{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/444", "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": 444, "subject": "a dog's life for the stars", "messages": 2, "voices": 2, "first": "1998-03-26T23:34:29+00:00", "last": "1998-03-27T09:31:32+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Damien Broderick", "address": "damien at ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au" }, "date": "1998-03-26T23:34:29+00:00", "subject": "(urth) a dog's life for the stars", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Greetings - \n\nI've recently subscribed to this list but have been lurking, struck with\nawe by the richness of the group's exegetical laminations. Guess I'll just\nhave to go thoughtfully through the archives when I have the time. For\nnow, I just thought I'd throw in some (tardy and perhaps redundant)\ncomments on `Tracking Song'.\n\nI liked the notion that Cutthroat might be a dog, if only allegorically,\ncast among wolfes. But reading the story, I was instantly set snuffling\nafter a different scent, ears pricked forward. The ordering by days\nenumerated suggested to this ex-Catholic that Wolfe might be rehearsing\n(perhaps in mirrored or inverted form) the 14 Stations of the Cross. I was\ndashed to see that the tale goes on for 19 stanzas, but revived by this\ncurious comment: `This is the fourteenth day. I do not know why that\nnumber should seem significant to me, but it does.'\n\nOther correspondences can be found, but fewer than I'd hoped. E.g., on the\nthird day (Jesus falls the first time), it is Nashhwonk who falls, his\nAchilles tendon hacked through by Cutthroat. On the 7th day (Jesus falls\nthe second time), the narrator is himself pierced and falls at the hands of\nthe cyborgs, if that's what they are. On the 11th day (Jesus is nailed to\nthe cross), `the sleeve - where the vampires slit it with their teeth...\nlet the cold into the whole suit.' Nailed it! I thought. But perhaps not.\n\nDavid_Lebling at avid.com asked:\n\n<* Does anyone else agree that the locale may not be Earth (or even\nUrth)? It's a world with two moons and trees that are very non-earthlike\n(unless I'm misreading Wolfe's description). The narrator thinks they\nare odd, as well. If it isn't Mars it's a world with two moons orbiting\nanother star than the Sun, or perhaps a very far-future Earth, I\nconcede.>\n\nIt seems to me obvious that the locale is a minor moon or asteroid which\ncan be circumnavigated by a wind-speed device in 19 or 20 days, with or\nwithout stopping. (Diameter 200 - 1000 km? But on such a world, a `day'\nmight have any length.) Of course, the sledge we see at the close might\nnot be the same one; perhaps it is in pursuit of the one from which our\nhero has been ejected or escaped?\n\nThe silver `concave mirror' in the sky is actually a convex primary planet.\n The locale is in a locked resonant orbit. Presumably it's also\nterraformed and actively sustained far from equilibrium, to prevent loss of\nair and water. Cutthroat, as he speculates, is native to a more massive\nworld; hence his powerful leaps. The other two moons might perhaps be\nadditional moons of the primary.\n\nOn the other hand, perhaps everyone is reduced in scale (despite the\nexplicit use of the metric system; the cyborgs are three meters tall). As\nan urban Australian, I have no great experience of snow or ice. How small\nwould one need to be in order to leap across snow without breaking through\nits crust? (I assume these humans or hominids do not have ludicrous feet\nlike snowshoes.)\n\nIf they are quite small, might the underground buildings without walls be\nno more than ancient, discarded storage racks inside an equipment store?\n(I didn't think so.)\n\nThe beings on the sledge as big as a hill are not all angels; only the tall\nman has wings. Is his name E-telekeli? (Surely not.)\n\nIs it too late for me to revive this thread?\n\nAll best, Damien Broderick" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Michael Straight", "address": "straight at email.unc.edu" }, "date": "1998-03-27T09:31:32+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) a dog's life for the stars", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "On Thu, 26 Mar 1998, Damien Broderick wrote:\nIt seems to me obvious that the locale is a minor moon or asteroid which\ncan be circumnavigated by a wind-speed device in 19 or 20 days, with or\nwithout stopping. (Diameter 200 - 1000 km? But on such a world, a `day'\nmight have any length.) Of course, the sledge we see at the close might\nnot be the same one; perhaps it is in pursuit of the one from which our\nhero has been ejected or escaped?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "The idea that the sledge at the end is the same one Cutthroat has been\nchasing seems pretty popular, and I agree it has a certain closure to it,\nbut I can't picture it. \n\nEven if the planet is small enough, or they are close enough to the poles,\nthat you can circumnavigate in a few days, you still have to explain the\nburst of speed that takes the sled from only a day or two ahead of\nCutthroat to 14-20 days ahead. (Perhaps the warmer weather allowed them\nto use technology that wouldn't work in the cold?)\n\nAnd if you're assuming such a great increase in speed is possible, why\nlimit it? Perhaps the planet is big enough to take 6 months to wind-ski\naround, but the sledge just put on a huge burst of speed and circled it.\n\nI don't know, somehow the \"burst of speed\" thing just doesn't sit right.\nI think it's a different sledge at the end (or even a different kind of\nvehicle altogether).\n\n-Rostrum" } ] } ] }