VROYT

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For years I've always believed "V.R.T." to be one of Gene Wolfe's more enigmatic titles, in that no matter how many times I read the text I could never quite figure out what all three initials stood for.

By paying close attention we do learn that V stands for Victor. This is disclosed by RT, VRT's scurrilous father (p.180, Scribners), who, along with his son, scam various people by claiming to be descendents of the original populace of Sainte Anne, the Free People abos. (I maintain, however, their claim is legitimate.)

Later in the narrative frame, Dr. Marsch (who will be killed and then impersonated by VRT) reveals the T stands for Trenchard, again more as a casual aside than anything else, but obviously how the father-and-son tandem are known to the community of Frenchman's Landing. RT himself also has an alternate Annese name, Twelvewalker.

This then yields the name Victor Trenchard. But what about that mysterious R? I always assumed it stood for the same name in father and son and for a while thought all three initials were meant to suggest the word ViRTual--as in Victor Trenchard is the virtual (as opposed to actual) twin of Dr. Marsch. Still, it doesn't fully satisfy. And so I went back to the text, looking for clues.

This time I had a little more luck.

On the second page of the novella, I rediscovered the junior officer examining what he thinks to be the case file of Dr. Marsch, who has been imprisoned both as possible spy and murderer of Maitre (Marsch himself is actually dead at this point; VRT is the prisoner in question). He finds a school composition book initialed VRT, inside the back cover of which is revealed the following information: "Rm E2S14 Seat 18." Directly beneath this, we read: "name." Obviously, these letters and numbers are some sort of room-and-seat designation, but intrigued, I wondered what would happen if I utilized the simplest of all possible codes, where A=1, B=2, etc.. Doing this yielded an N and R to work with, and if I ignored the lower case m/e/a/t, I was left with R E 2 S N R.

R E 2 S N R? Perhaps it was relevant; perhaps it was not. Onward I plunged, scouting for more possible clues.

On p.178, Dr. Marsch details his first meeting with RT, informing us that contrary to the old man's alleged Annese heritage, "In my opinion his actual descent is Irish." Marsch then notes the color of RT's hair and beard, which is red--a reference that is made several more times.

For some reason probably having more to do with luck than intuition, right around this time I happened to come across Gene Wolfe's biographical details in CASTLE OF THE OTTER.

Lo and behold, what do I learn but that both GW's father and firstborn son are named Roy Emerson. 2 RE's! Could this possibly signify 2 Roy Emersons, SoN/SeNioR? There would be an echopraxic parallel to this in the novel, in that there are two Robert Culots, and their relationship is also grandfather to grandson.

This sent me scurrying to the dictionary, where "Roy," I discover, is "Gaelic for red."

Can there now be any doubt that VRT is named after both Gene Wolfe's father and son and stands for Victor Roy Trenchard?

Lest anyone think this is truly cockeyed, I offer the following as one additional item of support.

In prison VRT describes how he and his family lived within the vicinity of St. Madeleine, a church.

Madeleine--besides the obvious reference to Proust--is the name of Gene Wolfe's firstborn daughter.

Entrance Introduction Concordance Essays Appendices Links

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