Overthinking/Underthinking "The Fifth Head of Cerberus"

Marc Aramini · 18 Aug 2014, 13:50 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: marcaramini at gmail.com (Marc Aramini)
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 06:50:06 -0700
Subject: (urth) Overthinking/Underthinking "The Fifth Head of Cerberus"
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Gerry, someone took Marsch's place, that's why the officer nodded at the
handwriting, it just wasn't who is commonly perceived to have taken
Marsch's place. Marsch is not the same man, he is dead, taken over by the
collective shadow child infection, who are many but fade into one lonely

On Monday, August 18, 2014, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com> wrote:

> Gerry only the one guy was a shadow child infection.  Everybody else is an
> abo mimic in port mimizon.  Marsch and number five are the odd man out.
>  That's why it's port mimizon, just mimicking humanity. Two different life
> cycles.  Do you not understand what I have been saying?  Your question
> about the name of port mimizon being irrelevant is mind blowing. Everyone
> there is an abo.  Except Marsch and number five.  I want to stop but then
> you ask a question like that indicating you have no idea what my position
> is.
>
> On Monday, August 18, 2014, Gerry Quinn <gerry at bindweed.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','gerry at bindweed.com');>> wrote:
>
>>
>> On 17/08/2014 18:16, Marc Aramini wrote:
>>
>>>  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
>>>
>>
>> But are these associations really specific when you examine them? Seven
>> Girls Waiting is reluctant to travel a long distance, but she has recently
>> given birth and has been starving.  She goes anyway, and later follows
>> Sandwalker down the river.  Her legs are fine. Phaedria explicitly has a
>> broken ankle, and there are other girls whose play-acting is not restricted
>> to playing cripples.  Aunt Jeannine has some unspecified disabiiity, for
>> which she uses a high-tech solution which shocked No. 5 (so it cannot be
>> commonplace).  There's nothing to suggest most women don't walk normally.
>> And Victor's mother, an abo, walked miles upstream to wash his clothes.
>> You notice women with some temporary or permanent issue and ignore all
>> those who walk normally.  And how much sense does the "womens legs"
>> association make anyway?
>>
>> Port-Mimizon has some letters in common with 'mimicry' - that doesn't
>> mean it's named after it.  And where does mimicry come in anyway, if you
>> are replacing mimicry with some kind of infection?
>>
>> Parts of the geography of Sainte Croix are named after a hand (there are
>> headlands referencing thumb and fingers).  But think about this: what does
>> a hand signify but humans? - if it symbolises anything, it is the opposite
>> of the symbolism you are loading onto it!  Veil told us the truth about
>> Veil's Hypothesis.  It is only an excuse - there is no reason to
>> hypothesise a takeover by alien monsters, because humans are monstrous
>> enough.  If the hand shaped continent on Sainte Croix has any symbolism,
>> this is the level it exists at.  It's not telling us a secret clue about
>> maggots or some other SF element. The SF story exists on its own level,
>> with its own level of clues, and the symbolism of The Hand exists at a
>> different level.
>>
>> I ask again, why does the officer nod when he compares the handwriting?
>> Can you think of any conceivable reason Wolfe wrote that other than to make
>> it clear to the reader that Victor started writing the journal at this
>> point?
>>
>> - Gerry Quinn
>>
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