{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/643", "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": 643, "subject": "VRT=???", "messages": 3, "voices": 3, "first": "1998-05-20T14:19:01+00:00", "last": "1998-06-16T11:51:02+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Robert Borski", "address": "rborski at coredcs.com" }, "date": "1998-05-20T14:19:01+00:00", "subject": "(urth) VRT=???", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Fellow Readers:\n\nFor years I've always believed \"V.R.T.\" to be one of GW's more enigmatic\ntitles, in that no matter how many times I read the text I could never\nquite figure out what all three initials stood for. \n\nBy paying close attention we do learn that V stands for Victor. This is\ndisclosed by RT, VRT's scurrilous father (p.180, Scribners), who, along\nwith his son, scam various people by claiming to be descendents of the\noriginal populace of Sainte Anne, the Free People/abos. (RT appears to be\nentirely human, but VRT is only half so.)\n\nTen pages later, Dr. Marsh (who will be killed and then impersonated by\nVRT) reveals the T stands for Trenchard, again more as a casual aside than\nanything else, but obviously how the father-and-son tandem are known to the\ncommunity of Frenchman's Landing. RT himself also has an alternate Annese\nname, Twelvewalker.\n\nThis then yields the name Victor Trenchard. But what about that damn R? I\nalways assumed it stood for the same name in father and son and for a while\nthought all three initials were meant to suggest the word ViRTual--as in\nVictor Trenchard is the virtual (as opposed to actual) twin of Dr. Marsh.\nStill, it doesn't fully satisfy.\n\nmantis's recent quip about it possibly being Rodman is actually quite sound\nand was my own first best guess for a long time. After all, we know from\ncertain textual evidence that Number Five's true name is Gene Wolfe, so\nRodman--GW's middle name--certainly seems apposite and does expand on the\nnovel's thematic core. Unfortunately, I could never find any textual\nevidence to support this.\n\nIn fact, as in much of Wolfe, most of the clues are elusive. But they are\nthere.\n\nOn the second page of the novella, for example, we see a junior officer\nexaming what he thinks is the case file of Dr. Marsh, who has been\nimprisoned both as possible spy and murderer of Maitre (Marsh himself is\nactually dead at this point; VRT is the prisoner in question). He finds a\nschool composition book initialed VRT, inside the back cover of which is\nrevealed the following information: \"Rm E2S14 Seat 18.\" _Directly_\nunderneath this, we read: \"name.\" Obviously, the alphanumerics involved do\nnot signal a name (at least none that I've been able to readily decode),\nbut seem to refer to a classroom and seating arrangement. I do, however,\nwant you to notice the presence of the R, the E, and the 2.\n\nLater, on p.178, Dr. Marsh details his first meeting with RT, informing us\nthat contrary to the old man's alleged Annese heritage, \"In my opinion his\nactual descent is Irish.\" Marsh then notes the color of RT's hair, which is\nred--a reference that is made several more times in the text.\n\nFor some reason probably having more to do with luck than intuition,\nseveral days ago I was browsing through CASTLE OF THE OTTER, when I came\nacross Gene Wolfe's biographical details.\n\nLo and behold, what do I learn but that both GW's father and firstborn son\nare named Roy Emerson (a practice I happily refer to as nomenclatural\ncloning). 2 RE's!\n\nThis sent me scurrying to the dictionary. \"Roy,\" I learn with frisson, is\n\"_Gaelic for red_\" (Italics mine)\n\nCan there now be any doubt that VRT is named after both Gene Wolfe's father\nand son and stands for Victor Roy Trenchard?\n\nLest anyone think this is truly cockeyed (not all of my FIFTH HEAD\nramblings have been entirely well received), I offer the following as one\nadditional item of support:\n\nIn prison VRT describes how he and his family lived within the vicinity of\nSt. Madeleine, a church.\n\nMadeleine--besides the obvious reference to Proust--is the name of Gene\nWolfe's firstborn daughter.\n\nRobert Borski" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Tony Ellis", "address": "tony.ellis at futurenet.co.uk" }, "date": "1998-05-21T08:39:33+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: VRT=???", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": " \n21/05/98\n 08:54\n RE>VRT=3D???\n\nRobert Borski:\nR =3D Roy\nIngenious! My only reservation is that, as you say, \"Rm E2S14\nSeat 18\" clearly refers to a classroom and the seat in that \nclassroom where young Victor sat, which makes me a little\nreluctant to give R and E any other significance.\n\nMy only alternative suggestion, mind you, is Roncevaux, which as\nI recall is the town where Victor and his family live. Dodgy.\n\nI find myself wondering _why_ Victor gave \"room E2S14, seat 18\" as\nhis name. A childish mistake? Or, as an Annese boy in an alien culture,\ndid VRT feel that that was as much his name as \"Victor\"? This is,\nafter all, a story about identity and colonialism (amongst other things).\n\nAs for the significance of Trenchard... a trencher is, of course, a\nwooden or ceramic platter, and significantly the word comes from\nthe French trenchoir. Would that make a trenchard some sort of \nserving man, a medieval plate-carrier? Just a thought." } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "William H. Ansley", "address": "wansley at warwick.net" }, "date": "1998-06-16T11:51:02+00:00", "subject": "Re: (urth) VRT=???", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "quote", "depth": 1, "text": "Can there now be any doubt that VRT is named after both Gene Wolfe's father\nand son and stands for Victor Roy Trenchard?" }, { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "Yes, I have a doubt. But I am willing to accept Roy as being the best\nsuggestion I have seen, although I have a sneaking suspicion that 'R'\nstands for \"Rm E2S14 Seat 18\".\n\nTo paraphrase Corbin Dallas in _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_ ... oops, I\nmean _The Fifth Element_: \"All of that is your middle name?\"\n\nMaybe they called him Room for short.\n\nBut seriously folks, if Rm E2S14 is a room number, isn't it pretty weird?\nIt seems as if the rooms are arranged in a huge grid (\"Now you go two rooms\neast and 14 rooms south. You can't miss it.\")\n\nOr is this some common French room-numbering scheme that this ignorant\n(American) ecletic has never heard of?\n\nWilliam Ansley" } ] } ] }