Subject: (urth) Tracking Song

From: mary whalen <marewhalen at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 02 Jul 1998 22:37:12 +0000

This is Sean Whalen (prion).

Just an odd little thought about technology in the story Tracking
Song.  Cim, who's like a mink, has a mysterious rod (endieva) that
probably uses electricity or poison (that's how little we know about
it).  Min are cyborgs (or anti-cyborgs) who possess excellent but old
(from our future, though) technology. The men in the Great Sleigh have
very powerful technology, and are able to terraform an entire planet
by raising its temperature.  Wouldn't this make the chart of the
progression of technology read:  mink-min-man?  Progression of
knowledge by variation of letters?

Oh, this reminds me.  Since I used the word cybernetic organism just
now, I remembered the discussion on the story Hellish Hues. 
Kybernetes (from which cybernetic comes) is Greek for helmsman, and
now relates to robots.  This reminds me of the helmsman of the Egg in
the story, KUL.  They seem to fit together, and in Greek there is no
difference between the letters u and y (so kybernetes is the same as
kubernetes).  Anyone know why there's an L at the end?  Anyone think
I'm reaching too far?

prion
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: mary whalen <marewhalen at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 1998 22:27:47 +0000

I recently reread Tracking Song and have seen some points that I don't
think have been addressed earlier.

First, at the very beginning of the story, Cutthroat says that he's
using the device to record his words so that if someone comes for him
and he's dead, they'll understand what happened to him, and "I feel
that someone may, though I do not know why."  This seems to be a
precognition of what happens at the end of the story, and perhaps
shows that he did die at the end.

Second, I'm fairly sure that he's not an animal-person dressed in a
Sleigher's clothes, as he remembers parties, etc., knows how to use
some of his equipment, and isn't familiar with the plant and animal
life in the area.

I don't know how I missed this before, but Cutthroat clearly calls the
insulated clothing he's wearing "the captain's coat."

prion

---

From: mary whalen <marewhalen at yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 17:43:25 +0000

In the same book, there is a story called "How the Rabbit Lost His
Tail."  In it, the rabbit has a brother who has amazing powers.  The
rabbit goes west to find adventure, and his brother says he will come
to help him when he calls, even when he is busy.  The rabbit keeps
meeting people, being foolish, and changing clothes with the people he
meets.  Everytime this happens he calls his brother who takes care of
it.

This seems to relate to Tracking Song, too.  If the rabbit is like
Cutthroat and his brother is someone on the Great Sleigh, the
recording/transmitting device is the means by which he lets the sled
know if he's in trouble.  Perhaps the GS does increase its speed so
that it can reach Cutthroat sooner.  I am not sure exactly how the
clothes-changing relates to this, but it may indicate if Cutthroat's a
human or not (or a human head on an animal's body).

prion

---

From: mary whalen <marewhalen at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 00:12:32 +0000

Doesn't anyone want to discuss "Tracking Song"?  Oh, well.

Well, anyway, after I recently reread it it seemed to me that every
mammal is an anthropomorphic creature that has a living cognate as
well as an analogous Ice Age creature of larger form, both living in
North America.

Tribe:  current animal/Ice Age animal

Wiggikki:  wolf/dire wolf
Lenizee:  deer/?
Nashhwonk:  moose/?
Ketin(cha):  lion(ess)/cave lion(ess)
Pamigaka:  boar/?
Pummanga:  ?gopher/?
Mimmunka:  lynx/smilodon (sabre-toothed tiger)
(Cim's t.):  mink/giant mink
(vampires):  bat/?
Min:  ?bear/?cave bear
(snow monkey variety 1):  ?rabbit, chipmunk, mouse/?
(snow monkey variety 2):  squirrel/?
(tall thin woman):  ?/?
(bear-like thing):  ?/?
Cutthroat:  ?man, rabbit

I think the Min are probably bears because of the similarity they have
with the Native American bear stories I've read (a bear with half it's
body made of flint, living in a cave, causing trouble for the hero).
I'm not completely sure, though.

Cutthroat may be a native man, a man from the Great Sleigh, or some
man whose head has been attatched to a rabbit man's body.  I'm really
not sure.

Pummanga never appears in the story, so this is only a guess.

Cutthroat says that there are several varieties of the snow monkeys,
with big fluffy tails.  I think they're just as human as the other
animal tribes, just smaller and less intelligent.

Be alert for my weapon analysis!

By the way, are all of my letters getting through and being sent? 
I've had several that haven't been answered by anyone.  Am I doing
something wrong?  Am I just sending too many?

prion