Status Updates From Wolf Totem

I recog the convos abt culture + comparisons btwn, being incomers
Hoping for the wolf cub but apprehensive abt his end. I don’t know how they cld hold onto him once he reaches adulthd + I don’t think they cld get away w/releasing him w/o getting into major trouble w/authorities
Not surprised Dorji’s cub ended the way it did when D seemd to go into it w/even less thot - unsup’d play w/child >injury >kill pup

18 + 19 might be my 2 favorite chapters
Tho they’re still peppered w/the overseer’s determination not to listen to any pleas, cultural or environmental, they also hold the hearts of 2 students + connection w/wild creatures, Chen + his wolf cub, independent + wild but still connected, Yang, the swans + the overwhelming beauty of an untouched valley. Sadness; swans in their beauty always seem to come with sadness

Farming vs herding vs wild life
There are a lot of discussions of the best way to administrate the land and the ppl, and defending old practices for the sake of the ecosystemand the ecosystem for the sake of the herds and for the future

Relief and sadness
So they let the wolf go…after they had maimed it w/a rifle shot. Respect remembered too late…or one kind of too late

I’m trying to trust the author as the one w/on the ground experience, but the descriptions of the behavior of a wolf cub that young don’t match anything I’ve seen elsewhere - it doesn’t make sense to me
In another direction, I find it interesting that they kept the new lambs separate from the ewes except for 2 feeding times, + had to actively pair them up for feeding instd of leaving them w/the grazing ewes

I’ve never felt so confused + torn- caught up in the thrill of a hunt w/brilliantly cunning strategy + horrified at the killing of the wolves. Why must we be so opposed? How can they so respect the wolves even tying their own soul + identity to them + yet so glory in killing them?
Then that bit at the end abt dogs whom nomadic Mongols love + farmer Han despise, but I can’t imagine a farm in the US w/o farm dogs

“Knowing he was about to participate in a contest acted out on the primitive grassland between a pair of wolf kings, Chen was exhilarated.”
Thinking of humans as wolves themselves (papa Bilgee the 2nd wolf king) really flips the narrative in my mind. You can say all you want that humans are literally animals but I find it difficult to get past barrier in my mind that still classifies us as different, separate

Staking out wolf dens to try to get cubs and how dare the mother wolves fight or outsmart them…repeatedly. The cunning wolf.

Some really awful stories of terrible things they do to the wolves. A bit relieving that someone felt sad over a young wolf killed to take her pups

Still somehow find the voice/perspective… unpleasant. I don’t entirely understand this since he’s explicating many parts of the culture through daily life as we go along and since Chen is so interested in the wolves and understanding them more deeply

Wow. Sucks you in when focused on the Mongolian herders + the wolves. When it comes back to the narrator + worse the supervisor, the over simplistic attempts at explaining what the herders know far more of are aggravating and at times silly
I do wonder at how bloody the perspective in the wolves is. Even family devotion is turned onto blood-thirsty revenge. No sense of wolves in families except for counting numbers

So much here!
Wolves’ hunting tactics, trapping the gigantic herd of gazelles for immed + later consum
Method of the Mongolian herders to move across the surface of deep snow on pieces of felt they had frozen - combo of sled + shifting bridge pieces, using a pair to walk out across/on
And Bilgee’s ethic reminds of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s ethic on gathering plants - don’t take all so the plant +others benefit