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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 01/09/2014 13:55, Richard Simon
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1409576154.90280.YahooMailNeo@web171304.mail.ir2.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
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<div class="" style="">Gerry: I'll reply your whole post a
little later. For the moment, allow me simply to address this:</div>
<div class="" style=""><br class="" style="">
</div>
<div class="" style="background-color: transparent;"><span
class="" style="">"</span><span style="font-family:
'Helvetica Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida
Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" class="">no character
- aside from those intended to take the role of complete
lunatics, and rarely those - is completely delusional about
concrete matters. And nor does it depend on information
hidden by Wolfe in odd lines that are never reinforced with
pointers."</span></div>
<div class="" style=""><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica
Neue', 'Segoe UI', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande',
sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" class=""><br class="" style="">
</span></div>
<div class="" style=""><span style="font-style: italic;">Interviewer: </span>In
The Fifth Head of Cerberus, does John Marsch understand that
he’s really V.R.T., a “shadow child,” one of the aboriginal
inhabitants of the colony planet, who is aping a man?</div>
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<div class="" style=""><span style="font-style: italic;">Gene
Wolfe: </span>Yes, he does. He knows he’s not a real
Earthman, but he’s trying to talk himself into believing that
he is. That’s what he wants to be.</div>
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font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica,
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<div class="" style="">Gene Wolfe, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.technologyreview.com/news/529431/a-qa-with-gene-wolfe/"
class="" style="">http://www.technologyreview.com/news/529431/a-qa-with-gene-wolfe/</a></div>
<div class="" style=""><br>
</div>
<div class="" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px;
font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica,
Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-style: normal;
background-color: transparent;">Victor is, as I said, a shadow
child mimicking an Annese mimicking Marsch. Unlke my, Wolfe
(who ought to know) suggests that he is on the fence,
belief-wise, concerning this. Recall Marsch's mother-fantasies
in jail. Also, note the 'not a real Earthman'; Marsch is a
shadow-child, not an Annese. As for 'odd lines that are never
reinforced with pointers', Wolfe has asserted in other
interviews that he doesn't repeat clues because he 'doesn't
want to insult the reader's intelligence.'</div>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
Wolfe doesn't contradict the interviewer's reference to a Shadow
Child, in a book written forty years previously. I think this was
simply a mistake by Wolfe, or he didn't think it worth contradicting
the interviewer, who said "aboriginal inhabitant" anyway.<br>
<br>
The more important point is that Wolfe doesn't write the sort of
completely delusional lunatics that some of the more exotic theories
depend on characters, or occasionally entire planets, having to be.
"He knows he’s not a real Earthman, but he’s trying to talk himself
into believing that he is. That’s what he wants to be." This is a
naturalistic sort of unreliability. He isn't mistaken about whether
his mother existed, and such-like. Of course she existed.<br>
<br>
<br>
Here's another interview, from 1988, and some points I think are
worth noting:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/wolfe46interview.htm">http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/wolfe46interview.htm</a><br>
<br>
<i>Wolfe</i>: "No, because I didn't want to show what John Marsch
had been researching—the material that make up his "story" in the
second novella— until I had actually introduced John Marsch the
researcher in "The Fifth Head." I decided to present the Sandwalker
story as a legend or story that Marsch had uncovered, rather than as
straight reportage, because I wanted to keep all three stories set
in roughly the same time frame—the "present" of the opening novella.
Since the period in which the Sandwalker scene was—in terms of the
"present" found in the rest of the book—taking place in the distant
past of the planet, it made more sense to say, "Here's a legend that
has survived from that period" rather than simply jumping into the
past and presenting it directly. In the last piece, "V.R.T.," I
finish up by showing what had become of Sandwalker's world (this is
only hinted at in "The Fifth Head") and by showing what eventually
happened to Marsch."<br>
<br>
Conclusion: "A Story" is meant to be true, not Marsch's fantasy.
Wolfe decided to present it as written by (neo)Marsch, but he could
have written it in straight third person. 'A Story' tells us that
the Shadow Children are degenerate humans, and they look different
from the abos, who clearly do look pretty much like normal humans.<br>
<br>
<i>Wolfe</i>: "In the end, of course, it's important that the reader
not be confused about this, although part of the fun is supposed to
be figuring out what's happened. I leave a number of clues as to who
the narrator actually is. For example, both V.R.T. and the narrator
are shown to be very poor shots, whereas Marsch is a very good shot,
and there's other hints like that. If you hire a shape changer as a
guide, there's a definite possibility that he's going to change into
your shape at some point. Which is what happens."<br>
<br>
Conclusion: Victor replaced Marsch. Also, Wolfe puts in multiple
hints for things the reader is supposed to 'get'.<br>
<br>
He may not repeat a single clue, but he puts multiple clues pointing
to the thing he wants to tell us.<br>
<br>
<br>
- Gerry Quinn<br>
<br>
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