# Musings on the Hierodule fieldguide

*The Urth list — 4 messages, 3 voices, 03 Sep 1998*

<https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/1083>

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### CRCulver
*03 Sep 1998, 00:03*

<???--Father Inire.  He's a hunched little guy, a Daedalus or
Hephaestus or Toth, and since Toth is the most ancient I tend to
think of Inire as being something like Toth's totem, the ibis, a bent
neck little bird hobbling around, finding treasures in the muck. (Of
course, he's also Lewdis Carnal, Victorian child pornographer,
hunched over his primitive camera obscena. <g>)>

Happily, Inire seems to be just enamoured by little exultantesses, and there
is no evidence of his actually molesting them. Boy, wouldn't that be an
embarassment to the reign of the Autarch Severian.
I'm sure Inire has a longer lifespan than other Hierodules, considering he
easily surivived ~2 chiliads as grand vizier (but what happened to him after
Severian sailed to Yesod???)
Mantis compares Inire to a bird, but I believe the monkey comparison is used
more than once in the ol' manuscripts

<There are more Hierodules onboard the time saucer.  Dr. Talos wants them to
come out and blast/scare the natives.>

Do you mean the so-called "fantassins?" Fantassination is one of the least-
discussed aspects of Hierodulic technology, and I wish Wolfe would share more.
Perhaps the fantassins about the Ship of the Hierodules are the same who tried
to subdue Baldanders at the House Absolute.

Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>
http://members.aol.com/crculver/index.html

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### William H. Ansley
*04 Sep 1998, 00:06 · follows CRCulver*

> <???--Father Inire.  He's a hunched little guy, a Daedalus or
> Hephaestus or Toth, and since Toth is the most ancient I tend to
> think of Inire as being something like Toth's totem, the ibis, a bent
> neck little bird hobbling around, finding treasures in the muck. (Of
> course, he's also Lewdis Carnal, Victorian child pornographer,
> hunched over his primitive camera obscena. <g>)>
> 
> Happily, Inire seems to be just enamoured by little exultantesses, and there
> is no evidence of his actually molesting them. Boy, wouldn't that be an
> embarassment to the reign of the Autarch Severian.

I certainly hope no one reading this list thinks that Charles Lutwidge
Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) molested any children. He didn't. He also wasn't a
child pornographer - mantis was joking (I hope).

William Ansley

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### Charles Dye
*04 Sep 1998, 09:30 · follows William H. Ansley*

William Ansley writes:

> [quoting mantis]

>> Happily, Inire seems to be just enamoured by little exultantesses, and there
>> is no evidence of his actually molesting them. Boy, wouldn't that be an
>> embarassment to the reign of the Autarch Severian.

> I certainly hope no one reading this list thinks that Charles Lutwidge
> Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) molested any children. He didn't. He also wasn't a
> child pornographer - mantis was joking (I hope).

In fact, Inire seems decidedly un-Carrollian in the "Father Inire's Mirrors"
episode.  He takes Domnina away without her parents' permission; he
frightens her; his explanations seem to confuse rather than educate.
He speaks general relativity, rather than charming nonsense.

Still, the connection is definitely there.  Mirrors and little girls.  And
notice how coyly Father Inire drops the name "pleasance?"

raster at highfiber.com

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### William H. Ansley
*05 Sep 1998, 00:31 · follows Charles Dye*

> raster at highfiber.com (Charles Dye) wrote:
> In fact, Inire seems decidedly un-Carrollian in the "Father Inire's Mirrors"
> episode.  He takes Domnina away without her parents' permission; he
> frightens her; his explanations seem to confuse rather than educate.
> He speaks general relativity, rather than charming nonsense.
> 
> Still, the connection is definitely there.  Mirrors and little girls.  And
> notice how coyly Father Inire drops the name "pleasance?"

I certainly don't deny the Carroll connection, I noticed it myself on my
first reading of TBotNS and especially "The Cat".

Even though I was quite sure that Christopher R. Culver <crculver at aol.com>
was just joining in on mantis's joke about Lewis Carroll and that everyone
reading the list would understand this, I thought there was just the
tiniest possibility for confusion, which was why I spoke up (thus revealing
a hypersensitivity to possibly harmful misunderstandings that Charles
Dodgson himself could probably have appreciated).

(BTW, I accept your apology mantis, but no real offense was taken.)

William Ansley

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