(urth) fifth head owlet- wolf
Gerry Quinn
gerry at bindweed.com
Thu Apr 11 11:25:39 PDT 2013
From: Lee Berman
> Marc Aramini:
> > And the narrative thrust of both mimicking aboriginal and possibly,
> > according to the interview, replacing empathic shadow child, would be to
> > convince
> > others of their humanity in any way possible, including
> > anthropomorphizing their
> > origin. That is effective mimicry.
> Yes, I think this crystalizes Wolfe's intent for 5HoC, with the provision
> that part
> anthropomorphizing their origin is truly forgetting their non-human
> origin. Though,
> as Aunt Jeanine's lesson teaches us, the shapeshifter can evolve to
> perfect mimickry
> with one limitation- their evolution requires they must retain their
> shapeshifting
> ability. (they can't remove it and give it to a salt goose, heh).
Well, I still see a problem with this. Perhaps the expression 'false
positive' is not greatly suited to literary criticism, but we can come up
with measures based on the net contribution of a given interpretation to the
complexity and coherence of a work. Does the interpretation make it a good
story?
Consider the theory that 'A Story' is an anthropomorphisation of the origin
of abos whose origin is really quite different. Since we apparently cannot
really decide from the clues within whether the creatures are really more
like trees or maggots, it cannot be said to work particularly well in terms
of telling us about their lifecycle. It does add a new storyline, in which
VRT constructs this artificial tale, presumably for his own benefit, as we
never hear of him attempting to publish it. But look how much it subtracts!
The second third of 5HOC becomes largely meaningless, a fairy tale spun
simply for the purpose of lying - with, if we are lucky, a few clues hidden
in repeated motifs. But even these clues are obviously not telling us very
much that is specific.
I believe we agreed some time ago that Wolfe is a modernist, but not a
postmodernist. Would he have any interest in producing such an extreme
metafictional confection? I do not believe so. And even if 5HOC had been
written by John Barth, I would still interpret it the same way. The secret
history outlined in the second book is just more complex, consistent and
complete than the 'fake story' interpretation.
Indeed, if I were to treat 'A Story' as fake, I would sooner go all the way
and toss out the abos altogether! Perhaps the whole abo origin story is the
concoction of a troubled, partially disabled human boy with an outcast for a
father and a whore for a mother. Abos exist in 5HOC only as myths related
to a probably extinct and possibly non-existent native species. That
actually works better for me than the meta-SF alternative. But, as I said
before, I don't believe this either. 5HOC is an SF story and should be
interpreted in SF terms. And 'A Story' works in SF terms, with an alien
world and a mystery solved, better than it works in any other terms.
- Gerry Quinn
More information about the Urth
mailing list