Mythic Women in BotNS

Lee Berman · 26 Jan 2011, 03:59 · from 2011-January.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:59:42 -0500
Subject: (urth) Mythic Women in BotNS
Message-ID: <SNT123-W351E459946E11AA8A5B701CFFF0 at phx.gbl>

>James Wynn: In the future, I'll refer to it as the Bermanian Theory.

Heh. If you must. I'm more comfortable with the "Father Inire theory". Despite the
myriad possible connections to other characters, Inire remains the nexus point, his 
invisible finger prints touch everything.

(yet, in the Jamesian model, isn't SilkHorn 100% human, 100% Neighbor?)

>Yes! Exactly! Wolfe is capable of pulling this off when he wants to.

Is there to be no parallels between these stories? For Severian and Silk (and
perhaps also Latro) I think there is something special about these guys. It isn't just
accidental. They were born special (as befits a hero/savior in so many myths/religions).

>Um...Pocahontas?

Was she not a conciliator? She was friend to the colonists, became fluent in English, married 
an Englishman, went to England and became the toast of London. She was expected to be the bridge 
to allow the heathen Indians to accept Christianity....but then she died (perhaps of smallpox).

>Having Severian be "half-alien" does violence to this concept. 

I don't get the sense Severian is "half-alien"...If he were I think he'd have a name like
Palaemon, which is both a saint and a Greek deity name. Though perhaps we can find evidence of an 
"alien" in his ancestry. But is it right to call someone "alien" if they have mimicked a human 
down to the DNA? In that instance I think we can call someone fully human but with..that 
something extra which allows him to be a "man of reknown". 

If you don't like Hercules with his freakish strength, perhaps Theseus can serve as a model 
(though Severian has superhuman power more like Hercules, imho). Theseus had a god in his ancestry 
but he was not seen as a "half-breed". He was a man, a hero, a guy with "something extra".

>But I see, from another comment in your last post that you are not 
>necessarily sold on the half-alien Severian aspect of your theory.

Right. It is just a quick-label for so many conciliators. We don't call Jesus a "half-breed" but
he has an extra essence. Something special.

>Hmmm. Well, I don't think Ceryx is human. Why is he a prime candidate as an advisor to Typhon?

Well first I'll mention that Borski finds evidence that Ceryx is a version of Inire. In part because
of the non-saint name designating an alien. And in part because he carries a staff with a human head
on it. This mirrors the appearance of Inire as the uturuncu shaman in the jungle who carries a staff
with a monkey head on it. Inire was a vizier to the autarchs. What was he before that?

But before ever reading Borski's ideas, even on my first reading, I wondered where the heck Ceryx came 
from. I mean this weird guy just shows up in Severian's path begging to be explained. Soon after that
encounter Severian is forcibly dragged to see the Monarch (who is having some medical problems and thus
might have a real interest in a "wonderworker"). I see Ceryx as something like the royal viziers who 
tested Moses' magic against their own before he was allowed direct access to Pharaoh. 
(fwiw- I don't think a being like Ceryx can really die, as we understand the term).

>Red hair is a signifier of the victims sacrificed to Osirus. They were called Typhonians.

I didn't know that!

>Relatedly, red hair is also associated with vampirism.

Is there anything in BotNS that you think led to the concept of Inhumi? 

>Those described as having simian features typically also have red hair.

Well, yes, for me this creates possible connections between Father Inire and Fechin (as well as
the red-haired uakari monkey). Fechin + old boatman present two possible connections of
Father Inire (and his young girl fetish) to Dorcas.

My premise is not that Dorcas mated with a monkey-alien per se. But if Inire is able to produce a human shape
(as we know certain other aliens are including Tzadkiel, Abaia with undines and Great Scylla and The Mother)
it means down to the DNA. The monkey stuff is because Foila's story tells us there is always some sign of a 
shapeshifter to be read in the alternate form. So Severian is human, but like Theseus, with something extra.

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