Patera Inire

James Wynn · 17 Jul 2010, 18:30 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:30:15 -0500
Subject: (urth) Patera Inire
In-Reply-To: <84362.24062.qm at web37603.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
References: <002501cb2565$9985d2c0$01d34a0c@rclackey>
	<84362.24062.qm at web37603.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <4C41F6B7.3050100 at gmail.com>

>> Gerry Quinn wrote:
>> Admittedly he seems to have no problem with calling himself "Father", 
>> but then again the word "father" here is clearly (?) being used 
>> metaphorically.
>>
>> And later wrote:
>> The '?' is to acknowledge that someone has proposed or will propose 
>> that Inire is the biological progenitor of nearly all the characters 
>> in the story, including himself.  Its singleness is intended to 
>> indicate that I do not personally find such lines of inquiry terribly 
>> useful.

The thing about inquiry is that you don't know if it's useful until 
you've done it.

>> Roy wrote:
>> I can't say why Inire was addressed as Father, but I have doubts that he was anyone's father in the usual sense of the word, as I am the father of my sons, any more than Silk was anyone's father yet was addressed as Patera, which is just another word for Father.
>>
>> And Later Roy wrote:
>> I intended nothing more by my use of "Patera" in the subject line than to
>> point out that Patera means no more and no less than Father or Padre or any
>> number of other linguistic equivalents.

Is it? "Pater" means "father" in Latin. "Pateras" means father in 
medieval Latin. "Patera" is a sort mish-mash Wolfe doesn't seem to 
typically engage in in the Sun Cycle. In the end, a patera is just a 
shallow bowl. I could connect it a twisted insult of a religious title 
by drawing from the Czech language, but that's a real stretch. Whether 
Silk is anyone's father...well, not directly by seed and 
copulation...but, I don't want to get off track. I agree that a Darth 
Vader/Luke Skywalker show-down is unlikely ("Ymar and Severian, I *am* 
your father").

The thing is, that while Silk had no "son of his body", I don't think he 
is a good example to under-cut Father Inire's possible "fatherhood".

>> Roy wrote:
>> The religion faded away, but not Inire. He may have kept the title  Father,
>> just as the Domnicellae of the Pelerines was addressed as Mother.
> Craig Brewer:
> Quite a stretch, but Inire's title always did stand out, and the title/office is
> so prominent in LS that it seems worth considering.

I'm not sure it is that much of a stretch that Inire's title associates 
him with the religion of the Concilliator.

u+16b9

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