{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/usenet/43",
    "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": "usenet",
  "thread": {
    "id": 43,
    "subject": "\"The Fifth Head of Cerberus\" (SPOILERS)",
    "messages": 2,
    "voices": 2,
    "first": "1990-06-13T21:40:15+00:00",
    "last": "1990-06-14T04:21:27+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<2D0KNTL@xavier.swarthmore.edu>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Zorn of Zorna",
        "address": "hartman at cs.swarthmore.edu"
      },
      "date": "1990-06-13T21:40:15+00:00",
      "subject": "\"The Fifth Head of Cerberus\" (SPOILERS)",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "(I almost wrote \"The Fifth Head of Cerebus\" up there...)\n\n   I finally read Gene Wolfe's \"The Fifth Head of Cerberus\" a week or so\nago.  I vaguely remember there being a full-length novel version, but\nthis was a shorter version, in one of the Year's Best anthologies.  And\nI just don't get it.  Or rather, I followed the surface story without\ntoo much trouble, but when I got to the end I had a strong feeling that\nthere was a lot going on that I was missing.  The story seemed to be\nvery straightforward in plot; as far as I could tell, it was mostly a\nmood piece.  It did a good job of characterization and depiction of this\nfuture alien society, but I couldn't help feeling that that wasn't all\nthere was to it.  Can anyone help me out?\n   I couldn't even figure out if Veil's Hypothesis (I think that was\nwhat it was called) was supposed to be true, or exactly why the\nprotagonist was imprisoned (there's an obvious reason for him to have\nbeen imprisoned (killing his father), but I thought there were\nimplications that it WASN'T for the obvious reason).\n   Hm.  Just realized that that story was what I was reminded of by the\nPrologue to _Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand_ (which I'm reading\nnow).  Interesting similarities.\n   Anyway, I tend to have that feeling about most of Wolfe's stuff that\nI've read.  Haven't started on the Book of the New Sun (?) books yet,\nbut the stories of his that I've read (and _Free Live Free_) have often\nleft me wondering what I'm missing...\n--jed, out of his depth"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "message_id": "<31623@ut-emx.UUCP>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Mike Godwin",
        "address": "mnemonic at walt.cc.utexas.edu"
      },
      "date": "1990-06-14T04:21:27+00:00",
      "subject": "Re: \"The Fifth Head of Cerberus\" (SPOILERS)",
      "in_reply_to": "<2D0KNTL@xavier.swarthmore.edu>",
      "reply_link": "header",
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "In article <2D0KNTL at xavier.swarthmore.edu> hartman at cs.swarthmore.edu (Zorn of Zorna) writes:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "  I finally read Gene Wolfe's \"The Fifth Head of Cerberus\" a week or so\nago.  I vaguely remember there being a full-length novel version, but\nthis was a shorter version, in one of the Year's Best anthologies.  And\nI just don't get it.  Or rather, I followed the surface story without\ntoo much trouble, but when I got to the end I had a strong feeling that\nthere was a lot going on that I was missing.  The story seemed to be\nvery straightforward in plot; as far as I could tell, it was mostly a\nmood piece.  It did a good job of characterization and depiction of this\nfuture alien society, but I couldn't help feeling that that wasn't all\nthere was to it.  Can anyone help me out?\n  I couldn't even figure out if Veil's Hypothesis (I think that was\nwhat it was called) was supposed to be true, or exactly why the\nprotagonist was imprisoned (there's an obvious reason for him to have\nbeen imprisoned (killing his father), but I thought there were\nimplications that it WASN'T for the obvious reason)."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Well, since Wolfe was trying to create a certain amount of ambiguity\nin his story, you should be warned that there's no real \"answer\" to\nmany of your questions. Nevertheless, you'd probably enjoy \nthe \"novel\" FIFTH HEAD OF CERBERUS, which is actually the story you\nread followed by two related stories. The book will give you a lot\nof background on the Hypothesis and other questions you may have\nabout Wolfe's fictional society.\n\nWolfe can be troubling to those who read more traditional SF, since\nhe feels no great need to wrap up his works with tidy solutions.\nOf course, this is part of his strength as a writer, since life\nitself has no great fondness for neat solutions.\n\n\n\n--Mike\n\n\n\n\nMike Godwin, UT Law School  |\"No interest is good unless it must vest,\nJust another bar-exam nerd  | if it all, not later than 21 years after"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}