From: "Robert Borski" 
Subject: Re: (urth) Re: What Abos?
Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 23:26:18 -0500

Jerry F. having opined:

"Wolfe could easily provide us with certain evidence of the abos if he
wanted to. Just as an example, when Marsch meets Trenchard, he could note,
'This old faker's face had none of the characteristics of the Annese skulls
in Paris, and his voice didn't resemble the recordings.' I feel sure that
Wolfe wanted the matter to be open to doubt."

Do interviews count?

In Lawrence Person's interview of Gene Wolfe for Nova Express (Fall/Winter
1998), the following exchange takes place between Person and Wolfe:

LP: Speaking of the New Wave, _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_, especially in
book form, does utilize a lot of New Wave techniques, including non-linear
narrative forms and unreliable narrators. Why did you feel you needed to
tell these interlocked stories in that particular way?

GW: (Snip, snip, snip. Then:) Once I had done the original story, I wanted
to do other related stories so that I could make a book, and the obvious
thing seemed to be to do a prequel and a sequel, which is basically what I
did. So they're nonlinear, if you want to put it like that. Of course, I did
do the rather tricky thing, which I suppose is New Wave, of having one of
the characters in one of the other stories as the purported author of, a,
aggh...I'm sorry, I've lost the titles of my own stories.

LP: "'A Story,' by John V. Marsch."

GW: "'A Story,' by John V. Marsch," yes, which is not actually written by
John V. Marsch, but by the shadowchild who has _replaced_ John V. Marsch.
(Italics Wolfe's)

(Apologies to Editor Person for the copyright violation, but the interview
is otherwide unavailable, the issue having sold out.)

Robert Borski


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