Short Story 65: Tracking Son

Gwern Branwen · 08 Jun 2014, 21:50 · from 2014-June.txt.gz

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From: gwern at gwern.net (Gwern Branwen)
Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2014 17:50:27 -0400
Subject: (urth) Short Story 65: Tracking Son
In-Reply-To: <CAF1072z6f8EjftZ6D30NPDNh0cweAGC7YEfpMSopgekTOMRihg at mail.gmail.com>
References: <CAF1072z6f8EjftZ6D30NPDNh0cweAGC7YEfpMSopgekTOMRihg at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <CAMwO0gyHkst=-uatoET9VBc6kNQLaSBY1v-qe_UJac2OVtHR2g at mail.gmail.com>

An impressive overview as expected, but one point felt under-addressed.

On Sun, Jun 8, 2014 at 2:20 PM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ?A pivotal story for me is one in which I feel I have succeeded in doing
>> well something I have never really done well before ? fairy material in
>> ?Thag?, a certain religious viewpoint in ?Westwind?, the use of second and
>> third person in ?The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories?, the
>> progression from realism to fantasy in ?The Eyeflash Miracles?, even the
>> primitive inventions no one ever actually invented (and which no one now
>> notices) in ?Tracking Song?. Just as ?Tracking Song? is about uninvented
>> inventions of the stone age, ?Straw? is about (partly of course) uninvented
>> inventions of the middle ages.

Wolfe seems to think that the 'uninvented inventions' are a major
theme of the story, but you hardly mention them. What are they? Just
the endieva wand & club-bows? And how is 'Tracking Song' *about* them?

-- 
gwern
http://www.gwern.net

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