5HC: Three Authors of V.R.T. (spoilers)
Regarding The Fifth Head of Cerberus: Three Novellas . . .
While it is obvious that Marsch wrote part of “V.R.T.”, and V.R.T. wrote part, I assert the mysterious author of the frame tale is Number Five.
Moving backward from this, “A Story” was written by V.R.T., based on writings by Marsch.
And back to the beginning, “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” was written by Number Five, who borrowed bits from Marsh and V.R.T.
This arrangement suggests that the novellas are presented in reverse chronological order, which a close reading had already partially suggested: “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” is given as being written twelve years after the initial arrest of Number Five and John V. Marsch; “A Story” can be seen as the artifact of “complete cooperation” (5HC, p. 243) that allowed John V. Marsch to be released from prison, perhaps only three years after his arrest; in “V.R.T.” the officer is reading the files one year after the arrest of Number Five and John V. Marsch.
This arrangement has consequences.
Let us go through the reading sequence of what is, in effect, five stories: “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” is a Vernean tale that twists into “Heart of Darkness”; “A Story” is an anthropological fiction that refreshingly inverts the Noble Savage; “V.R.T.” presents a Darkness at Noon situation that twists into a murder mystery, complete with detective. But “V.R.T.” casts shadows back through the other novellas, such that “A Story” is flipped into I Never Promised You A Rose Garden (psychological phantasmagoria) that also draws in Number Five as an “evil twin” Judas (that is, J.V.M. starts the whole twin theme; but note that the label of “Judas” is an erroneous villainization in the sense that while Number Five certainly called out J.V.M. as an abo in a closed room, he did not call the authorities on J.V.M.: while technically erroneous, it is psychologically satisfying); and Number Five responds to the charge of being labeled an evil twin Judas by engaging in plagiarism, salting his own memoir with coded elements from the other two novellas (in essence, the pattern for contamination among the texts has been solved: “trumpet vines” come from Number Five; most other elements originate with J.V.M.). So where initially “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” had the highest degree of validity, due to being presented first, it likely has the least validity.
Taking “A Story” as the “complete cooperation” allows the resolution of certain complexities. Granted that the tale is based upon events in the life of John V. Marsch, events covered in both “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” and “V.R.T.,” presumably there is freedom to present events in non-chronological order to form a more fitting fiction. In my recent wonderings (“5HC: Happy Ending for 1984”), I mapped “A Story” to most of John V. Marsch’s life, except for the final scenes of “The Miracle (the sky unveiled),” “The Murder (of Lastvoice),” and “The Switch (among the twins),” which seemed to me to be a black box condition of events yet to happen at the time of writing. But if “A Story” is re-ordering events in the life of John V. Marsch, then clearly “Eastwind” is Number Five, “Lastvoice” is Number Four, and “Sandwalker” is the hybrid V.R.T./Marsch (all as many have said, long time passing). Thus, the twins being involved in the execution of Lastvoice in “A Story” at “The Murder” matches the tableau in “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” where the presence of V.R.T./Marsch delays Number Five’s killing of Number Four. Likewise, non-chronological reordering allows the Cave and Priest of “A Story” to be not only the cave and grave of “V.R.T.” but also the Cave at 666 and Dr. Veil in “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” (as many have said, long time passing).
So then, a revision of a table from “Happy Ending for 1984” to map this anachronistic reading.
=A Story: V.R.T. [“5HC”]=
Quest to become a man: expedition starts (find abos/mother)
+The Cave/Priest: cave/grave [666/Veil]
Become a shadow friend: Marsch as patron
The girlfriend (Seven Girls Waiting): the cat/abo girlfriend
Vision of mother in danger: clue in Roncevaux
Trip by river: starcrosser to Ste. Croix
The trap (capture by marshmen): arrest by trio
The prison: #143
The family reunion in prison: the incoherent neighbor as mother
The girlfriend in prison: Celestine Etienne
The miracle: [called out as an abo by Number Five; end of the world]
The execution of Last Voice: [killing of Number Four by Number Five who will take his place]
The switch: the subduing of the internal twin via tryst with Celestine
While it is obvious that Marsch wrote part of “V.R.T.”, and V.R.T. wrote part, I assert the mysterious author of the frame tale is Number Five.
Moving backward from this, “A Story” was written by V.R.T., based on writings by Marsch.
And back to the beginning, “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” was written by Number Five, who borrowed bits from Marsh and V.R.T.
This arrangement suggests that the novellas are presented in reverse chronological order, which a close reading had already partially suggested: “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” is given as being written twelve years after the initial arrest of Number Five and John V. Marsch; “A Story” can be seen as the artifact of “complete cooperation” (5HC, p. 243) that allowed John V. Marsch to be released from prison, perhaps only three years after his arrest; in “V.R.T.” the officer is reading the files one year after the arrest of Number Five and John V. Marsch.
This arrangement has consequences.
Let us go through the reading sequence of what is, in effect, five stories: “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” is a Vernean tale that twists into “Heart of Darkness”; “A Story” is an anthropological fiction that refreshingly inverts the Noble Savage; “V.R.T.” presents a Darkness at Noon situation that twists into a murder mystery, complete with detective. But “V.R.T.” casts shadows back through the other novellas, such that “A Story” is flipped into I Never Promised You A Rose Garden (psychological phantasmagoria) that also draws in Number Five as an “evil twin” Judas (that is, J.V.M. starts the whole twin theme; but note that the label of “Judas” is an erroneous villainization in the sense that while Number Five certainly called out J.V.M. as an abo in a closed room, he did not call the authorities on J.V.M.: while technically erroneous, it is psychologically satisfying); and Number Five responds to the charge of being labeled an evil twin Judas by engaging in plagiarism, salting his own memoir with coded elements from the other two novellas (in essence, the pattern for contamination among the texts has been solved: “trumpet vines” come from Number Five; most other elements originate with J.V.M.). So where initially “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” had the highest degree of validity, due to being presented first, it likely has the least validity.
Taking “A Story” as the “complete cooperation” allows the resolution of certain complexities. Granted that the tale is based upon events in the life of John V. Marsch, events covered in both “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” and “V.R.T.,” presumably there is freedom to present events in non-chronological order to form a more fitting fiction. In my recent wonderings (“5HC: Happy Ending for 1984”), I mapped “A Story” to most of John V. Marsch’s life, except for the final scenes of “The Miracle (the sky unveiled),” “The Murder (of Lastvoice),” and “The Switch (among the twins),” which seemed to me to be a black box condition of events yet to happen at the time of writing. But if “A Story” is re-ordering events in the life of John V. Marsch, then clearly “Eastwind” is Number Five, “Lastvoice” is Number Four, and “Sandwalker” is the hybrid V.R.T./Marsch (all as many have said, long time passing). Thus, the twins being involved in the execution of Lastvoice in “A Story” at “The Murder” matches the tableau in “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” where the presence of V.R.T./Marsch delays Number Five’s killing of Number Four. Likewise, non-chronological reordering allows the Cave and Priest of “A Story” to be not only the cave and grave of “V.R.T.” but also the Cave at 666 and Dr. Veil in “The Fifth Head of Cerberus” (as many have said, long time passing).
So then, a revision of a table from “Happy Ending for 1984” to map this anachronistic reading.
=A Story: V.R.T. [“5HC”]=
Quest to become a man: expedition starts (find abos/mother)
+The Cave/Priest: cave/grave [666/Veil]
Become a shadow friend: Marsch as patron
The girlfriend (Seven Girls Waiting): the cat/abo girlfriend
Vision of mother in danger: clue in Roncevaux
Trip by river: starcrosser to Ste. Croix
The trap (capture by marshmen): arrest by trio
The prison: #143
The family reunion in prison: the incoherent neighbor as mother
The girlfriend in prison: Celestine Etienne
The miracle: [called out as an abo by Number Five; end of the world]
The execution of Last Voice: [killing of Number Four by Number Five who will take his place]
The switch: the subduing of the internal twin via tryst with Celestine
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Stephen
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Aug 20, 2024 12:25PM
Is this complicated by our knowledge that Wolfe wrote "The Fifth Head of Cerberus" before beginning (and perhaps even conceiving?) "A Story" or "V.R.T?" Or is that taking too external a perspective? In other words, we should simply view the collection as a completed work?
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I think the question introduces an interesting "How did Wolfe do this?" angle, which is initially daunting, but then more understandable -- at least, hypothetically. So Wolfe writes "5HC" and is surprised with a challenge to write two more for a book contract. He thinks, "Why not have that minor character of the first one be the author of the second one?" and creates "A Story." Then he thinks, "How about a third one to tie all this back into the first one, and simultaneously flip everything over, so he really is an abo . . . and so on?"
