One of the strangest aspects I found in Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand was the difference between modern hunting and the ‘dragon hunting’ between pgs 239 and 257. At first, hunting in the deserts of Velm appears very similar to our human hunting; leaving for a wilderness area, using large ‘weapons’, receiving advice over territory or placement from an experienced hunter, and eventually finding and firing at the prey, taking something from the prey in the process. The first major difference here is the wanted result. While real-world hunters seek to kill the prey as fast as possible and in good enough condition for food, skinning or other purposes, hunters on Velm desire to get a glimpse into the mind of the prey for a time and experience all of its senses. Instead of taking and using for personal, material comfort or pleasure, the Velm hunter shares the preys’ experience, and leaves the creature untouched and completely unaware of the hunter’s intrusions.
Neither act is necessary; we have an abundance of food in the USA, and the inhabitants of Velm have many alternate sources of entertainment. Yet, both peoples still do it, and on a fairly common basis. The Earth style of hunting creates a moral conundrum for the people, but has a more distinct purpose and culture behind it. Hunting is one f the earliest arts that humanity ever developed; we started as nothing more than hunter-gatherers before tribal society emerged. Later, at any stage in our progress before agriculture could be instated, or any time we expanded outward to new territory, hunting was a primary means of support. In short, hunting was an integral part of our humanity, though today it may not be as important as in the developmental periods. Unfortunately, we are missing one important piece of information: while our form of hunting was at one time essential to survival in the pre-modern USA, we do not know if the Velm mode of hunting was ever crucial to evelm and/or humans on their planet. The culture behind hunting is hinted at in the last part of the chapter (pg 251-257) when the narrator goes into depth explaining the importance of Singing after the hunt, but it still appears to be more for entertainment or art than survival.
I think the major point here is that we still kill even having moved past the kill-for-food stage, which is both harmful and unnecessary. We claim it is part of a great heritage, an art that should not be lost; yet with how destructive it is to the prey, is it really justified? Should entertainment or tradition (since there is no longer necessity) come at such a cost? It is through these differences between our planet and Velm that the key criticism of our ways appears most clearly.