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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
This is a little puzzle. you are supposed to sit down and theorize. Has things to say about real-colonialism, but is a bit more interested in questions of individual identity.
very well done, capturing a certain mystique and foreboding atmosphere that does for me peak in the first story (the second and third did leave my head spinning at times)
goes from holding your hand quite firmly in the first half to leaving you in the deep end rather swiftly, and i did get lost
goes from holding your hand quite firmly in the first half to leaving you in the deep end rather swiftly, and i did get lost
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe SF Masterworks #8 1972 4
• I need a reread
I The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
• Number 5, "My aunt, on the first occasion I had ever spoken to her, had referred to (Dr Veil's) theory that we might in fact be the natives of Sainte Anne, having murdered the original Terrestrial colonists and displaced them so thoroughly as to forget our own past."
• "This dream pursued me even when I tried to think of Phaedria, and when a maid brought me hot water—for I now shaved twice a week—I found that I was already holding my razor in my hand, and had in fact cut myself with it so that the blood had streaked my nightclothes and run down on to the sheets."
Coming of age 'male mensruation'?
• luminary- 1 a very famous person 2 a source of light; esp : a celestial body
• Last line, "I heard her at the library door. I opened it and she had the child with her. Someday they’ll want us."
Number five is like father, like father. He is given a number not a name like cattle or chattel so the cruelty is seemingly less cruel. chattel- 1 an item of tangible property other than real estate 2 slave, bondman.
II “A STORY,” by John V. Marsch
• Marsch/marsh/meadowmere
• Sandwalker, "“Because I never thought of Shadow children having names. I only thought of them as the Shadow children.”"
III V.R.T.
sophistry- subtlely deceptive reasoning or argument
• Q: On Sainte Anne every man of French descent is the bitter enemy of the government, with the result that Sainte Anne has become a camp armed against itself, where a colossal military establishment threatens citizens of every class. Here on Sainte Croix the French community is not hostile to the government—its leaders are a part of that government. A:Possibly my views are influenced by the fact that that government is holding me a prisoner. Q:It is a dilemma, is it not? You are hostile to us because you are a prisoner. But if you were no longer hostile, if you were willing to tender your full cooperation, you would be a prisoner no longer."
'Do only as we say (for if we say it, then it's true), then you are 'free' to go.' Fascist 'freedom' by giving up your freedom.
• Marsch, "I believe you were telling me that it was better to be a slave on Sainte Croix than free on Sainte Anne."
• Officer, "and pretend you do not understand that it is only by possessing slaves that any man can be truly free."
• fakir- 1 a Muslim mendicant : dervish 2 a wandering Hindu ascetic
eolith- a very crudely chipped flint
• I need a reread
I The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe
• Number 5, "My aunt, on the first occasion I had ever spoken to her, had referred to (Dr Veil's) theory that we might in fact be the natives of Sainte Anne, having murdered the original Terrestrial colonists and displaced them so thoroughly as to forget our own past."
• "This dream pursued me even when I tried to think of Phaedria, and when a maid brought me hot water—for I now shaved twice a week—I found that I was already holding my razor in my hand, and had in fact cut myself with it so that the blood had streaked my nightclothes and run down on to the sheets."
Coming of age 'male mensruation'?
• luminary- 1 a very famous person 2 a source of light; esp : a celestial body
• Last line, "I heard her at the library door. I opened it and she had the child with her. Someday they’ll want us."
Number five is like father, like father. He is given a number not a name like cattle or chattel so the cruelty is seemingly less cruel. chattel- 1 an item of tangible property other than real estate 2 slave, bondman.
II “A STORY,” by John V. Marsch
• Marsch/marsh/meadowmere
• Sandwalker, "“Because I never thought of Shadow children having names. I only thought of them as the Shadow children.”"
III V.R.T.
sophistry- subtlely deceptive reasoning or argument
• Q: On Sainte Anne every man of French descent is the bitter enemy of the government, with the result that Sainte Anne has become a camp armed against itself, where a colossal military establishment threatens citizens of every class. Here on Sainte Croix the French community is not hostile to the government—its leaders are a part of that government. A:Possibly my views are influenced by the fact that that government is holding me a prisoner. Q:It is a dilemma, is it not? You are hostile to us because you are a prisoner. But if you were no longer hostile, if you were willing to tender your full cooperation, you would be a prisoner no longer."
'Do only as we say (for if we say it, then it's true), then you are 'free' to go.' Fascist 'freedom' by giving up your freedom.
• Marsch, "I believe you were telling me that it was better to be a slave on Sainte Croix than free on Sainte Anne."
• Officer, "and pretend you do not understand that it is only by possessing slaves that any man can be truly free."
• fakir- 1 a Muslim mendicant : dervish 2 a wandering Hindu ascetic
eolith- a very crudely chipped flint
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
This book is so well crafted. I do truly see why it's a masterwork. I just also didn't particularly enjoy reading it haha.
This was just Wolfe's second novel and it's a rich and strange work that evokes its science fiction worlds obliquely and is more a meditation on personal identity than anything else. Highly recommended.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Avoid the introduction of the SF Masterworks edition– it does that thing where it spoils everything noteworthy about the book.
This is an interesting collection of loosely connected novellas. There’s lots of deep subtext here, about colonialism, about what it means to be human, but I’m not sure the entire thing meshes into a coherent narrative, and despite the short length I found parts the 2nd and 3rd novellas a bit of a slog. The first novella is by far the best of the bunch, and it and the 3rd have very well done twists.
This is an interesting collection of loosely connected novellas. There’s lots of deep subtext here, about colonialism, about what it means to be human, but I’m not sure the entire thing meshes into a coherent narrative, and despite the short length I found parts the 2nd and 3rd novellas a bit of a slog. The first novella is by far the best of the bunch, and it and the 3rd have very well done twists.
I have enough trust in Gene Wolfe to power through some parts that I don't like, because it's often recontextualized later - the second novella is like that - if you're struggling with it after the great first novella, the third will make the second worth it. A brilliant book that requires reading between the lines.
“Reread. It's better the second time. It will be even better the third time. And anyway, the books will subtly reshape themselves while you are away from them. ‘Peace’ really was a gentle Midwestern memoir the first time I read it. It only became a horror novel on the second or the third reading.” — Neil Gaiman, How to Read Gene Wolfe