{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/sflovers/129",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
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  "archive": "sflovers",
  "thread": {
    "id": 129,
    "subject": "FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS (Wolfe)",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1995-09-07T16:26:49+00:00",
    "last": "1995-09-07T16:26:49+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<sflovers-v20-288-8@digest.sf-lovers>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Peter Cash",
        "address": "cash at worm.convex.com"
      },
      "date": "1995-09-07T16:26:49+00:00",
      "subject": "FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS (Wolfe)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS, by Gene Wolfe\n\t\t      A book review by Peter Cash\n\nSpoiler warning: The following discussion of THE FIFTH HEAD of CERBERUS\ncontains spoilers.\n\nTHE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS is copyright in 1972, but has apparently been\nout of print for some time; the Orb edition was published in 1994. This\nbook deserves a place not only among science fiction/fantasy masterpieces,\nbut among the best literary works written in English during this century.\n\nThis book is composed of three novellas. The novellas are related but, how\nthey are related, and how _much_ they are related, is not easy to judge.\nFIFTH HEAD is ambiguous, complex, and puzzling; it will leave you wondering\nwhat _really_ went on long after you have finished it. Don't let me mislead\nyou - this isn't a book that will leave you unsatisfied with its loose ends\nand unresolved puzzles; instead, it will leave you feeling that you have\nread something far richer than you are accustomed to. The impression FIFTH\nHEAD left on me was that it was simply so complex, so multi-layered, that I\ncouldn't hope to ever understand all of it. I'll be thinking about it for a\nlong time.\n\nThe first novella, itself called \"The Fifth Head of Cerberus,\" tells the\nstory of a young man's coming of age in a rather sinister and completely\nodd family.  The young man, who is never named but narrates the story in\nthe first person, has a very peculiar relationship with his father - they\nare very, very much alike. Eventually, the son ostensibly kills his father,\nis sent to prison, and after some years in prison is released to resume his\nfather's career as pimp in the family house on Saltimbanque street.\n\nI say \"ostensibly,\" for the killing scene is written so elliptically that\nit's hard to tell what really happened. Did the \"father\" kill the \"son,\"\nand take _his_ place? (If so, why?) Did the mysterious anthropologist Prof.\nMarsch, who is apparently a shape-changing alien, take over one of the\nother's roles, and kill the remaining one? I don't know. And whatever\nhappened to the father's \"normal\" son, David? And what was the connection\nbetween Marsch and the aunt?\n\nThe middle novella - \"A Story,\" by John V. Marsch, doesn't seem to have any\ndirect connection with the other two, except it gives us some hints about\nthe nature of the shape-changers and about how the twin planets St. Anne\nand St. Croix on which all three novelettes take place became colonized.\nIt's told in third person, mostly from the viewpoint of what is either a\nhuman or a shape-changer (everyone seems rather confused about who they are\n- - a theme never far from the surface in any of the three novellas) named\nSandwalker.  In the end, Sandwalker may, or may not, change places with his\ntwin brother.  The main connection between the second novella and the other\ntwo seems to be in the title - it's attributed to the anthropologist, Prof.\nMarsch. But then again, things are not necessarily what they seem in the\nuniverse of Wolfe.\n\nThe third novella - \"V.R.T\" is partly a cleverly disguised first-person\nnarrative.  Usually, it's difficult for an author to mystify his audience\nwith a first-person account the way Gene Wolfe likes to mystify us; since\nthe narrator usually knows too much, tension is hard to maintain. (Unless\nyou resort to making him an amnesiac, as Wolfe does in his SOLDIER series.)\nIn this case, Wolfe has an anonymous \"officer\" go through the recordings\nand papeers pertaining to the interrogation of Prof. Marsch, who it seems\nhas been placed in Kafkaesque arrest after the murder on Saltimbanque\nstreet (but he is not charged with murder). Some of the records are\nfirst-person memoirs which may, or may not, indicate that while on the\nplanet St. Anne, the real Prof. Marsch died and had his place taken by one\n\"V.R.T.\", allegedly a shape-changer. Again, connections to the other two\nnovellas are indirect, and quite mysterious.  There is some indication that\nthe officer's slave may be one of a clone of the narrator in the first\nnovella.\n\nAs you can see, the questions are many. I would welcome net discussion on\nall the things I missed! (A net correspondent has already pointed out to me\nthat it is possible to deduce the name of the family in the first novella,\nand has provided me with some clues but, I have not yet figured it out.\n\nAuthor:     Wolfe, Gene\nTitle:      THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS\nPublisher:  An Orb Book, Tom Doherty & Associates Inc.\nCity:       New York, N.Y.\nDate:       1994\nOrder Info: ISBN 0-312-89020-6\nPages:      252 pp.\n\nPeter Cash"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}