{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3599",
    "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'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 3599,
    "subject": "5HC: Number Five and Number Three",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2002-11-23T16:47:58+00:00",
    "last": "2002-11-23T16:47:58+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0211-2220@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "StoneOx17",
        "address": "stoneox17 at aol.com"
      },
      "date": "2002-11-23T16:47:58+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) 5HC: Number Five and Number Three",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "The very interesting thread about identity started me thinking, and I \nthink I may have an answer to a puzzle in 5HC.\n\nThe puzzle, which I have never been satisfied with the resolution of, is\nwhy the narrator is called Number Five.  Aunt Jeannine seems to \nthink that Maitre is counting living descendants (exclusive of slaves),\nnamely: Mr. Million, Jeannine, Maitre, David, and the narrator.  This \nhas never seemed to me a completely satisfactory explanation, and I \nhave just now come up with another one.\n\nWhat did the narrator's grandfather call the narrator's father?  I'm going \nto propose that he called him \"Number Three.\"  The grandfather meant \nby this that Number Three was the third in the line of clones on St. Croix.  \nBut in his childhood, Number Three assumed that his father was counting \nhimself as Number One and sister Jeannine as Number Two.  When it \ncame time to give a nickname to the narrator, Maitre (who by that time \nhad undoubtedly figured out the true derivation of his nickname) \nsomewhat whimsically continued this count, labelling David as Number \nFour, and the narrator as Number Five.\n\nIncidentally, figuring out what to call all the characters in the above \nparagraph without being confusing was quite difficult (and I nay not\nhave succeeded).  Saying \"his father\" is ambiguous, since it's not\nalways clear who \"his\" refers to; \"Maitre\" isn't entirely satisfactory, \nsince in Maitre's childhood, Maitre's father was called Maitre; and \nusing names isn't useful since they all are named Gene Wolfe.\n\nLet me also use this post to correct a related misapprehension.  Some \npeople (I forget who) have assumed that Mr. Million is our Gene Wolfe,\nthe author.  But Aunt Jeannine's response on learning Number Five's\nnickname -- \"That number's either far too low or too high.\" -- makes it\nclear that our Gene Wolfe was the progenitor of a long line of clones who \nremained on Earth for many generations before one of them (later to \nbecome Mr. Million) decided he would rather be a big fish in a small pond \nand emigrated to St. Croix.\n\n-- Stone Ox"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}