Someday they'll want us.

Gerry Quinn · 24 Jun 2010, 11:12 · from 2010-June.txt.gz

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From: gerryq at indigo.ie (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:12:34 +0100
Subject: (urth) Someday they'll want us.
Message-ID: <A38FCFDF3C434CB3A9E2D261F8BF9F79@jill>

"Someday they'll want us" is the last line of _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_, written three years after the narrator's release from prison.  The subject, clearly, is Phaedria and her child.  Who are the "us" of the example?

I have sometimes heard the phrase used where "us" means the singular "me", but I do not think it fits the narrator's education and speech patterns.

The narrator's known family at this time consists of only Mr. Million, and David, who lives in another city.  Are we to infer that he has already created a 'Number 6' clone?

A little earlier comes the sentence "I have written to disclose myself to myself, and I am writing now because I will, I know, sometime read what I am now qwriting and wonder".  This can be read in two ways; one in which "myself" and "I" may refer to a clone, and another which suggests that in writing the narrator has found a better means of self-examination.

Anyway, I was wondering what people think.

- Gerry Quinn

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