Fifth Head and Baldanders

Baldanders and the family portrayed in Fifth Head seem to have a lot in common, thematically. They maintain laboratories, seek knowledge, and hope to lift themselves above the common lot thereby. Both experiment on their own bodies (or clones) in pursuit of the quest. Both are frustrated that their labors bear no fruit. I can't find the citation right now, but I recall a comment that Baldanders has cut himself off from the line that leads back to the Increate. He claims himself as his greatest, and only great work. Self-created, not self-ruler (autarch). About the number of heads, I accept Robert Borski's persuasive scheme, but if we count the original and Mr. Million as the same head, then the child at the end could be the fifth. -- Dan Rabin