(urth) Overthinking/Underthinking "The Fifth Head of Cerberus"

[Marc Aramini]

We could go back and forth, the three of us, for a million years.  We
should just accept we get different things out of the text, and will never
convince the other.  However, the real irony is that I think the majority
of Wolfe's fiction actually works to prove that the implied and unstated is
actually real and authoritative, that its meaning is iron hidden behind a
soft shadowy maze.

Thus, I stray to totalitarian interpretations that are I do not conceive as
subjective (especially in matters of plot or theme, for example, in saying
stories like "trip trap" show that subjectivity can be overcome by
accessing a spiritual objectivity and communion with others - the whole
story deconstructs its subjectivity by showing what is real is not that
reality but something higher which only perceived by people in common).  In
that way I think wolfe uses postmodern techniques of uncertainty to
obliterate the very concept of postmodern relativism.

Gerry and I are the totalitarians wolfe warned against in his introduction
to endangered species. The difference is that I believe the one
true solution is unstated and cryptically encoded but thematically and
symbolically real as a discernible authorial intention. In answer to why
the officer nods at the handwriting, I give an answer Gerry would never
accept - wolfe wants the first, false solution to be one that seems
reasonable, so that people might accept it as the officer does, without
penetrating to the level behind it.  The officer does not fully understand
what has happened and comes to the first reasonable conclusion (but he
still knows enough to shower away the girl's Saliva prophylactically - what
an odd way to describe it if it doesn't involve a life cycle).  Why?
Because it is in his nature to do so.

In that way, Wolfe's fiction is the maze in The Adopted Father and in A
Solar Labyrinth, with a fake exit that still "works".

I think there are many many wrong interpretations (like dialing in a solar
labyrinth meaning anything but the math behind the construction of sundials
and their shadows, like cues being about the bathroom, like sev's relatives
having golden hair, like dr margotte showing up at the end of the doctor of
death island being hopeful, like the navigator being Kennedy ... All not
truly valid meanings or interpretations, some of them blatant misreadings)
but Wolfe is not a surface level writer and does not believe in genre
distinctions (his famous example being a comment about Free Live Free,
where he is criticized for having a witch, a private detective, and time
travel, and he says that hey, witches exist. This eclectic nature makes
assignation of impossibilities in his text due to perceived genre
limitations extremely spurious and artificial.)

Much like the abortion debate, our starting premises are intrinsically
different (it's alive and separate ... No, it is still ME, why can't you
see that?) and no happy interpretive alliance can be reached, so we spin
our wheels ad nauseum.


> "Art means whatever you want it to mean", conversely, is a proposition
> suited only to a club of one.
>
> - Gerry Quinn
>
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