{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/478",
    "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": 478,
    "subject": "5th Head Genealogical Revisions",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-04-06T16:56:00+00:00",
    "last": "1998-04-06T16:56:00+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0009-0718@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at coredcs.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-04-06T16:56:00+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) 5th Head Genealogical Revisions",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "I have now revised my family tree of the Wolfe clan of Saint Croix a bit,\nat least in regards to the position of Aunt Jeannine.\n\nI originally held Jeannine to be the biological daughter of GW#1, the\npatriarch of the Cerberids and genetic source of all the clones to\nfollow--doing so for several reasons. \n\n(1) Jeannine is described by Number Five as \"a little gray-haired woman,\"\nindicating she is probably older than Maitre, who is approximately 50; how\n_much_ older is problematical, given the varying rates at which people age,\nand the fact that she lives in futurity, where the aging process may be\nless severe due to advancements in medicine, pharmacology, gene therapy,\netc. \n\n(2) In FIFTH HEAD, all terms like aunt, brother, sister and father are\nputative and may have no relevance to genuine descent/relatedness. Yes,\nJeannine refers to Maitre as her brother, but nowhere does he speak of\neither aunt or sister. In fact, I don't believe he ever mentions her at\nall, not even inferentially--a grievence perhaps that relates to her\ncupidity and an earlier quarrel? \n\n(3) In the library scene near the end Marsch compares Jeannine to David (an\noutcrossing, according to Maitre), though \"from an earlier generation.\"\nAdding to the ambiguity of this is that Marsch has now chosen to address\nboth Maitre and Number Five in the singular and we are not sure if \"earlier\ngeneration\" refers to that preceding Number Five or Maitre or simply David.\n\n(4) A question I've always pondered is this: why did the original Gene\nWolfe clone himself? Maitre's quest to find out why the family has never\nadvanced sociopolitically or in celebrity status seems to be largely moot\nat this stage, since it is in the early days of Saint Croix's colonization\nand GW1 is the first of his line, not of a succeeding iteration. But what\nif his first child--Jeannine/Aubrey--is born deformed (i.e., with withered\nlegs)? Perhaps not wanting to chance another deformed child, coupled\npossibly with the desire for a male heir, he clones himself. \n\nAgain, all this is speculative, and related only to bolster my original\nplacement of Jeannine\nin the genealogy.\n\nNow however I'm having second thoughts. Three quarters of the reasons cited\nabove can just as easily be used to support the notion that Jeannine\nbelongs one generation down in the genealogy. I.e., that she is the\nbiological daughter of GW#2, not GW#1, which would indeed make her the\n\"sister\" of Maitre. \n\nAs for my gloss on the reason's behind GW#1's decision to clone himself,\nI'm also now thinking more along the following: Let us say that an aging or\nsick GW allows himself to be cerebrally replicated in Mr. Million only\nbecause he hopes that someday the process might be reversible and that his\nmechanical brain might be able to be core-imaged _back_ into its organic\nequivalent. He therefore creates (or has already created) a clone of\nhimself to be his future vessel, and spends the next 150 years tutoring\nhimself \nthrough the generations, awaiting the day until once more he is\nmortally-bound and incarnate. \n\nAll of which, in less than succinct manner, leads me to state I'm willing\nto place Jeannine one generation down in the Wolfe/Cerberid genealogy,\nmaking her the daughter of GW#2, not GW#1, as I earlier supposed.\n\nRobert Borski (who once his main computer is fixed and he can go back to\nwork will have much less time to spin his lupine theories)"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}