narrator in Fifth Head

Ron Crown, St. Louis University · 02 Apr 1998, 08:55 · from urth-v0009.mbox · original

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From: "Ron Crown, St. Louis University" <crownrw at SLU.EDU>
Subject: (urth) Re: narrator in Fifth Head
Date: Thu, 02 Apr 1998 08:55:04
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[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other work=
s]

Further clues on narrator's identity:  The name of his clone-sister is
Jeanine; by the naming convention for siblings we see elsewhere in Wolfe
(e.g. Severian-Severa), this should make the narrator "Jean."
Technically, this becomes "John" in English but the French pronunciation
of "Jean" is similar to English "Gene."  (Note also the story
"Procreation" in Endangered Species where two narrators, "Gene" and his
sister, appear allowing Wolfe to pun on the story's theme of creation).

For the last name "Wolfe," we have the name of the house where the
narrator lives, "Maison du chien;" "chien" means "dog" normally but can
also mean "wolf" (I checked).

The thought occurs to me, if the narrator's name is Jean, then what is=20
his brother's name, who is presumably also a clone.  I think that it's
reasonable to suppose the clones are numbered; indeed, the title should
alert us to that.  Then, the narrator is Jean-5?  and his brother is
Jean 6?  (I can't remember if the brother is younger or older).

Ron Crown
crownrw at slu.edu

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