fifth head — Urth Net

dwallach at mail.utexas.edu31 May 2008, 05:47as archived

fifth head

Hey guys, this is my first time writing on this thing. I've just recently been introduced to Gene Wolfe (I finished Shadow and Claw a few days ago and am reading Fifth Head of Cerberus while I wait for S&C in the mail). Anyway, I just finished reading the first novella and I'm honestly kind of clueless as to what that last line means (spoiler to those who haven't read it): "someday they'll want us". Who is Number Five referring to and what does the line mean? Thanks, and hopefully when I finish S&C and the rest of the Sun books I'll be writing more. -David

Dave Tallman31 May 2008, 20:16as archived

↳ in reply to dwallach at mail.utexas.edu

3 quoted lines

dwallach wrote: Hey guys, this is my first time writing on this thing. I've just recently been introduced to Gene Wolfe (I finished Shadow and Claw a few days ago and am reading Fifth Head of Cerberus while I wait for S&C in the mail). Anyway, I just finished reading the first novella and I'm honestly kind of clueless as to what that last line means (spoiler to those who haven't read it): "someday they'll want us". Who is Number Five referring to and what does the line mean? Thanks, and hopefully when I finish S&C and the rest of the Sun books I'll be writing more.

Welcome, David. You can probably find many more detailed answers in the archives, but my take is that Number 5 has become just like his "father." Just as Maitre hoped to raise his family in the social hierarchy through his clone experiments, Number 5 will do the same with his new clone. "Someday they'll want us" means someday his family will rule. Someone once said "The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing, and expecting different results."