in her book, Wolfe mentions T.S. as a\n\"pivotal\" story for him, because, for one thing, he is proud of \"the\nprimitive inventions no one ever actually invented...[the] uninvented\ninventions [!] of the stone age.\"  If we take this at face value, it\nwill save us from pouring through reference books of pre-Columbian\nartifacts trying to identify, say, the weapon used by the Wiggikki or\neven the sail-sledge mode of travel (which I see as a possible, albeit,\nexotic mode of travel suited to a fable of this type, cf. the sand-ships\nin Bradbury's Martian Chronicles), assuming evidence for any such\nartifact would have survived in other than some plastic-art form.\nMore importantly there is a little piece of evidence that hasn't been\nmentioned so far that of just the type that Wolfe likes to plant and\nthat may be of some significance (I think).  Did anyone notice the\ngesture used to signify \"yes,\" i.e., touching the chin with the finger\nis used by three differnent \"tribes,\" the Wiggiki, the Pamigaka, and Cim\nGlowing? (pp. 171, 184, 189 in the Orb edition).  Does this perhaps\nsignify a common (human?) origin?  I propose this because guess who else\nuses the same gesture--the robots (p. 212).  But where did they get it\nfrom?  Not from observing the tribes, they can't survive (long) on the\nsurface and have probably never been aboveground.  From their (human?)\nbuilders?  If this is true, then this suggests that the tribes are\nperhaps devolved from a common human ancestor, maybe in a genetic\nexperiment gone wrong scenario as suggested by Sgt. Rock (I think).\nWhat's more, there is another science fictional allusion (I think) on p.\n213, namely, Asimov's laws of robotics!  The cyborg Min try to get the\nthree robots to stop deconstructing Mantru's palace but \"they will not\nobey us,\" i.e., the Min are not human so Law #1 does not apply (robots\nmust obey commands from humans) and when the Min try to stop the robots\nby attacking them, \"they defend themselves\" (Law #3).  This makes\nRoller's use of the finger to chin gesture (and the gesture itself\nperhaps) more significant, the machine uses it responding to Cutthroat's\nsummons \"to do as I said.\"  It's almost like taking an oath.  This\nsolemnity/significance of the gesture is perhaps what accounts for its\nsurvival for so long among different tribes, albeit sometimes maybe in\nwatered-down form.\nFinally, if this is a totem-story (and Wolfe so identifies it in the\nGordon interview), it is surely of significance that Cutthroat begins\nhis sojourn with the Wiggikki (wolves) to whom he bears a physical\nlikeness according to Eggseeker (p. 184) and ends it with one of them\n(Crooked Leg, AHA, no one has mentioned the significance of that wound!)\nand then follows the return of the Great Sleigh (as I take it) and its\nwinged being (although Whiteapple, a Pamigaka is there at the end, too).\nSince this is a totem-story, the natural interpretation of the winged\nbeing is that it is a bird (it's a bird, no, it's a plane, no, it's,\nit's...pphhhht, a bird <g>).  As wolves are winter symbols, birds are\nspring symbols, as Wolfe says, the spring thaw has arrived, the world is\nbeing reborn, in the wake of man comes...man reborn.\nObviously, I'm taking the story in more of a straightforward science\nfictional sense, or more accurately perhaps as an animal fable with\nscience fictional elements.  In other words, what we would expect from\nWolfe, something sui generis that doesn't fit neatly into any\npredetermined category.  This makes more sense to me than the two\nscenarios suggested by mantis, the shamanistic dream voyage or the \"Dead\nMan Walking\" (sledging?) trek (although there are certainly elements in\nthe story to support such readings).\nThe biggest mystery remaining for me is exactly where does Cutthroat\ncome or rather (since I think it's likely he comes from the Great\nSleigh) how did he get to where he is and why?  Unless this is intended\nas some type of allegory of finding one's  way in the world without\nreally knowing \"woher\" or \"wohin\" (where from and where to)?\nBTW, I've got several Native American dictionaries coming through\ninterlibrary loan (our library didn't have very much); I'll let you know\nif anything turns up on any names.\n\nAnd now, step up and have at!\n\nRon Crown"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}