Father Inire

Lee Berman · 13 Oct 2011, 14:16 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:16:06 -0400
Subject: (urth) Father Inire
Message-ID: <SNT123-W26BA2700E20B612C1C45F6CFE00 at phx.gbl>

>Andrew Mason: As to the identity with Inire, there are two clues - that the jungle
>guide, as Lee says, looks like Isangoma, and that Isangoma is talking
>about fish just after Severian has told a story about Inire and fish.
>Severian is not yet Thecla at this point, so would not recognise
>Inire, as he would have done if he had met him later.

Good points, Andrew. But we must remember that Severian is writing his story after
being both Thecla and becoming Autarch. He surely knows most if not all of the places 
where Father Inire is appearing in his story in disguise and he could be identifying him 
for us if he wanted to. But he doesn't.

Of course part of the reason is Wolfe's literary trope of creating mystery via an unreliable 
narrator. But I would hope there is also a plot purpose to Severian's unreliable reporting 
to us and I think there is.

Severian never comes right out and tells us that Dorcas is his grandmother, just as Agilus
never quite openly admits that he and Agia are sexually involved.  As a narrator, Severian
seems to have some sense of shame and embarassment, especially when it involves family
matters. Thus his family remains a central mystery in the story. I think the Dorcas (and 
Catherine and Severa) examples show us that Severian knows more than he purposefully reveals 
to us. But Wolfe does allow his narrator to slip here and there and inadvertently drop hints 
for us regarding who's who.

Anyway, I think that is the reason we can assume Severian is reticent regarding Father Inire.
There are some family matters involved there that he hopes to say as little as possible about.

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