Patera Inire

James Wynn · 18 Jul 2010, 04:44 · from 2010-July.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:44:36 -0500
Subject: (urth) Patera Inire
In-Reply-To: <002901cb25fe$adf003e0$06d24a0c@rclackey>
References: <002501cb2565$9985d2c0$01d34a0c@rclackey><84362.24062.qm at web37603.mail.mud.yahoo.com>	<4C41F6B7.3050100 at gmail.com>
	<002901cb25fe$adf003e0$06d24a0c@rclackey>
Message-ID: <4C4286B4.6010601 at gmail.com>

> Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> I mentioned Patera Silk as an example from the Sun Cycle of a man who is a
> priest who had no natural children. Priests of the RC Church, and others,
> also are commonly addressed as Father, even though they are mandated by the
> laws of their church to be celibate and not to engage in sexual congress.
> It's Father in English, Padre in Spanish, etc. But you already know that. In
> LS, priests are addressed as Patera in exactly the same way that priests in
> the Catholic Church are addressed as Father; I daresay for the same reasons.

Well, Palaemon is also referred to as "Master" in exactly the same way 
"that priests in the Catholic Church are addressed as Father". That is, 
it is his title. No one in the Whorl refers to their natural father as 
his "patera". Nor has anyone else in the world ever done so as far as I 
know. It doesn't map. I agree that the Chapter priests are intended to 
call to mind RC priests. But if Wolfe wanted to choose a cognate for 
"father" he had dozens of actual options.  Whatever one thinks he was 
going for _most_ directly, I don't think "father" is it.

> Roy C. Lackey wrote:
> Anyway, Inire is stated to be a cacogen, an alien. It is very doubtful that
> he could have fathered any children on a human woman.

I'm really not trying to prove that Father Inire fathered children by 
seed and coupling. I'm not trying to prove anything specific at all. 
Only this: In a Wolfe story, one might be a parent or child or sibling 
in many ways. A character might call someone "father" (as N5 called 
Maitre and Hoof called the Rajan) or call someone "son" or "daughter" 
(as Silk called Blood and the Rajan called Jahlee). Obviously, their 
relationship is not parent-child in the traditional sense. But that 
doesn't mean that that is not what Wolfe was angling at. He does it so 
often, I would beware assuming he does not mean it in any particular 
instance just because it is not immediately apparent how he would mean 
it that way.

But as you pointed out, the Domnicellae of the Pelerines was called 
"Mother". I think that is significant.

u+16b9

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