Subject: (urth) 5HC Strong Evidence of Telepathy?

From: Michael Andre-Driussi <mantis at siriusfiction.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 23:15:40 +0000

Tony Ellis, referring to the list of names, wrote:

>The Old Wise One has pulled these names out of the minds of passing starship
>crews. Check out the speech preceding the list of names, which begins "We
>came here either recently or a long, long time ago." He says that when the
>Shadow Children try to remember the name of 'their' home, they "hear also
>the mind-singing", ie pick up the thoughts of, passing starship crews, and
>"these thoughts come into our songs." The next sentence is the list of
>names.
>
>So. The Shadow Children know that 'their' home is somewhere long ago and far
>away. They find some pretty names for places long ago and far away in the
>minds of passing starship crews that seem to strike a chord, so these are
>the ones they come up with.

Leaving aside the issues of shape-changing (yes/no), and abo existence
(yes/no), one thing I think this quote does point to rather strongly is
telepathy in general and the weird psychic linkage between Number 5 and
V.R.T.

Because while nearly all of the other names could plausibly be plucked out
of passing starships over time, Gondwanaland seems to be coined by Number 5
in his lesson at the library, on a very specific day.

Does this mean that the moment when Number 5 is saying it out loud is
simultaneous to the moment when OWO is saying it?  (Not in the "distant
Annese past" sense of "A Story," but in one of the other senses: for
example, the "the story is a disguised version of V.R.T.'s real life and
crimes" sense, where it might thereby point to V.R.T. being in some kind of
sandpit/prison at the time when Number 5 was in the library.)  Maybe, maybe
not.

Furthermore, this detail adds to the other strange confusions between
V.R.T. and Number 5: two others include the fact that Number 5 sees robot
guards gone berserk, killing prisoners in the third year of his sentence
(Ace pb p. 70), and V.R.T. had a dream of robots going berserk, killing him
(210); Number 5 has dream of court fenced with pillars, which echoes the
woodhenge observatory on Sainte Anne seen by Marsch, shown by V.R.T.

One brother who dreams the life and trials of the other brother, this is a
big element of "A Story."  And when they finally meet, one brother kills
the other; and Number 5 may have set in motion V.R.T.'s arrest when he
denounced him as an abo spy (that is: what if "A Story" is retelling
V.R.T.'s life prior to prison).

=mantis=

Sirius Fiction
booklets on Gene Wolfe, John Crowley
PEACE: a timeline WITH dates! Come see!
http://www.siriusfiction.com/

--

---

From: Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net>
Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 14:13:18 +0000

> V.R.T.'s life prior to prison).

There is another possible explanation for the strange echoes between V.R.T.
and Number Five: that Number Five has written all three parts, not just the
first part.  He wrote his autobiography "to disclose myself to myself"; he
might very well have retold his story in fictional guise for the same
reason.  (And if one Gene Wolfe can write fiction, so can another.)  And it
would no doubt have amused him to portray Marsch as being in reality what he
had accused him of being to insult him and drive him away; to show the Port
Mimizon beauracracy as slipshod and inefficient; and to show the museum at
Roncevaux, and by extension the library at Port Mimizon, as gullible
(Trenchard's fake artifacts).

I don't really believe this theory, but I don't think it can be disproven
either, at least not through internal evidence.

--Adam

--

---

From: Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 03 May 2002 17:43:41 +0000

--- Adam Stephanides <adamsteph at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > (210);

They're not quite that similar, if I remember correctly.  Number
Five sees one robot go berserk and kill a number (15?) of prisoners;
V. R. T. dreams of several non-berserk robots killing him.  But
I don't think I'd have noticed the resemblance at all, so thanks!
...

Jerry Friedman

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness
http://health.yahoo.com

--