From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
Subject: RE: (urth) 5HC a good introduction to wolfe? (was Washington
Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 09:58:02 -0700

> the hints there (along with others) that the narrator's name is Wolfe.
> Am I supposed to think that Mr. Million is the author (or a descendant)?
> That the narrator is a portrait of the well-born wolf after a series
> of worse and worse upbringings?  Scary.

More: you are to think that he is an n-th generation clone of our own
beloved Gene Wolfe. (I believe it was John Clute who gave a canonical
list of arguments for that being Number Five's real name.) The name is
quite fitting, too: the clone-series that includes Five, Maitre, and
the original of Mr. Million, is clearly a series of vicious predators
upon their fellow humans who use genetic manipulation to acheive their
ends -- that is, Number Five is a gene wolf. Gene, of course, is short
for "Eugene," well-born: that is exactly what Number Five is _not_. He
is simply gene, born. Etc., etc. This is full of the kind of play that
would delight Derrida if he could ever bring himself to read American
SF...

--Dan'l


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