Subject: (urth) Some Day They'll Want Us

From: James Jordan <jbjordan at gnt.net>
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 22:35:34 +0000

. I know that many people
> find the last line of the first part very disturbing: I truly
> do not understand _why
>
> --Blattid

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

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

---

From: Tony Ellis <tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 14:19:05 +0000

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.

--
Tony Ellis
On-line Editor, PC Format magazine
01225 442244 x2349
http://www.pcformat.co.uk