From: m.driussi@genie.com
Subject: (urth) Grab Bag
Date: Sun,  7 Sep 97 22:31:00 GMT


[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works]

Reply:  Item #9830350 from URTH@LISTS.BEST.COM@INET01#

alga,

Today I'm thinking that this "Tracking Song" and "Tale of a Boy
Called Frog" is strong enough to bring us back around to the
"Changeling" models of Cutthroat origin, reinforced by the Mantru
"Ishi" line of reasoning.  That is to say: I'm not coming up with
anything new here, only just maybe reviving some chestnuts and
putting them in a new string; but it seems likely that Cutthroat is
=not, not, not= from the Great Sleigh, he is a remnant of the surface
dwelling humans, last of his tribe, who set out walking after the
death of the last other human he knew.  (Glossing over his amnesia,
glossing over his unusual neck mark).

So this is why Cutthroat is kind of like a changeling; why Cim could
think him a beastman in Sleigh-clothes; why the Min would see him as
human but still test him.  He has the human hardware (genetic
material) but not the Sleigher software (high tech whatnot).

Or, in other words: a last survivor of an earlier colonization wave
makes his way through the frozen "jungle" of beastmen, robomen (I'm
still holding out against "cyborg" here because we agree they are
more like "jonases" [robo-cum-human] than "bionic men" [augmented
humans, scanners, etc.]), and mutants (Mantru) to meet the return of
the starwandering humans.  Like Native American Indians stepping around
the bleached bones of Viking colonists to meet the arriving Pilgrims
(ouch).

Another thread--now that you know Wolfe put a lot of thought into
making nevermade stone age weapons, think you can figure them all out?
(Mainly I'm thinking about those wands.  The twirling baton-launching
crossbow device seemed straightforward enough, and the wo-wo wand is
kinda out there, but the mink stick still intrigues us unanimously,
no?)

=mantis=