Gene, son of Gene

Damien Broderick · 03 Apr 1998, 10:27 · from urth-v0009.mbox · original

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From: Damien Broderick <damien at ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>
Subject: (urth) Gene, son of Gene
Date: Fri, 03 Apr 1998 10:27:00 +0000
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[Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other work=
s]

Tony Ellis asks why I consider it determinable that the narrator of `Fifth
Head' is named Gene Wolfe.  Well, I've forgotten the fine-grain of my
reasoning - it's more than two decades since I read the book.  But a quick
squiz at the text shows this much (I'm using the UK Quartet pb edition, 197=
5):

p. 51: Father says of Number Five: `his name is the same of mine.'  And, a
little earlier, Marsch says of the aunt: `She is in reality daughter to an
earlier - shall we say "version" - of yourself.'

p. 16: `Call me Aunt Jeannine.'  I take this to be a femininized form of
Gene (Gene-ine).  One might wish it had been Eugenia, but still.

BTW, *is* Gene Wolfe's baptismal name (as it were) Eugene?  It is given in
Clute/Nicholls simply as Gene.

[apologies to =3Dmantis=3D for garbling his own handle in my previous rushe=
d post]

As for the terraced folly - beats me.  A wild association: while I've never
been in New Orleans, the descriptions sets off movie memories of the Vieux
Carre.

Damien

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

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