{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/907", "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": 907, "subject": "Tracking Song", "messages": 4, "voices": 1, "first": "1998-07-02T22:37:12+00:00", "last": "1998-07-14T00:12:32+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "mary whalen", "address": "marewhalen at yahoo.com" }, "date": "1998-07-02T22:37:12+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Tracking Song", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is Sean Whalen (prion).\n\nJust an odd little thought about technology in the story Tracking\nSong. Cim, who's like a mink, has a mysterious rod (endieva) that\nprobably uses electricity or poison (that's how little we know about\nit). Min are cyborgs (or anti-cyborgs) who possess excellent but old\n(from our future, though) technology. The men in the Great Sleigh have\nvery powerful technology, and are able to terraform an entire planet\nby raising its temperature. Wouldn't this make the chart of the\nprogression of technology read: mink-min-man? Progression of\nknowledge by variation of letters?\n\nOh, this reminds me. Since I used the word cybernetic organism just\nnow, I remembered the discussion on the story Hellish Hues. \nKybernetes (from which cybernetic comes) is Greek for helmsman, and\nnow relates to robots. This reminds me of the helmsman of the Egg in\nthe story, KUL. They seem to fit together, and in Greek there is no\ndifference between the letters u and y (so kybernetes is the same as\nkubernetes). Anyone know why there's an L at the end? Anyone think\nI'm reaching too far?\n\nprion" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "mary whalen", "address": "marewhalen at yahoo.com" }, "date": "1998-07-07T22:27:47+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Tracking Song", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is Sean Whalen (prion).\n\nI recently reread Tracking Song and have seen some points that I don't\nthink have been addressed earlier.\n\nFirst, at the very beginning of the story, Cutthroat says that he's\nusing the device to record his words so that if someone comes for him\nand he's dead, they'll understand what happened to him, and \"I feel\nthat someone may, though I do not know why.\" This seems to be a\nprecognition of what happens at the end of the story, and perhaps\nshows that he did die at the end.\n\nSecond, I'm fairly sure that he's not an animal-person dressed in a\nSleigher's clothes, as he remembers parties, etc., knows how to use\nsome of his equipment, and isn't familiar with the plant and animal\nlife in the area.\n\nI don't know how I missed this before, but Cutthroat clearly calls the\ninsulated clothing he's wearing \"the captain's coat.\"\n\nprion" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "mary whalen", "address": "marewhalen at yahoo.com" }, "date": "1998-07-08T17:43:25+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Tracking Song", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is Sean Whalen (prion).\n\nIn the same book, there is a story called \"How the Rabbit Lost His\nTail.\" In it, the rabbit has a brother who has amazing powers. The\nrabbit goes west to find adventure, and his brother says he will come\nto help him when he calls, even when he is busy. The rabbit keeps\nmeeting people, being foolish, and changing clothes with the people he\nmeets. Everytime this happens he calls his brother who takes care of\nit.\n\nThis seems to relate to Tracking Song, too. If the rabbit is like\nCutthroat and his brother is someone on the Great Sleigh, the\nrecording/transmitting device is the means by which he lets the sled\nknow if he's in trouble. Perhaps the GS does increase its speed so\nthat it can reach Cutthroat sooner. I am not sure exactly how the\nclothes-changing relates to this, but it may indicate if Cutthroat's a\nhuman or not (or a human head on an animal's body).\n\nprion" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "mary whalen", "address": "marewhalen at yahoo.com" }, "date": "1998-07-14T00:12:32+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Tracking Song", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "This is Sean Whalen (prion).\n\nDoesn't anyone want to discuss \"Tracking Song\"? Oh, well.\n\nWell, anyway, after I recently reread it it seemed to me that every\nmammal is an anthropomorphic creature that has a living cognate as\nwell as an analogous Ice Age creature of larger form, both living in\nNorth America.\n\nTribe: current animal/Ice Age animal\n\n\nWiggikki: wolf/dire wolf\nLenizee: deer/?\nNashhwonk: moose/?\nKetin(cha): lion(ess)/cave lion(ess)\nPamigaka: boar/?\nPummanga: ?gopher/?\nMimmunka: lynx/smilodon (sabre-toothed tiger)\n(Cim's t.): mink/giant mink\n(vampires): bat/?\nMin: ?bear/?cave bear\n(snow monkey variety 1): ?rabbit, chipmunk, mouse/?\n(snow monkey variety 2): squirrel/?\n(tall thin woman): ?/?\n(bear-like thing): ?/?\nCutthroat: ?man, rabbit\n\nI think the Min are probably bears because of the similarity they have\nwith the Native American bear stories I've read (a bear with half it's\nbody made of flint, living in a cave, causing trouble for the hero).\nI'm not completely sure, though.\n\nCutthroat may be a native man, a man from the Great Sleigh, or some\nman whose head has been attatched to a rabbit man's body. I'm really\nnot sure.\n\nPummanga never appears in the story, so this is only a guess.\n\nCutthroat says that there are several varieties of the snow monkeys,\nwith big fluffy tails. I think they're just as human as the other\nanimal tribes, just smaller and less intelligent.\n\nBe alert for my weapon analysis!\n\nBy the way, are all of my letters getting through and being sent? \nI've had several that haven't been answered by anyone. Am I doing\nsomething wrong? Am I just sending too many?\n\nprion" } ] } ] }