“Tracking Song” (and other stories)

Matthew Groves · 05 Jun 2007, 22:44 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: matthewalangroves at gmail.com (Matthew Groves)
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:44:01 -0500
Subject: (urth) =?windows-1252?q?=93Tracking_Song=94_=28and_other_stories?=
	=?windows-1252?q?=29?=
Message-ID: <39ed084f0706051544r5def1eecw82e3994885c7d4c5 at mail.gmail.com>

"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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