The mystery of the image of an astronaut cleaned by Rudesind

Lee Berman · 06 Jul 2010, 14:43 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 6 Jul 2010 10:43:26 -0400
Subject: (urth) The mystery of the image of an astronaut cleaned by Rudesind
Message-ID: <SNT123-W23045DBF6AD8BB1B71411ECFB20 at phx.gbl>

JW- Where does Inire display carnal interest in young girls?

>DS-That's an assumption many have made. Thecla's story indicates Inire's 
>well-known fondness for and interest in young girls, and the way she 
>says it suggests the kind of matter-of-fact acceptance of perversions 
>one might find at a court. But without any evidence for sexual contact, 
>Inire strikes me as a Lewis Carroll figure at most. The truth is we 
>don't know why he is interested in them. Little girls are not common
>enough is TBotNS to be much of a help.

Well, this is where my discussion of comfort level comes in. If you are
comfortable not understanding Father Inire, not understanding why there
are suggestions of incest and not knowing who might be Severian family
members then there is no reason to pursue these issues. I'm uncomfortable
not knowing and willing to suspend my own skepticism and parsimony and take a 
leap of faith in an attempt to understand. But why take that leap if you don't
need to?

Lewis Carroll was a lifelong bachelor who enjoyed taking nude pictures of 
pre-pubescent girls. If you think Gene Wolfe is alluding to him with Inire
and his looking glass/mirrors and finds both a bit creepy I would not disagree.
Still I must guess Wolfe admires Lewis Carroll as he does other referenced
authors such as J.L. Borges, Rudyard Kipling and Mary Shelley.

Still I think the deeper meaning to this attraction to young girls is found in
Greek (and other) mythology. I think this is the source of incest insinuations 
also. For Zeus and other olympians, you had two choices for sex, screwing your
sister or changing form and screwing humans. My personal view is that the origin
of these myths is connected to the incestuous Pharaonic family dynasties and the 
inevitable dalliances with commoners.

I think Gene Wolfe prefers to connect these myths to the Bible and The Flood
and connect pagan gods to fallen angels and their half-human offspring- giants
and demons and such. Surely his view makes for far more interesting and colorful
stories.

I think Severian's story can be viewed as Wolfe's attempt to describe what it
would be like to have been born a Greek hero, some combination of Hercules, 
Theseus, Oedipus and Jason, etc. What it would be like to be born into a pagan
world not knowing you have divine incestuous ancestors not knowing why you have
superhuman abilities nor why you find yourself driven on crazy quests, etc.

Taking this view (with further elaboration of course) allows me an understanding
of every scene, dream, fable etc. in BotNS, including golden beams of light, corn
maidens and weird bull-figures, etc. And that's what I want. If others have 
alternative explanations I am interested in hearing them. If others prefer the 
whole thing to remain an unexplainable mystery, that's okay too.

John Watkins' sincere attempt to solve the mystery of BotNS is surely appreciated.
I will disagree with his likening of Inire and Severian's intentions for young
women. Inire intrudes on two pretty, aristocratic girls looking at themselves in
a mirror and childes them for vanity. He then realizes one of them, Domnina, has
a special gift for perception (the same perceptive ability found in the adult 
Domnicellae?). He forces her to have an audience with him against her will and
attempts to instruct and awe her with his divine technology. This seems a Zeus-like
approach toward young women.

Severian's interaction with young women is the opposite. He is drawn to the poor and
sick and malformed.  He uses his divine resources to heal and restore health and 
withered arms. In contrast to Zeus, this is rather Jesus-like as John sugests. We
see Severian's young women grow up to become a prophetess and a religious acolyte.
I rather doubt Father Inire had a very positive effect on the young women who 
received his attentions (I'm thinking Dorcas, Catherine, Cyriaca and Agia, perhaps).

I thank John Watkins for helping illuminate the constrast between Inire and Severian
in this regard.

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