From: "Robert Borski" <rborski@charter.net>
Subject: (urth) Re: VRT as the only John Marsch
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2000 01:30:03 

Blattid having written:

<Also, is there any reason to believe that there was ever a real
John V. Marsch?  I mean, by that name -- there clearly was a
homeworld anthropologist. I ask because "John Marsch" sounds
_exactly_ like the name of an abo as described in the beginning
of part 2: "John" is the name of all men born to the people,
and "Marsch" would be a logical name for a child born in the
meadomeres. Toss this together with the Earth passport having
been "tampered with," and I wonder if "VRT" simply took his
abo name and applied it to his new identity...?>

John Marsch's field journal belies his. His sections appear to be quite
legible--at least the junior officer assigned to review his case does not
remark otherwise. Whereas once VRT has killed the Terran doctor, he must
somehow account for the sudden turn in bad handwriting (abos, like the
inhumi, have difficulty with manual tasks) which he blames on a cat bite.
The first entry to this effect takes place in the section immediately
predating April 23. "You must excuse my writing in this entry, and I suppose
some of the subsequent entires as well." On April 24, he also writes: "Hand
still bad, as you see from the writing." It therefore seems likely the
original Earth-born Marsch has died previous to April 23.

And while we've all been talking about taking GW's interviews with a grain
of salt, in his recent NOVA EXPRESS interview, Wolfe comes right out and
says VRT has killed Marsch and assumed his identity.

Robert Borski


*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/