5HC

Gerry Quinn · 02 Sep 2014, 16:13 · from 2014-September.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 17:13:42 +0100
Subject: (urth) 5HC
In-Reply-To: <1409576154.90280.YahooMailNeo at web171304.mail.ir2.yahoo.com>
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Message-ID: <5405ECB6.8010204 at bindweed.com>

On 01/09/2014 13:55, Richard Simon wrote:
> Gerry: I'll reply your whole post a little later. For the moment, 
> allow me simply to address this:
>
> "no character - aside from those intended to take the role of complete 
> lunatics, and rarely those - is completely delusional about concrete 
> matters. And nor does it depend on information hidden by Wolfe in odd 
> lines that are never reinforced with pointers."
>
> Interviewer: In The Fifth Head of Cerberus, does John Marsch 
> understand that he's really V.R.T., a "shadow child," one of the 
> aboriginal inhabitants of the colony planet, who is aping a man?
>
> Gene Wolfe: Yes, he does. He knows he's not a real Earthman, but he's 
> trying to talk himself into believing that he is. That's what he wants 
> to be.
>
> Gene Wolfe, 
> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/529431/a-qa-with-gene-wolfe/
>
> Victor is, as I said, a shadow child mimicking an Annese mimicking 
> Marsch. Unlke my, Wolfe (who ought to know) suggests that he is on the 
> fence, belief-wise, concerning this. Recall Marsch's mother-fantasies 
> in jail. Also, note the 'not a real Earthman'; Marsch is a 
> shadow-child, not an Annese. As for 'odd lines that are never 
> reinforced with pointers', Wolfe has asserted in other interviews that 
> he doesn't repeat clues because he 'doesn't want to insult the 
> reader's intelligence.'
>

Wolfe doesn't contradict the interviewer's reference to a Shadow Child, 
in a book written forty years previously.  I think this was simply a 
mistake by Wolfe, or he didn't think it worth contradicting the 
interviewer, who said "aboriginal inhabitant" anyway.

The more important point is that Wolfe doesn't write the sort of 
completely delusional lunatics that some of the more exotic theories 
depend on characters, or occasionally entire planets, having to be. "He 
knows he's not a real Earthman, but he's trying to talk himself into 
believing that he is. That's what he wants to be."  This is a 
naturalistic sort of unreliability.  He isn't mistaken about whether his 
mother existed, and such-like.  Of course she existed.

Here's another interview, from 1988, and some points I think are worth 
noting:
http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/wolfe46interview.htm

/Wolfe/: "No, because I didn't want to show what John Marsch had been 
researching---the material that make up his "story" in the second 
novella--- until I had actually introduced John Marsch the researcher in 
"The Fifth Head." I decided to present the Sandwalker story as a legend 
or story that Marsch had uncovered, rather than as straight reportage, 
because I wanted to keep all three stories set in roughly the same time 
frame---the "present" of the opening novella. Since the period in which 
the Sandwalker scene was---in terms of the "present" found in the rest 
of the book---taking place in the distant past of the planet, it made 
more sense to say, "Here's a legend that has survived from that period" 
rather than simply jumping into the past and presenting it directly. In 
the last piece, "V.R.T.," I finish up by showing what had become of 
Sandwalker's world (this is only hinted at in "The Fifth Head") and by 
showing what eventually happened to Marsch."

Conclusion: "A Story" is meant to be true, not Marsch's fantasy. Wolfe 
decided to present it as written by (neo)Marsch, but he could have 
written it in straight third person.  'A Story' tells us that the Shadow 
Children are degenerate humans, and they look different from the abos, 
who clearly do look pretty much like normal humans.

/Wolfe/: "In the end, of course, it's important that the reader not be 
confused about this, although part of the fun is supposed to be figuring 
out what's happened. I leave a number of clues as to who the narrator 
actually is. For example, both V.R.T. and the narrator are shown to be 
very poor shots, whereas Marsch is a very good shot, and there's other 
hints like that. If you hire a shape changer as a guide, there's a 
definite possibility that he's going to change into your shape at some 
point. Which is what happens."

Conclusion: Victor replaced Marsch.  Also, Wolfe puts in multiple hints 
for things the reader is supposed to 'get'.

He may not repeat a single clue, but he puts multiple clues pointing to 
the thing he wants to tell us.

- Gerry Quinn

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