I wrote...
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<Also, is there any reason to believe that there was ever a real John V. Marsch? I mean, by that name -- there clearly was a homeworld anthropologist. I ask because "John Marsch" sounds
exactly like the name of an abo as described in the beginning of part 2: "John" is the name of all men born to the people, and "Marsch" would be a logical name for a child born in the meadomeres. Toss this together with the Earth passport having been "tampered with," and I wonder if "VRT" simply took his abo name and applied it to his new identity...?>
And Robert replied...
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John Marsch's field journal belies his. His sections appear to
be quite legible--at least the junior officer assigned to review his case does not remark otherwise. Whereas once VRT has killed the Terran doctor, he must somehow account for the sudden turn in bad handwriting (abos, like the inhumi, have difficulty with manual tasks) which he blames on a cat bite. The first entry to this effect takes place in the section immediately predating April
23. "You must excuse my writing in this entry, and I suppose
some of the subsequent entires as well." On April 24, he also writes: "Hand still bad, as you see from the writing." It therefore seems likely the original Earth-born Marsch has died previous to April 23.
I think you misunderstood the question -- I was not suggesting that there is no Earth-born anthropologist; I was wondering if this was yet another case of names slipping. (There are many such, beginning but far-from-ending with "Number 5" and "Mister Million." "Veil," for heaven's sake! And the ever popular "Etc.")
In other words: There is an Earthborn anthropologist; that is beyond any reasonable doubt. What I am suggesting is that his
name is not John V. Marsch. VRT kills him, and takes "John V. Marsch" as his name when he "returns" to civilization.
As evidence, I've mentioned the abosity of the name and the detail of the passport; I'll mention also that the "V" in "John V. Marsch" strikes me as likely equal to the "V" in VRT.
Further: Why is Part 2 titled
"A Story" by John V. Marsch?
Nobody, I think, would title a story "A Story." I suggest that this is another slippage -- the quotation marks really belong around the author's name.
It this point this is nothing more than an intuition. I see a lot
of little details and suspect a pattern. What it means, if anything, is quite beyond me.
--Dan'l