{ "export": { "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/844", "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": 844, "subject": "Digest urth.v014.n007", "messages": 2, "voices": 1, "first": "1998-06-22T11:56:20+00:00", "last": "1998-06-22T12:07:26+00:00" }, "messages": [ { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Peter Cash", "address": "cash at rsn.hp.com" }, "date": "1998-06-22T11:56:20+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v014.n007", "in_reply_to": null, "reply_link": null, "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I've been wondering: why does everyone buy into the notion that Marsch\nwas killed by V.R.T. It seems to me that in 5th Head, _everything_ is\npossible, and here one obvious possibility has been overlooked: Marsch\nis, precisely as his Kafkaesque captors insist, a spy and assassin.\n(Consider Wolfe's fascination with spies in, e.g. the Long Sun books.\nThere is a positive abundance of spies in the Whorl.) The clues that he\nis an abo have been deliberately planted by Marsch to mislead his\ninterrogators. In particular, his writings are full of disinformation\ndesigned to create doubt about his identity and intentions.\n\nIn fact, Marsch has a double cover story: first, that he is an\nanthropologist from earth. This primary cover is the one he used when\nmoving about Port-Mimizon. He activated his secondary cover when he was\narrested: hoping to take advantage of the Sainte Croix natives'\nignorance of \"abos\", he began to pretend that he was an abo trying to\npass as an anthropologist from Earth. \n\nHow much of Marsch's journal is fabrication? I think it's essentially\ntrue (but full of lies by omission) up to the point where the reader is\nsupposed to think that V.R.T. killed Marsch. The reason why I think it's\ntrue to this point is that there are Sainte Croix agents on Sainte Anne\nwho could refute a completely false story. For example, one of his\ninterrogators makes reference to the \"new\" boots Marsch sold on Sainte\nAnne. If Marsch had never gone on his expediton with an abo guide at\nall, his captors would know it. At the point where the killing occurs,\nMarsch changes his handwriting and style to make it appear as though\nV.R.T. is making the entries--though it is Marsch who has shot V.R.T.\n\nWhy did Marsch do this? Two obvious reasons occur to me. First, he was\ndoing what any good spy would--creating the background for a cover story\nhe might have to use later. Second, there may be sexual jealousy\ninvolved--at one point, Marsch writes that he would \"kill them both\" if\nhe caught V.R.T. and the native girl _in flagrante delicto_. \n\nWhat was Marsch's mission on Sainte Croix? I'm not certain--and he seems\nto have hidden this successfully from his captors as well. But I do\nsuspect that he is guilty of the crime of which the authorities accuse\nhim: killing Maitre. It may be that this was, in fact, his mission.\n(Someone on this list has speculated that Maitre may be the secret ruler\nof Sainte Croix; if so, the Annese may have known it.)\n\nConsider the complete absence of any narrative of the actual killing. We\nhave Maitre, Number 5, and Marsch in the same room. Suddenly, Number 5\naccuses Marsch of being from Sainte Anne--thus blowing his cover. Number\n5's accusation, \"You are an abo, and not from Earth\" must be seen in\nthis context: Number 5 is not accusing Marsch of being a shape-shifter,\nbut simply of being a native Annese, and not an Earthman. Then we have\none more sentence: \"And in a short time, my father and I were alone.\"\n\nWhat happened in that \"short time\"? I think either Marsch or Number 5\nkilled Maitre. Perhaps there was a pre-arrangement whereby the two would\nact together when Number 5 voiced his accusation. In either case, they\nparted in agreement: Number 5 would take \"credit\" for the crime, do his\ntime, and inherit.\n\nI will close with the obligatory note on names: \"Marsch\" is German for\n\"march\", and thus has military connotations. It's interesting that it\nsounds exactly like the English \"marsh\", which makes one think of the\nboonies of Sainte Anne...\n\nSgt. Rock" } ] }, { "message_id": "", "from": { "name": "Peter Cash", "address": "cash at rsn.hp.com" }, "date": "1998-06-22T12:07:26+00:00", "subject": "(urth) Re: Digest urth.v014.n007", "in_reply_to": "", "reply_link": "subject", "blocks": [ { "kind": "text", "depth": 0, "text": "I've been poring over 5th head lately (after getting out of a lengthy\nstay in sick bay), and my attention was caught by the following words,\nuttered by one of Marsch's interrogators:\n\n\"I have examined your papers, and letters follow your name. I shall call\nyou:\n\n'A Polish Count, a Knight Grand Cross,\n\tRx. and Q.E.D.;\nGrand Master of the Blood Red Dirk,\n\tand R.O.G.U.E.' \n\nYou seem to me very young.\"\n\nThis is a real head-banger. What _does_ it mean? First of all, it's in\nquotes. Does that mean it _is_ a quote from somewhere? If so, can anyone\nidentify it?\n\nI can only make vague guesses about the meaning of this doggerel.\n\"Knight Grand Cross\" is in fact a rank in various orders of\nknighthood--and in Masonic orders. \"Grand Master\" is certainly a Masonic\ntitle. But what means the reference to \"A Polish Count\"? I had first\nthought of \"Count\" Cagliostro, who was a Mason--and one of the greatest\nmountebanks of all time. But...my brief research could turn up no\nreference that the infamous \"Count\" ever made pretensions to being\nanything but Italian.\n\nAny ideas welcome.\n\nSgt. Rock" } ] } ] }