{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/749",
    "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": 749,
    "subject": "Notes From Cliff",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1998-06-06T17:09:48+00:00",
    "last": "1998-06-06T17:09:48+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0013-0005@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Robert Borski",
        "address": "rborski at coredcs.com"
      },
      "date": "1998-06-06T17:09:48+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Notes From Cliff",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "From my ever growing CAVE CANEM, I now submit its tentative Forward, \"Notes\nFrom Cliff: An Introductory Approach to THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS:\"\n\nPublished in 1973, THE FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS was Gene Wolfe's second\nnovel, and it is a pure delight from start to finish. Ostensibly, it\nappears to mine one of literature's oldest themes, the coming-of-age,\nrite-of-passage story, told in the form of three linked novellas and cast\nin the familiar tropes of science fiction--from interplanetary colonization\nto cloning to first contact with an alien race. Each of the novella's main\ncharacters--Number Five, John Sandwalker, V.R.T.--is under the age of\ntwenty; each murders an authority figure, who collaterally represents\nacquired knowledge (a scientist father; the shaman Lastvoice; and Professor\nJohn Marsch, respectively). Gene Wolfe, in other words, has appropriated\nfor himself a bit of archetypal terrain, one where he is both main\ncartographer and leader of the expedition. And it is a wonderful world he\nlimns and extremely enjoyable, even on a very primary level, where's one\ngoal is simply divertissement, to spend some time stoking up that ol' sense\nof wonder all good sf evokes, as well as perhaps meeting some interesting\ncharacters.\n\nBut for all its genre trappings FIFTH HEAD is all so very, very, very much\nmore. And it has all the resonance and perspicacity of those works the\nworld now deems classic literature. This same dual quality of Wolfe's\nfiction--works that are both (hush my oxymoronic breath) genre fiction and\nclassic literature--underwrites as well the very underpinnings and thematic\nengine of FIFTH HEAD, in that the book is not so much one novel, but two,\neach of which is not only the other's shadow, but its reflection. For\nUrsula LeGuin, Gene Wolfe represents Mozart, but for me he is J.S. BACH,\nweaver of contrapuntal and fugual majesty.\n\nReaders old to Wolfe are probably more than well aware of the author's\nnaming stratagems. Quite simply put (for those of you who are new to the\nman), the names Gene Wolfe assigns to both his characters and settings are\ncharged with extra significance. On one level they function as our own\nnames do--(I'm deliberately going to avoid the more formal grammars here of\nlinguistics and semiotics)--they identify us on a very surface,\neasily-accessible level. In Wolfe, however, all names have an additional\nassociative or attributive value, and one of the great joys in reading him\nis trying to figure out their provenance or etymological origins. Because\nthey do add to the richness and complexity of the novel, and often\nimmeasureably so.\n\nLet us consider two examples.\n\nOne of the planets in FIFTH HEAD is called Sainte Anne. And while one might\nthink the name has been chosen because of Wolfe's ardent\nCatholicity--Sainte Anne is mother to Mary--also knowing that much of the\nnovel's story takes place at a whorehouse located at  666 Saltimbanque St.\n(the novel's other main Biblical reference, 666 being the Number of the\nBeast, a numerical cognomen of the devil) allows us to look at the novel\nfrom a slightly different perspective, especially considering how Number\nFive, the narrator of the title novella, is as parthenogenetically\nconceived as Jesus Christ. Not knowing this, of course, does not preclude\nyou from enjoying the work, but look how much more resonance FIFTH HEAD has\nwhen you consider the additional information. Number Five as Anti-Christ;\ncan the apocalypse be far behind? (I'd tell you--but that would be\ncheating.)\n\nAnother name that commends itself by example is that of Nerissa. In the\nbook she is a prostitute/ maid at the Maison du Chien. Where does her name\ncome from? Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, where Nerissa is the\nflirty handmaid to Portia. Given the existence of several similarly-\nderived names from literature--Phaedria and Marydol, each handmaids as\nwell--we are able to draw upon their provenance and glean a little bit more\nabout the world of Sainte Croix, where slavery is legal, and girls are bred\nfor bondship, and sexual ones at that if they're attractive enough. Again,\nignorant of these details, our enjoyment of the work is not so much\ndiminished, just unaugmented. As if we could only hear one strain in the\nWolfeian fugue, but no contrapuntal mode. Be that as it may, it still hums.\n\nI'd also like to make the same case about the characters of FIFTH HEAD.\nEach, I contend, has this same binary component--in that, not only are they\nthe people we *think* they are, they have an *additional significance,*\nwhat in terms borrowed from chemistry I call isotopes or valences, though\nsometimes the distinction between the two is arbitrary or blurred. Let us\nconsider several examples. Number Five is the clone of Maitre--an\nisotop--but also has a valence: his real name, which can be worked out--is\nGene Wolfe. Mr. Million, the robot tutor of David and Number Five, is a\nmechanical simulation of the very first clonemaster (isotope). The mother\nof VRT--whose name is Three Faces--has still another name, Eve (valence);\nDr. Marsch is killed and then impersonated by V.R.T (isotope). These are\nbut a few examples; for more see the Glossary entries. But also keep in\nmind that every single character in FIFTH HEAD has at least one isotope or\nvalence, the same way the names do--or werewolves, for that matter.\n\nThis same binary nature can be still further extended to the events which\ntake place in FIFTH HEAD. Yes, each does in and of itself advance the novel\nto a certain degree, nudging it along the narrative timeframe, and can be\nread simply as that, but like the names and isotopes/valences they can also\nbe read on a completely different level. In fact, this is probably where\nWolfe is at his diabolical best, because in essence he is trying to trick\nus, except like most magicians, who use smoke and mist to disguise their\nchicanery, Wolfe employs sunlight and the seemingly clear cut path. The\ntitle of one of Gene's short stories, \"A Solar Labyrinth,\" perhaps best\nexemplifies this, and the notion of Wolfe-as-Daedalus is sweetly apposite.\nBut I still would be remiss if I did not caution you, because despite its\nbright path and clearly designated exit ramps you *will* encounter the\nminotaur and yet--such is the craft of Wolfe--you may not even recognize\nyou have met the beast at the heart of the maze--he'll have you conviced\nit's merely Elsie the Cow. This is why many people are so perplexed by\nWolfe, while still others insist that what *seems* to happen in his books\nis exclusively and entirely that--simple straightforward events, narrated\ntruthfully, and entirely supportable with citings from text. Wolfe is that\nmuch a magician, dazzling you with his sophisticated patter; but like all\nmagic tricks there is a perceived reality and an actual order. And while\nit's often fun to enjoy magic for simply what it aspires to be, please be\naware it's also just an artful form of showmanship based on illusion, no\nmatter how genuine it appears. \n\nLastly, before I let you go, I would like to discuss the notion of Chekov's\nGun as it applies to Gene Wolfe's work. Chekhov's Gun simply stated says\n\"If you introduce a gun in Act I, you damn well better use it by the end of\nAct III.\" In other words, don't introduce or mention something that has no\nrelevance to the rest of your fictional milieu, because this is chaff. I\nfirmly believe Gene Wolfe is a proponent of this practice, being extremely\ntidy, perhaps even to the point of fastidiousness, although sometimes it's\nhard for us to hear the gun off, because his work (to mix a metaphor) is\nmore trompe l'oeil than paint-by-number. Thus the mysterious lady in pink\nNumber Five mentions in the title novella must reappear somewhere before\nnovel's end, as must his conjectural sister. For Wolfe to mention them and\nnot bring them back would be a violation of Chekhov's Gun, and while he may\nbe a sly and Byzantinely deceptive writer I do not think he is a dishonest\none. My attempting to hear the gunshots and identify where they came from,\nas well as trace out as many of the novel's secret penumbrae as possible,\nis largely how CAVE CANEM came about; I wanted answers and additional gloss\non the various aspects mentioned above and thereby deepen my own\nunderstanding of this most complex work..\n\nLastly then, this valedictory. \n\nOnce upon a time, a not-so-young man read a book called THE FIFTH HEAD OF\nCERBERUS by Gene Wolfe, enjoying it immensively, even if on a strictly\nprimary level, before he even understood the concepts of subtext and\nechopraxis. Then along came a book called STROKES by John Clute, where he\nlearned FIFTH HEAD had a somewhat more sophisticated structure and that it\nwas even possible to deduce Number Five's real name, followed still later\nby Michael Andre-Driussi's LEXICON URTHUS, with its rich amplification on\nthe baroque words and themes of the New Sun Universe. The now somewhat\nolder man was so entranced that he decided to do his own exploratory of\nGene Wolfe, hoping to add something of value to the appreciation and\nunderstanding of this master writer.\n\nYou are now reading that attempt.\n\nEnjoy it for what you will. And please *do* reread FIFTH HEAD in\nconjunction with it, perhaps keeping in mind some of the notions I mention\nabove, even if you disagree with some of my later conclusions.\n\nFIFTH HEAD's grand central theme, of course, concerns identity.\n\nPerhaps not uncoincidentally it's where I found myself.\n\nI hope you might be that lucky, too.\n\nRobert Borski \n\n\n\n\n\n\n "
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}