Tracking Song and Other Stories

Matthew Groves · 19 Jun 2007, 10:39 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: matthewalangroves at gmail.com (Matthew Groves)
Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:39:02 -0500
Subject: (urth) Tracking Song and Other Stories
Message-ID: <39ed084f0706190339q12387806t9fa7fe96770b88df at mail.gmail.com>

Roy asks:
> Will you elaborate on how the
> moose-man's fate relates to the rest of Wolfe's story?

I now understand this story less than ever.  As you observe, it seems to
be the primary feature of Tracking Song that it is woven of many disparate
strands.  This is true of Wolfe in general, but especially, it seems to me,
the stories in _The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other
Stories_, which leads me to speculate that this collection's title is a wink
acknowledging this multiplicity of sources.  So far, in relation to Tracking
Song, these have been identified, or at least suggested:

Genesis
the Icarus legend
the Great Raven legends of Western North American Indians
The Iliad of Homer (The Odyssey must be there too)
The Aeneid of Virgil  Jack London, _The Call of the Wild_ and _White Fang_

I know next to nothing about most of these.  And if the winged man at the
end is a raven, then I suspect Norse myth must be involved too, another
subject about which I know nothing.  Rather than groping in darkness (where
Wolfe's protagonists so often find themselves) I am hoping someone will show
me the light of day (perhaps even Great Raven himself).

Matt G.
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