From: adam louis stephanides <astephan@students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: (urth) V.R.T. and Marsch
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 13:08:11 


William Ansley writes:
 
> I assume that you mean personality merging when you say "otherwise
> unmentioned ability in V.R.T." alga is the one who suggested the merger
> theory, not me. I don't accept it any more than you do, as I attempted to
> say in the message you are quoting from. 

You said so clearly; the misapprehension was my fault.  When I wrote that
post I was in a sleep-deprived state, so my brain was not at its best.

>  I find the "Are you a clone?"
> passage strange for the precise reasons you do, as I also attempted to say
> in an earlier message.

Likewise, apologies for not recalling this.

> Although I can't recall any direct evidence right now, I certainly got the
> impression in 5HC that the whole clone business was kept a deep, dark
> secret and successfully so. Thus, I find the idea of VRT having some other
> source of knowledge about the Wolfes unlikely.
 
You may well be right, which is why I thought it perhaps more likely that
V.R.T. had seen a photograph of Maitre.  OTOH, #5 has been seen in public;
presumably so was Maitre at his age, since Maitre wants #5's upbringing as
well as his heredity to be as close to his own as possible.  It's not
impossible that someone old enough to have seen them both could note the
identical appearances and draw the correct conclusion, or even make a
guess based on comparing #5's appearance with Maitre's current appearance.

> My feeling right now is that VRT just guessed right about #5 being a
> clone.

I still feel that it's too implausible for V.R.T. to have guessed this
based on just the information we are explicitly told he had (and unlike #5
in the last interview, he is presumably not trying to be offensive).

> For two guys who agree so much we are exchanging a lot of messages. 8-)

But that's the kind of exchange I like best!

Robert Borski writes: 
 
> Recently, Adam-Louis Stephanides, among others, has wondered:

No hyphen; it's a first, middle and last name.  (And I never use my middle
name except on official documents; the university's network automatically
"signs" my email with it.  Not that it makes much difference to me, but
since this is the Wolfe list and names are so important to Wolfe...)

> "But even if V.R.T. had somehow inherited Marsch's knowledge, how would
> that tell him #5's a clone?

> Several answers suggest themselves about Marsch's knowledge re the Number
> Five-Maitre clone connection:

[instances of contact between V.R.T. and Maitre and Aunt Jeannine cited] 

The instances you cite explain how Marsch knew to reseearch
anthropological relaxation before the final interview.  But the passage I
was querying took place during V.R.T.'s first meeting with #5, which
appears to be V.R.T.'s first direct contact of any kind with the Wolfes.

> scolex/Robert Borski (who's been very busy converting CAVE CANEM to HTML,
> so he can spread his heretical notions about 5TH HEAD all over the
> electronic globe)
 
Great!  I'm looking forward to seeing it.

--Adam



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