URTH |
From: m.driussi@genie.com Subject: (urth) Tracking Moon Date: Sun, 3 Aug 97 20:11:00 GMT [Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works] Reply: Item #9835448 from URTH@LISTS.BEST.COM@INET00# alga! Wow, great stuff. First off, to add to your notes: Re: Ice Age, it seems that the Great Sleigh-ers (heh) are involved in climate controlling terraforming operations with that orbiting solar mirror (which you identify as "something that may be a spaceship"). They are ending the ice age now by technological means. Re: John Carter, yes, this planet could be Mars (those two moons and the lighter gravity), previously terraformed and then not maintained so that it slipped into an ice age. We don't see enough starscape to form much of an opinion (contrast with that other Wolfe story set on Mars, where the savages are going to sacrifice the hero when the blue/green star [i.e., Earth] rises). Re: circumnavigation. It is a little bit more ambiguous than that, isn't it? I mean, Cutthroat sets out sailing after the Sleigh with the wind blowing from the west; i.e., he is going east, isn't he? Then in the end he looks to the west as the direction of the Sleigh and is surprised to see it coming toward him from the east. Re: Le Guin echoes. I agree--part of it has to do with all that snow (LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS; PLANET OF EXILE) which also reminds me of Joan D. Vinge's SNOW QUEEN. And all the stone-age hunter gatherer anthropology. The Min theory of Cutthroat's origins is the Ishi scenario, which is, of course, the "K" of Ursula K. Le Guin. But I don't think I've ever seen a Le Guin work where there was such carnivorous matter-of-fact savagry, which reminds me of A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS as well as Wolfe's "Hero As Werwolf" (among others). Okay, now for my own impressions. Adjust mantomatic filter as necessary . . . Narrator. Who is Cutthroat? Most characters in the story assume he is a Sleigher, aka a higher human (since every group considers itself "human"). Cim Glowing casts doubt, suggesting that he is a changeling, a beastman who found the clothes. The Min say he is like Ishi, last of his tribe. Cutthroat has many doubts himself, since if he was from the Sleigh then why didn't they send a rescue party? Two options, it seems to me. First is the sleeping sailor from the Odyssey (was it?) who fell overboard in the night, drowning, and nobody knew (until later they saw his shade?). Second, much more likely, is that he was killed and tossed overboard, either as a "sacrifice" (ala Jonah) or as a "criminal." If he is dead, then this becomes another Wolfean "Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge." Which would go some lengths towards explaining the shamanistic death-voyage tone/timber/elements of the story. Tribes. Who are these humanoids? No surprise that this story seems a lot like "The Tale of the Boy Called Frog" from the brown book. It is an animal fable with things turned inside out and backward. I'm not sure about the Lenizee, who seem birdlike. But the Ketin are lions, the Nashhwonk are great deer like Giant Irish Elk (that "chair" weapon is for the antlers), Cim Glowing's unnamed people are bears (they fish), the Pamigaka are either foxes or cats (cache raiders), the Mimmunka is some kind of intimidator animal (scavenger), and, yes, you guessed it . . . the running singing hunters, the Wiggikki who first adopt Cutthroat, are wolves (just like the ones who adopted Frog). This story showcases Wolfe's electrifying grasp of stone age sensibilities. According to Campbell et ali., the early hunters started getting guilty feelings about killing animals. Empathy. And fear of retribution from the animal "families." So the hunters developed ritual and taboo to pacify the animal spirits and to thank them for providing the meat to feed the humans. Later on, when agriculture came along, they did the same thing to pacify and thank the plants (think of all that grain god/human sacrifice stuff). So here's this Cutthroat, and he's embracing the stone age sensibility (in a way that would make a Christian or a Buddhist or a Taoist, et cetera . . . proud) and trying to personally break the cycle of blood and death. He says words to the effect that, "These dwarves want me to kill you so that I will see a division of categories between `animal' and `human,' but I don't see that division now and I won't be their puppet." That's enough for now. =mantis=