(urth) Tracking Song and The Call of the Wild

[Roy C. Lackey]

Matthew Groves wrote:
>Yes, Cutthroat has knowledge and devices from the Great Sleigh. He is a
>*Sleigh dog*. (Which may be the source of his "birthmark.")  Whatever may
be
>its biblical significance, "Tracking Song" is above all an homage to Jack
>London's _The Call of the Wild_.  Does that illuminate Cutthroat's crime?

Disclaimer: I have not read _The Call of the Wild_, and I'm not going to
just to analyze this story.

But I've read a synopsis, and that was more than enough to convince me that
whomever first made the connection between it and TS is absolutely right.
I'm a bit surprised that so much ink was expended on this story here in the
past without an early consensus being reached on at least that much. I even
learned the significance of the number fourteen -- it was the original
number of dogs in a sled team of which only five survived.

Of course, knowing that TS was inspired by _The Call of the Wild_ doesn't
explain Wolfe's spin on it -- and it's been spun all to hell. And there
ain't no one gonna convince me that Cutthroat was ever pulling the Great
Sleigh. <g> My ignorance of the original inspiration prevents me from
carrying this exposition any further, but I look forward to someone who has
read it to expound on TS mightily.

-Roy