Overthinking/Underthinking "The Fifth Head of Cerberus"

Gerry Quinn · 16 Aug 2014, 23:17 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 00:17:55 +0100
Subject: (urth) Overthinking/Underthinking "The Fifth Head of Cerberus"
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	<CAF1072wc22gEQJQ77noZ+Mt8aHPjf0t7eH_+_OPNiTVtnz8DiA at mail.gmail.com>
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On 16/08/2014 21:08, Marc Aramini wrote:
> I should stop, but I just can't.
> The story also tells us Victor falls to his death ... I actually 
> believe what the story tells me there.
>  You see how you have to admit that some scenes are fabrications or 
> unreliable to proceed, and even you aren't immune from dismissing 
> whole scenes that are clearly depicted in the text?
> You are likely to say that is the ONLY scene because it serves a 
> narrative purpose.  I believe that the tree reaching for Victor, the 
> mites that infect people, the shadow children riding up from the mud 
> in currents, the damaged legs of the young firl and the paralyzed legs 
> of Aunt Jeanine, the climactic bite in A Story, and the symbolism of 
> shadow children riding the shoulders of Marsh men all serve a 
> narrative purpose too.

But we have clues right from the start.  The handwriting in the journal 
changes (the last line written by the real Marsch was "I think I would 
shoot them both").  The journal relates that Marsch was bitten by the 
cat.  The officer compares the writing with Victor's school composition 
book right *before* this point.  A few enties later, Victor admits he 
has been lying about the dates, in the very same entry that he claims 
the boy is dead.

Item: The green eyes of the Marsch who visits No. 5.  Marsch earlier 
claims in his journal that Victor has "startling green eyes" (and he 
doesn't say "greener than mine").  We see green eyes later as an abo 
signifier in "A Story" - the point is veritably hammered in.

Item: "I needed only to make my voice like his and look older."

Item: When (in prison) he writes of his bad handwriting, he says "my 
mother would take my trousers to the river, walking upstream for hours 
to get away from the sewers, leeaving me ashamed and afraid, with an old 
blanket or a torn piece of sail wrapped around me".  Who can be writing 
this other than the boy Victor?

The thing is, these are all 'hard' clues that point towards a specific 
interpretation.  The clues you cite are heavily interpreted by you, and 
some of the leaps you make seem to be of questionable foundation.  
Consider "the damaged legs of the young girl". Phaedria had a broken 
ankle, which was expected to heal in the normal way.  She played a 
cripple in the play the children put on, "[because her] ankle would not 
be mended in time four our performance".  Other girls - including 
Marydol - acted in the play, and presumably did not play cripples.  
Subsequently, Phaedria was agile enough to participate in a burglary.

You have to assume that Wolfe's characters are completely delusional 
even when conscious, and that the story is told, like that of Loyal To 
The Group Of Seventeen, in terms of symbology with no causal attachment 
to the overt meaning of the text.  The problem is, we can easily 
generate a storm of such symbolism from any text.

I don't think such symbolism works if it contradicts the text.

- Gerry Quinn

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