I thought about this while driving around today. The middle novella is presented in situ, with no reference to its origin in either the preceding or following novellas. The prisoner in "V.R.T." makes reference to his intent to write a novel ("I was thinking of doing a novel, a great many books have been written in prisons—and it would only confuse my case. I will destroy the pages at the first opportunity") but that could be a Wolfeian head-fake. The best evidence this theory might be true relates to the unanswered question of just how David knew the details of Abo culture in his discussion with Number 5 and Mr. Million - the shell-flails, the use of roots to poison the water, etc. - would be easily explained if David included these ideas in a novella he wrote as an adult.
David is the most likely character to have literary ambitions - he is well-read in literature from an early age. The story could in some respects be a retelling of the events of "The Fifth Head" from David's perspective. We aren't told how David reacted to the homicide of Maitre, but as we know he lost any inheritance ("...the court—so I was told much later—could find no proof that David was indeed my father’s son, and made my aunt his heir") and had sought "the political power that money could buy". We can guess that he might have been a little peeved at Number 5's homicidal actions. If this theory is true, it could be that Sandwalker is meant to represent the more athletic David, and the more bookish Number 5 is represented by Eastwind. Eastwind does kill (along with Number 5) his father figure Lastvoice, who like Maitre is a kind of mad-scientist (dissecting women and all), but also (by order of the two-person theological elite of which Eastwind is the junior associate) Eastwind's biological father Bloodyfinger - we are told by the Old Wise One that Sandwalker bears a considerable resemblance to Bloodyfinger (who also provided extra food to the young Sandwalker) - and since they are twins, of course he would be the father of Eastwind as well. Both Maitre and Lastvoice seek knowledge of why things are not going they way they should.
The Old Wise One could well be an analogue for Mr. Million, in this retelling of events. I'm always suspicious of conspicuously unnamed characters in a story by Gene Wolfe, and of characters who drop quietly out of the narrative. The unnamed secret police officer examining the file relating to the prisoner in "V.R.T." could well be David, who we are told went to the capital (of St. Croix) after Number 5's imprisonment. The officer seems to be in the capital while he is examining the file, and could eventually have access to the novel the prisoner plans to write, which could be tweaked to include elements of David's family history.
Why would the story be falsely attributed to John V. Marsch by David?
I don't know, at this point, or if this idea holds water. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.
I think your interpretation to read it as a fantasy is correct, but there are some very minute details in A Story, which describes the religion of two species, thrown into the mix are also shadow children.
Although VRT does provide us an outline as to how A Story was shaped up, but I don’t think he has content to write this story.
Also all his experiences related to abos was when his mother was present with him, and he completely fails to find any abo species when he stays in back of beyond for a long time, he does not have any technique to find them.
Especially significant to me is no mention of sleeping places which we get a mention of time and again in A Story.
He met Aunt Genie multiple times, and they interviewed some of her girls, so it can be concurred that she too was doing some sort of experiments, and considering that Veils Hypothesis is considered as agreed theory in this planet system, she must have done solid research more than VRT to come up with it.
Aunt Gene can’t publish her research as it may harm her brothers position in the echelons of government, so why not help an abo hybrid who has genuine concerns regarding abo culture to publish something important regarding abo culture.
I think the book ending give us a definite answer that the author of A Story is definitely VRT, but I still think he does not have the adequate knowledge or the actual experience, to right such a detail story.
He would have probably written it with collaboration with Aunt Jeanine.
Reminds me of a movie I watched long time back, where that person has seven split personalities, and the movie completely takes place in his head, and the personalities go on murdering one another, until only one of them remains as a dominant character.
I don't think I've ever read and re-read a novel so much in my life. It seems almost infinitely rich. My best guess in the end is that there is a switch in Maitre's lab between the consciousnesses of John Marsch (who has already melded with the half Abo, half-human Victor) and Number 5, in what sounds like a set-up by Maitre, possibly as an attempted end-run around the insoluble problem of his clonal line's genetic stagnation. This seems to be managed by the kind of saliva-based biochemical melding action we are told happened when Wolf the Shadowchild bit Sandwalker - and we do see an unnamed demimondaine kiss - "swap spit," as we used to say as horny teens - John Marsch, who is probably a Marsch/Victor hybrid due to a cat bite. before departing, with "the sound of a switch," as #5 helpfully informs us. #5 and Marsch/Victor then share a psychic oneness, which explains why "A Story", (presumably written later in the St. Croix prison) includes details #5 knows - the incidents from dreams, the discussions he had as a child about Abo culture, the comments The Old Wise One says about Poictesme and Gonawanda,. It also explains how #5 suddenly knows Marsch is an Abo, or at least "half-abo", which he is, whether through the possibly half-human Victor or through a meld of the two personalities. What happens in the ellipsis? Does Marsch/Victor and #5 join in killing Maitre, as Sandwalker and Eastwind join in killing Lastvoice? After they go their separate ways, they each go to prison - is #5 now the dominant personality in the body of the prisoner whose case is being examined by the secret police officer Maitre in "V.R.T.", and is Marsch /Victor the dominant personality in the body of #5 in the prison camp in the end of the first novella? If this is true, Maitre's attempt to introduce a new kind of outcrossing into the stagnant clonal line ironically ends in stagnation, with the Marsch/Victor/#5 hybrid at the end of the first novella beginning the same cycle of running the bordello on a corrupt, stagnant backwater planet, and beginning what is apparently a new clonal experiment; and the #5/Marsch/Victor once again under the control of another Maitre as he was as a child, doomed to live out his remaining existence in a prison cell. Also possible: Maitre survives as part of this meld after his physical death. This all would explain who the 5 heads of Cerberus are - a meld, or a pair of melds, of the half-Abo Victor, a Shadowchild's drug-infused sputum and consciousness, the Terran anthropologist John Marsch, the clone Number 5. and Maitre, his clonal father - now doubled into two bodies like the persistent pattern of doubling throughout the novellas, each resident in his own particular Hell. It also explains the final line of the first novella - "Someday they'll want us" - the hope, probably in vain. that the new meld of stagnant consciousnesses will change anything.
I'm sure you guys will discuss the figure of the stalking cat on St. Anne more in following podcasts, and whether it could be a Shadowchild or Abo in disguise, but it just occurred to me that we are told in a brief mention that the bureaucracy on St. Croix actually has bureaucrats who are cat inspectors. If the bureaucrats are (in whole or in part) the descendants of the Marshmen Abo culture, and are concerned that Hill People could attempt to infiltrate their society in the form of cats, this would make a kind of sense.
On the other hand, one of the issues that seems to lessen the likelihood that Marsch- the real Marsch - created this story out of whole cloth is that Sandwalker seems unlikely to be the sort of protagonist he would create. Sandwalker is the closest we see to a traditional hero in all 3 novellas - he is brave, courteous (even to the Shadowchildren) moral (by the standards of his culture and religious faith), protective of others, thoughtful and inquisitive - he is essentially a chivalric knight on a quest, as you've pointed out on the podcast. His story follows a traditional hero's quest narrative flow. He is gentle and kind towards young women, and protective of his mother. Marsch, whether the real Marsch, VRT having shape-shifted into Marsch, a Shadowchild-possessed-via-cat-bite-Marsch, or a Cat-Shadowchild-created-Marsch/VRT-hybrid (none of which I rule out), is anything but that kind of protagonist, especially in his attitudes to women, which are creepy and manipulative. If this story was narrated by VRT as an example of traditional lore, and transcribed by Marsch while still on St, Anne, it would make more sense, and would be likely to be among the documents the secret police officer is examining.