Overthinking/Underthinking "The Fifth Head of Cerberus"

Marc Aramini · 17 Aug 2014, 17:16 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at gmail.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2014 10:16:44 -0700
Subject: (urth) Overthinking/Underthinking "The Fifth Head of Cerberus"
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 I understand why you won't accept them, but it would be impossible for me
to make those kind of connections to specific repetitive descriptions
(staff/stork/heron-like/leg injuries or paralyzation/abo girl expressing
chagrin over travelling far by foot) in an alien's leg and a human's leg
in, say, Rama II or any other book by Wolfe.  How many cities do you know
that are specifically identified by the parts of a hand and just happen to
have streets named after larva and cities named after mimicry?  If you
think that's random, cool.  I understand, but I certainly couldn't make
those kinds of extremely specific associations in any other work.  Let's
just agree to disagree

On Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 7:36 AM, Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com> wrote:

>
>
>
> If you accept connections that loose, you will find millions in every
> direction.
>
> Wolfe is a somewhat psychologically realistic writer; his characters use
> metaphor and figurative imagery, and do not always speak literally.  In
> Science Fiction, this is arguably a dangerous game to play, because there
> is not the same grounding in the real world to instantly identify figures
> as such.  The reader is forced to make some added effort to keep the levels
> of explanation and causality in their appropriate places.
>
> The clues I posted, they are 'hard' clues, as in a detective story. They
> have a single implication and they cannot be mistaken for metaphor.  I
> think the opposite is the case for what you are taking as clues.  And what
> is the status of the others, in your interpretation?  Why does the officer
> compare the handwriting of Marsch's journal just before the alleged cat
> bite with the school composition book, and nod to himself?  That bit has no
> figurative meaning, it's a straightforward pointer to the fact that Victor
> started writing the journal at this point.  Why do you think Wolfe wrote
> this paragraph?
>
> I noted several other such instances (and I forgot the woman, likely
> Victor's mother, in the adjacent cell, though this is less definitive
> anyway).
>
> I don't see how one can ignore these and instead divine the truth of the
> story from the shape of a continent or the walk of a woman!
>
>
> - Gerry Quinn
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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