Subject: (urth) winged figure

From: Alice Turner <al at interport.net>
Date: Thu, 05 Mar 1998 07:29:24 +0000

[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Dan,

Since you're open to resonance, remember that "Tracking Song" has a distinct
North American flavor, and that a very important figure in Western NA myth
is Great Raven (or simply Raven), who made the world. There is only one
winged being seen on the Great Sleigh (and it may the hallucination of a
dying person), and since the Great Sleigh crew has been seen by many of the
people Cutthroat encounters, none of whom mention wings, I think it's fairly
safe to say that they don't look like a cartload of cherubim.

-alga-

>2.  The winged beings as beyond-humans resonate with Wolfe's own
>Hierogrammates, shaped by humans according to human ideals (`united,
>compassionate, just') never actually achieved by the human race itself.
>
>I can't quite draw an exact analogy, but I'm always willing to believe that
>Wolfe often works impressionistically rather than with exacting exactness.
>I think he's willing to deviate slightly from his clever constructs in
>order to deliver a haunting image or a well-timed surprise.