Boatman as Inire

Roy C. Lackey · 06 Aug 2010, 19:30 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2010 14:30:15 -0500
Subject: (urth) Boatman as Inire
References: <SNT123-W17B2D60FBAB9A2AE81714DCF910 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <007f01cb359d$d11d7f60$49d34a0c@rclackey>

Lee Berman wrote:
> Jeff Wilson's comment about Dorcas and the boatman brought this topic to
> mind. Rudesind as Inire has been discussed lately, but not the boatman I
think.
> It is recognized that a weakness in such a scenario involves the boatman
not really
> being dead or that there are multiple versions of Inire which have varying
lifespans.

Yeah, those were among my objections years ago when you first brought this
up, and they still obtain.

[snip]
> I think Severian's descriptions of Father Inire as always off stage, and
if on stage, in
> disguise, never revealed is, in some way, a sign of respect for the deep
instinct of the
> shape-changing sort of being that Father Inire is (respect also for being
his vizier and
> grandfather).

You keep throwing out statements like that as if they were accepted Lupine
gospel: they are not. There is no textual evidence that Inire is either a
shape-changer or Sev's grandfather. You pile speculation upon speculation in
furtherance of one or another of your theories and/or some Grand Unified
Theory, no matter the cost to logic or the text. For example, you have
proposed that at least three male characters in the Urth Cycle (the old man
at Casdoe's cabin, the old leech and, IIRC, Ceryx) are really females,
despite there not being a shred of textual evidence to support the notion.
Will that be enough to make the text fit the theory?

-Roy

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