The Fifth Head of Cerberus (Book Club)

[dwndrgn]

The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Gene Wolfe

Since this is a short little novella, most people should have finished by now. If you haven't finished it yet, please do not read the following thread as there are quite possible spoilers contained herein.

My personal thoughts:

I found the piece to be well-written. The best way to tell if this is so? You continue reading even though you dislike the story, the characters and have no clue what the story is about.

Not only did I find myself to be utterly confused throughout the entire piece, but the one thing that held my attention, the answer to the riddle of the title, was never revealed. Of course, I am sure that everyone who has read this will have their own interpretations on what the fifth head might be but I got the feeling that it was purposefully left out. By purposefully, I'm saying that the author wanted his reader to be confused, to put down the book with a wrinkle in their forehead. The problem with this situation, while it might be fun at first, there is no possible resolution. So we are forever left unsettled and unanswered.

I have no idea why I might take offense at this type of treatment of the reader, especially since I've used the trick myself (on the only writing I ever did that garnered rave reviews). Perhaps I'm just annoyed because it is a riddle I'll not solve since I disliked the story, there is no way I'm going to read it over and over until I figure out what I feel the author is trying to say.

This is also one of those stories that don't take a lot of time to explain the world around the characters, the reader must infer who, what, where, when, why and how on their own from clues dropped in here and there. I like this type of 'immersion' in that as opposed to using your imagination to fill in what the author is describing, you use your imagination to figure out what the author isn't describing. The only problem that this might create is the jarring affect that some 'hints' may have to a reader immersed in a story. I had this trouble with the 'starcrosser'. It made me stop, re-read the passage and put the book down for a day. Not necessarily the effect most authors go for. However, as long as you return to the story at some point, I imagine the author really doesn't care all that much.

Anyway, those were my initial impressions. While I didn't like the story, I didn't hate it either.

 

[polymorphikos]

Didn't your copy come as a collection of three novellas? I thought that's what we were going to discuss.

On Cerberus:

I really enjoyed this story, although I don't claim to fully understand it. Since this is a thread for the discussion of a book we are assumed to have read, so like Dwndrgn said, spoilers be damned.

My own idea of the Fifth Head of Cerberus seemed pretty clear from the point Number 5 makes about having to affix further heads later-on. This is magnified by the fact that all of the heads are a part of the same body, just as all of those who could be considered as candidates for being a head are, in a sense, the same person - or atleast quite closely-connected. But in a tighter sense, the three heads could be the three extant males - Number Five, his father, and Mr Millions. Plus there is the fact that he is referred to as number five.

I also found the treatment of the question of the rights of a human interesting. The ways in which the slaves are discussed as mere animals, and the girl's line about how it would terrible if the fighting slaves were humans. The fact that these slaves, or so many of them, are in a sense Number Five helps to cut through the ways in which we might slip into simply seeing them as brutes, which they are - but also once human beings.

It becomes a nice little pearl, using oneself to examine oneself. I'd have to reread it to get a clearer idea as I read the three novellas through at a sitting. The entire thing is very macarbre - the way the various clones are viewed as mere off-choots of the main, and some sort of ownership exists.

On 'A Story, by John Marsch'.

This was excellent. It all comes into context when you read 'V.R.T', and the question, repeated from Cerberus, of who came first, and which is the real human, is quite well-handled. The idea that a first wave of humans came, and then another, and the lack of certainty about whether the shadow-children or Annese were the colonists. The idea that entire positions had changed was fascinating, as the repeated theme of who one regards as worthy of being treated as a human being.

'V.R.T.'

This was my favourite of the three. Marsh suddenly comes into focus, from being this periferal character, and the gradual revellation of the twist is excellent, although I have to conceed that he did kind of wave the flag towards the end, which might have annoyed those who'd already got it. The fact that it seems to confirm everything, and the critique on the Saint Croix method of government, all seemed to work well.

I'm sorry this is a bit of a rant. I'm mostly just jotting-down impressions at random.

 

[dwndrgn]

Poly, that makes a lot of sense Number 5 is the fifth head - cerberus being the 'original' and each head one of his clones or aspects.

The entire story seemed to center around the idea of 'humanity'. You've got slaves who aren't human because they've been 'altered', you've got clones who seem to be human but may not be according to their own knowledge of self and then you've got the aborigines (I know this isn't the correct word but I don't have the book with me right now and I can't recall the actual word) who exist but don't and aren't human whether they exist or not.

*I didn't read the other stories as I figured that some copies available may be a different collection of stories and only The Fifth Head of Cerberus was actually voted on. If you guys would like to discuss the others too, I don't have any issues with that.

 

[polymorphikos]

Hello?

 

[dwndrgn]

Perhaps you and I are the only ones who read this one this month?

In any case, can I ask you a question? How far along in the story did it take you to realize that Mr. Million was a machine?

And this was probably just me but I was certain that the story was to be centered around David, not 'number five'. Not until much later of course.

I found the not-anti-gravity method for his aunt to be jarring, not sure why, probably because it just didn't seem to fit with the story.

 

[polymorphikos]

I'm not sure, but not too long. The name was a bit of a give-away. I'll also agree that initial indications were of a story about David, and about how number five viewed David, like all thoughs coming-of-age novels about retrospection on fathers. I would not have put a violent showdown between the two (possibly over a cantina dancer) past Wolf at this point.

And I liked the repellor system. I also was particularly struck by one line in the book, where he's simply describing his life in the prison camp, and makes the casual non-sequitur statement about one of the robots going mad and lasering twelve men. Quite effective.

 

[dwndrgn]

I also was particularly struck by one line in the book, where he's simply describing his life in the prison camp, and makes the casual non-sequitur statement about one of the robots going mad and lasering twelve men. Quite effective.

Absolutely, you get the feeling that although you know the character has feelings, he has long since decided that they are useless and has tossed them away...

 

[J. Eidsath]

The Fifth Head of Cerberus is one of my favorite Gene Wolfe shorts. And that is saying a lot with an author like Gene Wolfe. Unfortunately, my copy of the collection this is in is in a box in the garage. Now I have to go get it out to reread. I'll be back later with some things to say.

 

[Rane Longfox]

I have this book waiting to be read, but I don't think I'm gonna get around to reading it by the end of the month

 

[polymorphikos]

How come?

 

[Rane Longfox]

Reading others first, and not enough willpower to stop