(urth) 5HC

[Marc Aramini]

Having said that, I think Wolfe has "preferred" party line readings that
pierce the first level - Victor replacing Marsch is obviously, with the
memories Marsch has of abo life, supposed to be our first conclusion after
a careful reading of The Fifth Head of Cerberus.  It isn't "wrong" - Wolfe
wants everyone to come to that conclusion, but he also wants to underlay a
second switch that allows Veil's hypothesis to be true that explains even
more details in the text - a Story is as much about what happened to Marsch
as it is about the Landing through the layering of metaphor. (He wants us
to conclude a shape changing event has taken place and to be bothered by
the question of whether everyone is an abo - but mechanistically underneath
that is a second switch in which we can see the gun on the wall fire, and
both species are used - the empathic mental multiplicity of the Shadow
Children is something that will never grant them a true separate identity)

Wolfe wants us to come to the first level ... but it looks like no one will
ever come to a consensus beyond his first "party line" reading in this
case, because all of us see different things beyond that.  Victor was an
abo, his cat wasn't - the cat was the empathic shadow child, as were the
beasts that Marsch hunted, and this was why Victor cried when they were
shot - he is in empathic union with his cat and therefore with the other
Shadow children infections, too. Who bites in "A Story"? It isn't an abo.
Who bites in Fifth Head? the cat. When the abos and Shadow children are
confused about who is long and lived in roots, one saying, "I thought that
was us" - the abos are not influenced by empathic mental powers, that is
the shadow children simply assuming their memories and losing their
identity in abo communion, since they are confused by those around them.
One mimics physically (but perhaps only once, after its larval stage, the
other constantly adapts itself mentally to whoever is around it).

When Marsch says he had difficulty writing because of the bite, we look
past it and say yeah right that's pure BS it's because an abo replaced
you.  Then Wolfe switches it around on us ... it WAS because of the bite,
but for a different reason entirely.

When Crane says Silk's enlightenment was because of a brain event we all
laugh ... yeah right. we say, that was enlightenment.  But it probably was
because of a Pas planted brain event time released message for his heir.




On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 6:28 AM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com> wrote:

> Harkening back to Gerry's comment here ... Wolfe's very nature is so
> cryptic sometimes the final structural layer really is a trick.  Face to
> face at the 2013 Nebulas Kim Stanley Robinson told me Damon Knight loved
> "The Changeling" but could never get to the bottom of it after I explained
> some of the stuff going on in the story to him and the externally
> verifiable 1931 birthday, etymology of the word oaf as an elfin changeling,
> etc.  He said he wished I could have explained it to Damon before he died,
> who knew he hadn't figured it out.
>
> Once you notice the unaging boy shows up when Maria is little it's just a
> logical step, but there are so many other possibilities no one noticed that
> detail for  more than 40 years. And Wolfe wouldn't even explain it to his
> friend and editor, the one responsible for his exposure to a wide reading
> public.
>
> Wolfe is quite simply an entertainer who is not quite forthright with all
> the stuff in his stories.
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 5:01 AM, Lee <severiansola at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> >Gerry Quinn: I've said it before, Wolfe is not trying to
>>
>> >trick or trap readers. He's not writing a load of nonsense
>>
>> >and hiding the clues to the real story in isolated words or
>>
>> >phrases or names.  If he wants to tell us something, he will
>>
>> >tell it.
>>
>>
>> "Trip" and "trap" are rather loaded words regarding the intentions
>>
>> of the author. Instead of saying it that way,  I find it clear that
>>
>> Wolfe sometimes expects more from his readers than they are able to
>>
>> produce and/or sometimes inserts mysteries in his stories that are
>>
>> not intended to be solved by many (or perhaps by any) of his readers.
>>
>>
>> One example is from UotNS which features a flood of Urth. Wolfe never
>>
>> originally planned to write this book. So is the flood an add-on to
>>
>> the story he hadn't originally intended?
>>
>>
>> A re-perusal of the first four books of the story finds a number of
>>
>> hints that Severian's salvation and re-creation of Urth into Ushas
>>
>> involved a flood. It's just that nobody was able to figure it out
>>
>> from those clues originally provided.
>>
>>
>> Another example is the Dionysian aspect to the deity of the Briatic
>>
>> universe. In Short Sun we are rather explicitly given the "son of
>>
>> Semele" clue which is a pretty easy clue to figure out. But if
>>
>> we go back to BotNS, we can find other veiled hints to Dionysus
>>
>> which nobody (that I know of) was able to get.
>>
>>
>> There is the example of Dr. Marsch being replaced by Victor Trenchard
>>
>> to consider. As previously discussed, many highly intelligent and
>>
>> insightful members of this board were unconvinced this replacement had
>>
>> taken place until Gene Wolfe openly revealed it in an interview.
>>
>>
>> From these examples I find a pattern which clearly suggests Gene Wolfe
>>
>> includes mysteries within his stories that many readers don't get, some
>>
>> mysteries that most readers don't get and some mysteries that nobody has
>>
>> gotten, even to this day.
>>
>>
>> One of the reasons this board continues on.
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