Subject: (urth) “Tracking Song” (and other stories)

From: Matthew Groves <matthewalangroves at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 05 Jun 2007 22:44:01 +0000

"Tracking Song" questions

I've recently read "Tracking Song" (_The Island of Doctor Death and
Other Stories and Other Stories_), along with Borski's blurb in _The
Long and Short of It_ and an enlightening discussion in the old
archives (does Alice "alga" Turner still subscribe?), and I wanted to
throw out a few questions in hope of stimulating some discussion.

Like Latro, Cutthroat is (literally) a little dog lost.  What happened
to Cutthroat's memory?  No head wound.  Psychological fugue?  Or
somehow part of his punishment -- exile even in memory?

What happened to Ketin's son?  The off-handness of Red Kluy's
statement ("[Y]ou should see Ketin. They used to have a son, but he's
gone away.") makes it seem like Wolfe is being sly and the statement
is significant.

Wolfe's underworld type-scene: Where does it come from, and what is
its significance?  We have it in "Tracking Song" (with the Min), in
the mine at Saltus in BotNS (with the ape men), in "The Eyeflash
Miracles" (Little Tib dreams of a cave with gnomes and a Gnome King.
Here, the reference is also to Munchkinland from _The Wizard of Oz_,
but they are in a *cave*, and the Gnome King made me think of Mantru
from "Tracking Song".)  I'm sure shows up in other places I haven't
noticed or don't remember.

What's up with Roller, Dragon, and Bug?  The names have to mean something.

Why does the number fourteen seem significant to Cutthroat?  (After he
records the fourteenth day's log, Cim leaves her recorded parting
message to him, which he apparently never listens to.)

Any thoughts on these?

Matthew

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From: Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net>
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:22:53 +0000

>throw out a few questions in hope of stimulating some discussion.

I don't remember what I may have said about this story in the past, but I
read it again, along with Borski's comments. It's hard to argue against his
interpretation of a bastardized rehash of the Fall, and if not everything
matches up with _Genesis_, that's not necessarily a mark against his theory;
Wolfe always changes things when he retells something. Cutthroat's
"birthmark" is otherwise hard to account for, as is the tall winged being at
the end.

Still, it's also hard to see that cold planet as Edenic, and it is Man who
is returning to it to make it more paradisiacal. And the little we learn
about the men of the Great Sleigh seems to make them out to be do-gooder,
holier-than-thou types out to transform not just the planet but the
beastmen, to make them over according to a moral code they brought with
them. If they aren't 'bad guys' (in the eyes of the jealous, vengeful God of
the O.T.), then how is it that they have usurped the role of God in this
little drama?

If the Great Sleigh represents a type of Eden, and if Cutthroat was cast out
of it for some reason, then we have a reversal of the _Genesis_ situation.
Adam sinned and gained knowledge; Cutthroat sinned and lost knowledge -- his
memory.

Cutthroat made a sort of moral progress during his brief sojourn. He came to
regard the beastmen as too near human to be killed and eaten. Was he
rewarded for that change by being healed of his wound? Or was he rewarded by
being allowed to die after less than three weeks of exile? Or was he further
punished by being healed but left in exile?

If his "birthmark" was a mark like Cain's, then it did him little good. He
was mortally wounded (in the dark!) by one of the "Min" from the cave, who
should not have been able to harm a true man. But maybe their prime
directive was corrupted by their bits of flesh. (Poor Jonas.)

>message to him, which he apparently never listens to.)

Best I can tell, it was an almost-remembered bit of knowledge, like bears
and plastic and other planets with higher gravity. I think that, deep down,
he understood that if he had simply stayed where he was on day one, that the
Sleigh would complete its leisurely circumnavigation of the small planet in
two weeks.

-Roy

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From: Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net>
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 21:04:47 +0000

I wrote:
>interpretation of a bastardized rehash of the Fall,

Looking at that again, that's a misrepresentation of his theory, which is
not so much about the Fall as it is about the Cain and Abel story. Just to
clarify.

-Roy

---

From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:14:38 +0000

FWIW, I read it (as I do a number of Wolfe's pieces) as a darkening
of the Bible story. Yes, it replays Cain and Abel with humans in the
role of God -- but that's the point; humans _can't_ take God's role and
have it work out well. The humans in the story are no more God than
is Typhon/Pas, and their efforts are no better motivated, and will have
no better outcome, than his.

On 6/8/07, Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net> wrote:
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
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http://www.danehyoakes.com
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