5HX

Gerry Quinn · 24 Aug 2014, 20:56 · from 2014-August.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 21:56:59 +0100
Subject: (urth) 5HX
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On 24/08/2014 19:58, Marc Aramini wrote:
> You have to explain away the death of the cat, the death of the boy, 
> the presence of two alien species, the presence of Veil's hypothesis, 
> believe that number five dreams of abos by coincidence the day after 
> he meets his aunt, the name of the city, the weird lack of new 
> buildings in the last 140 years ... prophylactic has a nice double 
> meaning, I admit, but the bite of the abo that switches Eastwind and 
> Sandwalker symbolizes all that confusion of indentity as well - 
> Easwind, Sandwalker, the abos, the shadow children, the humans - they 
> are all confused about who they are, and if that confusion ISN'T in 
> the text, you haven't been reading the same book.  The main cast 
> outside of a story are confused about who they are as well.  The story 
> is about being confused about who you are.  But if we know the life 
> cycle of the abos and their imitative properties, a street named after 
> larva and mention of at least one of the species being long and living 
> between the branches of trees actually resonates a bit.
My answers:

Cat: unknown causes, though Victor said he broke its neck, maybe true

Death of the boy: a lie, it was Marsch who died

Presence of two alien species: not postulated by me (the Shadow Children 
are degenerate humans).

Veil's Hypothesis: wrong (and in fact the aunt made another great point 
against it, which is that a species able to mimic well enough to lose 
the power of mimicry would have died out before humans landed).

No. 5's dream: he had been talking to his aunt about abos

Name of the city: of no significance

Lack of new buildings: Port-Mimizon is a city and its population has 
been falling.  Conversely, though, Frenchman's Landing on Sainte Anne is 
described by Marsch as something like a newly-built shanty town. And 
weather control satellites have been installed on Sainte Anne only in 
the last decade or two, leading to the replacement of nuclear-powered 
ships by sailing ships like those used on Earth. Perhaps the Kafka-esque 
fascism of Sainte Croix is starting to hold it back, even if the officer 
thinks otherwise.

Bite symbolism: I don't consider the bite symbolic

Confusion of identity, both personal and racial: certainly it's a major 
theme, but in a much more realistic and naturalistic form than you 
propose.  Its naturalism, in my opinion, gives it stronger resonances 
with real-world issues of identity and colonisation than a more 
highly-coloured confection of parasites and pod people, all delusional 
regarding their true nature.

> My life cycle schema makes the narrative you MUST dismiss as a lie and 
> fabrication (the murder of the cat, the death of Victor) literally 
> true and also gives it narrative reason (at least, the slaying of the 
> cat).
> Yes, we have one plausible means of persecution. I mentioned it 
> already, Gerry - humans on abo.  Do you see that below?  It's the same 
> thing you reiterated. see that there?  "abo incarcerated by humans OR" 
> That OR implies there are two plausible scenarios given the species we 
> have been introduced to. The first is the first logical conclusion we 
> can come to before we understand the life cycles at work.
> But your advantage is not an advantage, because then Victor has to be 
> COMPLETELY DELUSIONAL about his own death and the murder of the cat, 
> very very concrete matters.  Either way, delusion ensues.

No, Victor is not delusional about his death; he is simply lying about 
it.  He is now pretending to be Marsch, so he must make his old self 
disappear lest he be caught and perhaps hanged for murder - at best he 
will be cast out of human society.  He invents a tale and writes it in 
Marsch's notebook, in case someone cares to look.  As for the cat, I 
simply don't know how she died; maybe he broke her neck as he wrote, 
maybe Marsch killled her and then he killed Marsch.  (Why would Victor 
break her neck?  As a symbol of his attempt to leave behind his abo life 
and live henceforth as a human.  That is my pet theory regarding the 
death of the cat, but I accept that there is no particular evidence for it.)

"I simply had to make my voice like his and look older".  Talking about 
his mother in the cell.  The writing in the school composition book and 
in the last part of Marsch's notebook.  Green eyes.  It is evidently 
Victor in the cell, and he has become Marsch by means of imitation and 
imposture, not by some sort of infection process mediated by the cat, a 
process which is never postulated in the story (while we are repeatedly 
informed that the abos are capable of imitation).

- Gerry Quinn

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