Boatman as Inire

Roy C. Lackey · 07 Aug 2010, 19:09 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2010 14:09:16 -0500
Subject: (urth) Boatman as Inire
References: <SNT123-W4120786751EAAD49CB3FFCF920 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <000f01cb3664$0bfdc100$b8cc4a0c@rclackey>

Lee Berman wrote:

[snip]
> My inference regarding Father Inire is likewise inspired by a feeling that
we are supposed to
> figure out a mystery regarding this guy. There is textual evidence too
numerous to mention that
> the aliens in this story are analagous to our pagan gods, monsters and
angels. Many, many pagan
> gods, monsters and angel myths describe the ability to shape change.
*Father Inire is an alien.*

This is what I meant about some Grand Unified Theory to which many of your
suppositions are subordinate. It is based on the assumption that the Urth
Cycle is Wolfe's version of a Paradise Lost Revisited in which Humanity is,
redundantly, corrupted by aliens mating with humans and, further, these
aliens, meaning Inire and, evidently, the Cumaean, are "fallen"
Hierogrammates analogous to Lucifer. These "fallen" Hierogrammates (a
concept for which there is no textual proof whatsoever), or at any rate
Inire, are the root cause of Urth's woes and are therefore hostile to
efforts to revive the Red Sun, despite any appearances to the contrary.
Inire (if not along with others) screwed the people of Urth (if not all of
Humanity) into Damnation and then, paradoxically, screwed Severian's
grandmother (at the very least), the end result of which was a screwed-up
and tainted World Savior who brought Salvation of a sort and, evidently,
some sort of Paradise Regained, meaning Ushas.

As for "the aliens in this story are analagous to our pagan gods, monsters
and angels", I will grant that Tzadkiel seems very like a Biblical angel,
but the analogy stops there. We see nothing of the Megatherians, and the
other known aliens demonstrate little of gods or monsters. Homer or Ovid or
Robert Graves and such do not separately or collectively constitute a
Rosetta Stone from which NS mysteries can be deciphered; certainly not on a
one-to-one basis. Wolfe always puts new twists on old stories when he tells
them, such as mixing up a Cival War naval battle with Greek myth.

> So the suggestion that Inire might be a shape changer is hardly illogical
or completely
> unsupported by the text. Shapeshifting is invoked numerous times in this
story. Wolfe uses
> shapeshifting characters explicitly in some of his other stories. I don't
see how one could claim
> the idea of Father Inire as shapeshifter is impossible to have been on
Gene Wolfe's mind as he
> wrote this story.

Others have addressed this issue.

> If you feel there is no mystery to be solved regarding Father Inire,
that's fine. If you have an
> alternate, better theory regarding his mystery I am certainly interested
in hearing it.
>
> But if I am being told I have no right to even suggest a shape-shifting
theory then I expect equal
> criticism for any poster who suggests Maid Katharine is Severian's mother.
My theory has supporting
> evidence all through the text; far better supported than Catherine with
her dark hair, misspelled
> name and a puddle in the woods ;- ).

You are free to suggest anything you like. As for your "theory has
supporting evidence all through the text", that owes more to your
imagination than the text. You are filtering everything through the lens of
your Grand Unified Theory. You entertain other theories only in so far as
they do not conflict with yours, and take from them only what fits. If the
only tool you have is a hammer, . . . etc.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, much less The Answer. I have made
suppositions but I do not build elaborate castles on them, and I abandon
them when they are proven wrong or more problematic than the issue they were
intended to inform.

-Roy

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