From: "Tony Ellis" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Shadow Children in the Lupiverse?
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 10:07:51 +0100

Robert Borski wrote:
> ...In the back of beyond Victor becomes highly upset when Dr. Marsch
> attempts to kill a following farmcat. Why? Is it because he simply loves
> cats? If so, why does he himself later attempt to kill this same cat? I
> contend it's because she's the shapeshifted abo girl Marsch later catches
> Victor trysting with; and that he must kill her because she knows he's
> killed Marsch. Your theory?

The first time I ever read 'V.R.T.' I took it as read that girl and cat were
one, because hey, weren't these abos supposed to be shapeshifters or
something? But that's never felt satisfactory since. Where does all that
extra mass go when girl becomes cat? Why doesn't Victor change into a cat
and escape from gaol? And why, as you say, does he later attempt to kill
this same cat? Certainly not because she saw him kill Marsch - what does it
matter what an ignorant abo girl in the middle of the outback sees?

It seems to me that there is singularity at the heart of 'V.R.T.' that we
can never see into: the circumstances of Marsh's death. The details given by
Victor in the journal are too contradictory and too hallucinogenic - he's
losing it big time. And cat and girl are all mixed up in the affair. Did the
cat really bite Marsch's hand, so that in fact some of the entries we think
are Victor's are still Marsch's? Did the girl bite Marsch when he got too
frisky? Did she have a mouthful of narcotic plant when she did so, like the
Shadow Child at the end of 'A Story', so that in fact Marsch never died at
all but only thinks he's Victor? (Believe me, I've thought about that last
one a lot.)

So. I don't really have a theory. It's another of those little bits of 5HC I
keep coming back to and coming back to.



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