{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/705",
    "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": 705,
    "subject": "Labor 12: the Hound of Hades",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-06-01T23:13:13+00:00",
    "last": "1998-06-01T23:13:13+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0012-0045@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at coredcs.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-06-01T23:13:13+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Labor 12: the Hound of Hades",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Nice to finally see some more discussion on FIFTH HEAD. For a while there I\nthought I was going to have to do a reverse-Herakles and drag you all back\ndown, kicking and screaming, into the cave with me. As it is I hear barking\nin my sleep. Then again maybe that's Triskele, my chiahuahua\n\nAnyway, some post-12 Labored thoughts.\n\nRe my earlier wondering, how, with one unified conquering force, two\ndifferent forms of government arose on Sainte Anne and Sainte Croix, near\nthe end of V.R.T. the officer assigned to decide Marsch's fate writes in\nhis final disposition, \"#143 may be an agent of junta currently in power on\nthe sisterworld.\" That no one on Sainte Anne mentions the government in\nsimilar terms, I'm assuming whatever coup d'etat did take place occurred in\nthe relatively distant past and is now accepted. *Junta* at any rate\nsatisfies me.\n\nRe mantis' supposition that the middle-aged fat man imprisoned near the end\nis our own beloved Maitre: yes, yes, yes! In a novel filled with Gene\nWolfes, this seems almost de rigeur. And if Alfred Hitchcock can do it, why\nnot GW0?\n\nHow does VRT kill Dr. Marsch? I'm not an advocate of the rifle theory. For\nstarters Marsch states he's a horrible shot, closing his eyes before he\nshoots, and then firing. Even if he's doing this to avoid killing any fauna\nthat may actually be shape-changed Free People--mantis' citing of the\ndouble-pupiled caribao thing is dead on, and also why Victor begins to cry\nat its death (though Marsch misconstrues this)--you are not going to\nacquire the skills you need to use firearms efficiently by shooting with\nyour eyes closed. More likely he uses a weapon he's already comfortable\nwith, and in fact, earlier before the expedition sets out Marsch rather\nconfidently writes, \"At least I won't have to worry about a mutiny among my\nsubordinates unless a mule kicks me or the boy cuts my throat while I\nsleep!\" The exclamation point seems extra significant--in fact, I think\nit's the only one Marsch uses in his journal (a Clute clue, no?). The real\nDr. Marsch also has no beard, but the reason according to Victor abo\nadolescent males grow beards is to protect their throats from the teeth of\nattackers. Hence I favor the cut-throat theory.\n\nWhy does VRT kill the abo catgirl? Well, for starters, he's extremely\npsychosexually-disturbed, having not only a mother who was a prostitute,\nbut he also initially thought she abandoned him because she saw him\nsexually trysting with a girl. In other words Sigmund Freud could have made\nhim his life's work, and Tony Hopkins would have been the ideal actor to\nportray him. We also see further evidence of  VRT's maladjustment in his\nconsorting with whores at Roncevaux and the Maison du Chien. Likewise at\nMde. Duclose's boarding house when he tells us Celestine Etienne does not\nappear to be masturbating with her candle tonight--later admitting he\ndoesn't \"even know this young lady.\" That he eventually becomes racked with\nguilt and/or disgust and/or Oedipal angst and kills the girl does not\nsurprise me in the least.\n\nWhy does VRT kill Dr. Marsch? Many reasons suggest themselves. A\nconfrontation over the catgirl or missing meat. Killing and assuming\nMarsch's identity allows Victor some measure of a blither future.\nBut the reason I'd like to advance is sexually-charged. Dr. Marsch, I\nposit, is a homosexual. This is tenuous, I realize, but let's examine the\nevidence. Early, in his journal, he describes how Victor \"is handsome in a\nrather sensitive way.\" Nowhere at all does he express his opinion about the\nlooks of or desire for a female--something I find odd in a man of Marsch's\nhormonally-charged years (early 20s). He also appears to be somewhat\ndisturbed by the notion that Victor might be engaged in some sort of\namorous dalliance with jane-of-the-abos, in fact even opining he might\nshoot them if he finds them laying together. But the clincher is he reports\nin his journal that he's noticed Victor is uncircumcised--where have your\neyes been, Dr. Marsch, and how long did they linger there and why did you\nfeel the compulsion to jot this down (pant, pant)? Given that Victor seems\nhypersexualized, might not we also expect similar feelings in his\nshadow-twin-secret-sharer-other? Plus Marsch's lack of a beard--a symbol of\nmanliness--might also be another clue. I'm even willing to speculate that\nthe missing pages in his journal (what I call the notebook mystery in my\nCAVE CANEM) might involve a homosexual tryst with someone at\nRoncevaux--after all, we have Victor's jailhouse memories about doing a\nprostitute there and since much of the book is reflective/refractive, it's\nhard not to see parallels. Marsch then removes the incriminating pages from\nhis notebook--he must have the requisite sharp knife required (a detail\nmentioned by the junior case officer when he sees the missing pages),\nbecause he's been filleting his shot game all along--because knowing\nVictor's avidity for reading material he doesn't want the boy to\naccidentally access the data about his homosexual tendencies. Victor's\nuncut nature arouses him, however, but when he puts the move on horrifed\nVictor, the latter in turn circumcises the doctor--right around the throat.\nHe subsequently can never mention it either because he does not want the\nworld to know Dr. Marsch is dead. He also does not dwell on the matter in\nprison because he himself hating women is tottering psychologically close\nto latent homosexuality, but is totally in denial. Laugh at this admittedly\nfacile conceit, but also consider this one last bit of evidence: in prison\nVictor recalls a brass instrument he once bought because it fascinated him,\n\" a thing of clamps and toothed jaws and cruel little hooks.\"\n\nWhat is this instrument, you ask? \n\nIt's a combination retractor, clamp and surgical punch, and it's used for\ncircumcisions.\n\nRobert Borski (who still remembers his own Bris, I don't care if I was\neight days old)"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}