I really like the in-depth treatment you've given TFHOC, which has given me a lot to think about and sent me back to the novella numerous times to re-read section in light of some of the questions you've raised. I can't wait for this in-depth treatment of The Book of the New Sun. Thought I'd start a fresh thread on issues raised in the final few episodes devoted to TFHOC. A thought occured to me today that there is an early tip-off to the theme of genetic stagnation - I can't remember if this was brought up in the podcasts or other scholarship, but in the first couple of pages, the Narrator describes the iron shutter that covered his bedroom window, and notes that it was overgrown with a silver trumpet vine (since dug up). He writes that, "I used to wish that it would close the window entirely and thus shut out the sun," but that David would break off the twigs of the vine and make panpipes out of them. The ancient Greek word for "twig" is "klon" from which we get the word "clone" (from the ability to grow a new plant from a twig of the original plant). Wolfe has studied Attic Greek, I think he intended the metaphor for the genetic stagnation of the family, growing over and shrouding the windows of the house, which the Narrator welcomes at some level for the darkness it provides, whereas David finds a way through art/music to find a path out through that.
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Something I noted (as I'm re-reading all 3 novellas) just today about "Aubrey Veil," which is the pseudonym used in Aunt Jeannine scholarly pursuits: "Veil" of course connotes concealment - "Revelation" literally means the dropping of the veil that conceals reality. However, "Aubrey" itself is now a fairly uncommon name, certainly in America, but probably less so in the British Isles, where I would think it is more popular. It is a sexually ambiguous name - I can only think of 3 Aubreys of whom I know, all males: the actor Aubrey Morris who was in "A Clockwork Orange" as Mr. Deltoid, Aubrey Huff who played for the San Francisco Giants. and of course, Aubrey Beardsley, the Art Nouveau illustrators whose decadent, erotic, and sometimes grotesque art would seem to fit right in with the goings-on around 666 Saltimbanque. I looked up the name, and found there's quite a few young female Aubreys who are currently in film, TV and music. The ambiguity of gender in the name would certainly fit Aunt Jeannine's motives, but it's an uncommon name, and I don't think Wolfe picks names out of a hat at random, so I checked the etymology. It means "Fairy Ruler" or "Ruler of the Fairy People" - per Wiki, "The name is a Norman French derivation of the Germanic given name Alberic, which consists of the elements alf "elf" and ric "power", with the meaning of "Fair Ruler of the Little People". The Annese, the subject of Veil's Hypothesis, certainly conform closely in manner and action (especially the Shadow Children) to the medieval conceptions of the Fair Folk, who appear frequently under different guises in Wolfe's fiction. Both the 7 year old Number 5 and the Wise Old One in "A Story" suggest that the origin of the Abos in general and the Shadow Children in particular might be prehistoric or at least from classical antiquity; and (the presumably authentic) Marsch later in V.R.T. makes the curious comment that he would be "disheartened if it were not that the parallel with those paleolithic, Caucasoid Pygmies who came to be called the Good People (and who survived, as was eventually shown, in Scandanavia and Eire until the last years of the eighteenth century) were not almost exact" - which is not exactly orthodox anthropological theory (at least now), but has been claimed by some cultists as the origin of the fairy and elf folklore of middle Europe.
I discovered the podcast in August and have finally caught up! I can now listen in semi-real time.
I am enjoying the in-depth close reading and learning a lot about the stories.
When I first read Fifth Head, I was struck by the parallel with The Island of Doctor Moreau:
- Dr. Moreau flees England because its antivivisection laws prevent him from pursuing his experiments into the nature of being human. He re-establishes his laboratory on an out-of-the-way island, where he can conduct his research in peace. Monsters are created. Are they human? Are they people?
- Dr. Cerberus flees Earth because its anti-cloning laws prevent him from pursuing his experiments into the nature of being human. He re-establishes his laboratory on an out-of-the-way planet, where he can conduct his research in peace. Monsters are created. Are they human? Are they people?
Both stories ask the questions - Am I human? Are you? Are we both people?
And now, onto Marsch's story!
One of the questions that was touched on in the podcast that I think is especially interesting was _why_ the protagonist was given the name (apparently) of Gene Wolfe. It was suggested (I think rightly) that Wolfe may have been taking the unwelcome aspects of his own character (as he perceived it) and imagining what would happen if each clonic iteration would maintain and repeat those unwanted aspects.
It could have just been intended as a genial (so to speak) in-joke like some of the titles of the books in the port-memizon library, but i don't think so. the references are repeated far too often not to have greater thematic significance. In personalizing the storyline in this fashion, I think Wolfe was likely influenced by Jorge Luis Borges, who frequently used himself as a character in his stories, although not in as discreet a fashion.
I'm trying to think of other writers in the SF / Fantasy genre who did this contemporaneously with Wolfe, and the only ones who come to mind are Fritz Leiber, who used analogues to his name for protagonists (like "Franz Westen" or "Stirf Ritter-Rebbil") in some stories, before inserting his actual identity into his short story "Catch that Zeppelin!"; Phillip jose farmer, who also used name-analogues (like "Peter Jairus Frigate" in the Riverworld cycle); and Phillip K. Dick, who appeared under his own name in (I think) "Valis", where "Horselover fat" is revealed about halfway through the novel as phillip Dick himself (for whom "Horselover fat" is a rough translation from the greek and german.) I think Wolfe is using this trope to different effect or purpose in "Cerebrus", though. I'd be interested in hearing anyone else's thoughts.
Mick, this is a fantastic observation. Plant imagery is at work everywhere throughout this novel, and now that you've pointed this out I can't help but be reminded of the characterization of the Pope as a gardener in "How the Whip Came Back." When that metaphor appears in the late antique sermons that I study, it is often in the context of healing branches and twigs of trees and other plants. But also (jumping ahead) this works nicely with the fact that the whole book ends with optimistic trumpet imagery, a call-back to this opening. Marc, for me the fact that David draws the line at murder (or at least tries to) suggests that he stands apart from Number 5 and Phaedria. I think you are right to suggest that we might not find him especially moral or virtuous in our own society, but aside from Marydol he seems to be the most moral person we can find in Port-Mimizon.
Nice bit of information on “klon“ there and possibly an insight into the impetus for some of the tree imagery we are getting throughout. I really don’t think David escapes in a transcendent or moral way and have a very different assessment of his character, given his own enthusiasm for thievery. I take the allusion to the Polyphemus scene as more literal in its plot implications - “I am no man” boasted Odysseus in that scene. The Aeneid chronicles Trojans coming and taking over the Latin tribes but Virgil and the Romans ARE actually the Latin tribes and were never displaced by the asiatic Trojans - that’s a myth and an affectation. So, too, humanity in this system.