Trice’s Reviews > Wolf Totem > Status Update

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

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