Marsch & VRT Redux

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 10 Nov 2000, 14:37 · from urth-v0030.mbox · original

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From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" <ddanehy at siebel.com>
Subject: (urth) Marsch & VRT Redux
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 14:37:54
Message-ID: <urth-v0030-0111 at digest.urth.net>
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I wrote...

> <Also, is there any reason to believe that there was ever a real
> John V. Marsch?  I mean, by that name -- there clearly was a
> homeworld anthropologist. I ask because "John Marsch" sounds
> _exactly_ like the name of an abo as described in the beginning
> of part 2: "John" is the name of all men born to the people,
> and "Marsch" would be a logical name for a child born in the
> meadomeres. Toss this together with the Earth passport having
> been "tampered with," and I wonder if "VRT" simply took his
> abo name and applied it to his new identity...?>

And Robert replied...

> John Marsch's field journal belies his. His sections appear to=20
> be quite legible--at least the junior officer assigned to review
> his case does not remark otherwise. Whereas once VRT has killed=20
> the Terran doctor, he must somehow account for the sudden turn=20
> in bad handwriting (abos, like the inhumi, have difficulty with=20
> manual tasks) which he blames on a cat bite. The first entry to=20
> this effect takes place in the section immediately predating April=20
> 23. "You must excuse my writing in this entry, and I suppose
> some of the subsequent entires as well." On April 24, he also=20
> writes: "Hand still bad, as you see from the writing." It therefore=20
> seems likely the original Earth-born Marsch has died previous to=20
> April 23.

I think you misunderstood the question -- I was not suggesting that=20
there is no Earth-born anthropologist; I was wondering if this was=20
yet another case of names slipping.  (There are many such, beginning
but far-from-ending with "Number 5" and "Mister Million." "Veil,"=20
for heaven's sake! And the ever popular "Etc.")=20

In other words: There _is_ an Earthborn anthropologist; that is=20
beyond any reasonable doubt.  What I am suggesting is that his=20
_name_ is not John V. Marsch. VRT kills him, and takes "John V.=20
Marsch" as his name when he "returns" to civilization.=20

As evidence, I've mentioned the abosity of the name and the detail=20
of the passport; I'll mention also that the "V" in "John V. Marsch"=20
strikes me as likely equal to the "V" in VRT.

Further: Why is Part 2 titled=20
	"A Story" by John V. Marsch?
Nobody, I think, would title a story "A Story." I suggest that this
is another slippage -- the quotation marks really belong around the
author's name.

It this point this is nothing more than an intuition. I see a lot
of little details and suspect a pattern. What it means, if anything,
is quite beyond me.

--Dan'l

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