(urth) Short Story 65: Tracking Son

[Gwern Branwen]

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