No. 5's visit to the library in `Fifth Head...'

Dan Rabin · 01 Apr 1998, 20:25 · from urth-v0009.mbox · original

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From: Dan Rabin <danrabin at a.crl.com>
Subject: (urth) No. 5's visit to the library in `Fifth Head...'
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1998 20:25:46
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[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other work=
s]

I thank Damien Broderick for pointing out the clues in the passage in `The
Fifth Head of Cerberus' wherein the narrator visits the library and finds
old science-fiction books.

It is interesting that this passage differs between the original
publication in _Orbit 10_ (Damon Knight, ed.) and the book edition.  The
original only mentions _Monday or Tuesday_ and the book on the
assassination of Trotsky before ending the paragraph and beginning the next
with `I never found any books of my father's'.  I found this startling
because I had read the book version first, and remembered the Vinge
reference very distinctly.

I wonder whether the additional books mentioned (_The Mile-Long Spaceship_
`by some German', and the volume of Vinge) were added by Wolfe to the book
version, or edited out of the original by Knight (or at Knight's
suggestion).

Also, I note that `VVinge' is to `Wing' as `Wolfe' is to `Wolf', for what
it's worthe.

  -- Dan Rabin

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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