Some Day They'll Want Us

. I know that many people

Hmmm. Well, for me at least, this was the one thing that was crystal clear the first time I read it. (So, that makes me suspicious!!!) But, FWIW, I think Wolfe intends us to link the line of clones with the "antichrist," in contrast to David (note the name and its Biblical associations), who is not a clone, and who therefore "makes progress." The clones don't. They just repeat, generation after generation. They have no true eschaton, because they reject heterogeneity. (A profound thought, I submit.) The live at a Whorehouse (standard Biblical/Christian symbol for a false church) at 666 (!) Street of the Counterfeit. So, while the world/universe is not yet ready to receive the "antichrist," someday it will be! That is what I took to be the intended chilling ending. Also, I took it that "heterogeneity" is a major theme in the whole tri-novella "novel." The tyrants, oppressive slavers, of No. 5's planet are intent on conquering and wiping out the abos, instead of joining with them in a new community. (Shades of what the Short Sun books seem to be about: accepting the inhumi!) Meanwhile, to survive, the abos have to give up their own ways and try to pass as human. All of this is culturally stifling and destructive. FWIW. Nutria

Or if you want a more secular reading, from someone who doesn’t believe 5HC is intended as a Christian allegory in the first place… :-) …If I was to call the last line “disturbing”, it would be because it confirms what the previous paragraphs have already hinted at: that Number 5 has become his own father. The unique, intelligent young man, whose life we have for a little while lived, has ceased to exist. Worse still, he has become the thing he hates. Loss of the Self is, perhaps, the ultimate horror.