Urth Net
Aunt Jeannine isn't an abo...
↰ answers Robert Borski
· by quotation
Aunt Jeannine isn't an abo, she's a dead abo priest!
I don't believe this but I could have argued it from the parallels I found between the first and second novellas of 5HC. (I couldn't have argued it convincingly, but I could have argued it.) I just started this way to see if alga would notice.
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But even if V.R.T. had somehow inherited Marsch's knowledge, how would that tell him #5's a clone? He hasn't seen #5's father; all #5 tells him is "'I'm supposed to look a great deal like my father,'" something not uncommon among us non-clones, not "'I'm supposed to look exactly like my father did at my age'"; and as far as I know clones per se have no distinguishing marks. It's a strange passage (and has been so noted earlier on this list, IIRC). Maybe he saw a photograph of #5's father somewhere. Another, perhaps less likely, possibility is that V.R.T. has heard rumors that there is a wealthy family of clones somewhere on St. Croix, and when he meets #5 and hear his remark he thinks "Oh, maybe this is that family." I agree that it's best to stick as close to the text as possible, but I think the above suggestions are preferable in this regard to positing an otherwise unmentioned ability in V.R.T.
I assume that you mean personality merging when you say "otherwise unmentioned ability in V.R.T." alga is the one who suggested the merger theory, not me. I don't accept it any more than you do, as I attempted to say in the message you are quoting from. I find the "Are you a clone?" passage strange for the precise reasons you do, as I also attempted to say in an earlier message.
Although I can't recall any direct evidence right now, I certainly got the impression in 5HC that the whole clone business was kept a deep, dark secret and successfully so. Thus, I find the idea of VRT having some other source of knowledge about the Wolfes unlikely.
My feeling right now is that VRT just guessed right about #5 being a clone. (I am tending to the "all wild guesses in 5HC are true" theory. Now all I have to do is precisely define "wild" as it pertains to guesses and create a numerical scale of wildness, list all the guesses in 5HC, rate them on the wild-o-meter and figure out the 'wild'/'not wild' cut off point, then search the text for evidence of whether they came true or not. I should have it done before lunch tomorrow. 8->) So he could have read up on anthropological relaxation between that time and the time of the fatal meeting with #5 and Maitre.
Which is what you said, IIRC.
For two guys who agree so much we are exchanging a lot of messages. 8-)
William Ansley