Subject: (urth) Meeting Father Inire

From: Dan Rabin <danrabin at a.crl.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1999 21:24:27 +0000

Robert Borski writes:

>As with the oft-mentioned Fechin, we never actually meet
>Inire. He's always offstage or discussed in anecdotal fashion by others
>who've met him (Thecla, Odilio, Hildegrin).
>
>Then again, given the importance of masks in New Sun...

>From _Citadel_, ch. 28 "On the March":

>For guides our column had three savages: a pair of young men who might have
>been brothers or even twins, and a much older one, twisted, I thought, by
>deformites as well as age, who perpetually wore a grotesque mask.  Though
>the first two were younger and the third much older, all three of them
>recalled to me the naked man I had once seen in the Jungle Garden.  They
>were as naked as he and had the same dark, metallic-looking skina and
>straight hair. [...]
>....and one night when my guards were chattering among themselves and I sat
>crouched over our little fire, I saw the old guide (his bent figure and the
>impression of an immense head conferred by his mask were unmistakable)
>approach this palanquin [holding the Old Autarch (DR)] and slip beneath it.
>Some time passed before he scuttled away.  This old man was said to be an
>_uturuncu_, a shaman capable of assuming the form of a tiger.

The bent figure meets descriptions of Father Inire elsewhere.  Father Inire
is a Hierodule; Hierodules wear masks.  Father Inire is in the habit of
conferring with the Autarch.

In _Citadel_, ch. 35 "Father Inire's Letter", Rudesind mentions that his
master (Father Inire) "went away north", but is hesitant to dwell on the
point.  In Severian's reply, he says, "We even know that your master was
with us in the jungles of the north, where he tried until it was too late
to rescue my predecessor".  Inire's letter itself alludes to recent events
with Agia and Vodalus that imply that he was nearby.

So, Robert is wrong: we *do* actually meet Father Inire in the main
narrative, and Robert is right, masks have to do with the matter.

Too bad we don't get to see him do the tiger trick, though...

  -- Dan Rabin

*More Wolfe info & archive of this list at http://www.urth.net/urth/

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From: Nicholas Gevers <potto at webmail.co.za>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 06:44:37 +0000

I very much like Dan Rabin's reading of the uturuncu as Inire. But I
think we encounter Inire directly much earlier, in Chapter XXI of
CLAW: "[The Autarch} clapped his hands, and a bent little man slipped
silently into the room. He wore a cowled habit like a cenobite's. The
Autarch spoke to him, something I was too distracted to understand."
Of course, when Sev doesn't listen, we know a significant conversation
is taking place just beyond reach. The "cowled servitor" then guides
Sev through "many leagues of the contrived corridors of the Second
House" to the Vatic Fountain - a confidential route to a highly
significant location. The servitor is no more a servitor than the
Autarch is a low-level official at the House Absolute.
//--------------------------------------
Nicholas Gevers
potto at webmail.co.za
_______________________________________________________________
 http://www.webmail.co.za the South-African free email service

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From: Robert Borski <rborski at coredcs.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 02:36:55 +0000

<So, Robert is wrong: we *do* actually meet Father Inire in the main
narrative, and Robert is right, masks have to do with the matter.>

Congratulations, Dan! You're absolutely right, of course--the shaman is
Father Inire, although, as I very clearly state, he's not in his Inire
guise--so we don't really meet him as Inire, but as Inire masked. It's also
the uturuncu/Inire that provides Appian (who's already been searched) with
the cutting instrument Sev later uses to access his predecessor's
skull-encased brain. Also, I believe that somewhere--can't find the
reference--Father Inire's apemen, the guardians of Saltus, are described as
*tiger* firefly men. Still and all, it's nice to know at least one other
person shares my opinion.

My challenge to you, however: can you find at least one more instance where
Inire is met in disguise? (There are actually several.) I'll even advance
you one, and then leave a clue or two. In Chapter XXI of CLAW
("Hydromancy"), after being shown the Book of Mirrors by Appian, Sev asks
for directions to the Green Room, so he can rendezvous with Dorcas, Dr.
Talos, et al. He's told by Appian (who doesn't realize Sev is on to his
real identity) he must take the autarch's life if the autarch ever comes
near Thrax. Writes Sev: "His tone betrayed him as much as Thecla's
thoughts. I wanted to kneel, but he clapped his hands, and a bent little
man slipped silently into the room. He wore a cowled habit like a
cenobite's. The Autarch spoke to him, something I was too distracted to
understand." The cowled figure--who I submit is Father Inire, and may be
even addressed as such by Appian--then shows Sev to the Vatic Fountain. 

Now for the clues I mentioned. Notice that the uturuncu carries "a staff
crooked as himself, topped with the dried head of a monkey." Who else
carries a similar staff? Moreover, this staff-carrier has a mythic
name--which makes him an alien. I also mentioned him in a post not that
very long ago. (Think younger, earlier--a herald.)

((All answers to the above and more will be covered in the longest essay of
UNDINES, "Masks."))

Robert Borski