Father Inire-Hethor

Lee Berman · 13 Oct 2011, 14:50 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 10:50:42 -0400
Subject: (urth) Father Inire-Hethor
Message-ID: <SNT123-W46165862DB258A92AB123ECFE00 at phx.gbl>

Andrew Mason: 
>I agree that the jungle guide is probably Inire. I don't accept most
>of the other identifications, because I don't think Inire is a
>shape-shifter (except, possibly, that he can turn himself into a
>tiger), so anyone Severian sees full-face can't be him (or, strictly,
>more than one person can't, see below).

I can understand this parsimony. An obscured face seems to be one of the
primary markers of an Inire appearance.

>Andrew Mason: I do think Isangoma might be Inire.

Yes, the physical resemblance and the shaman/isangoma names provide a 
fairly strong connection for me. But doesn't Severian see Isangoma's
face?

Anyway, I started out assuming the obscured face was a necessary feature of
an Inire doppelganger but I had to let it go. I think the various versions
of this character cannot be identified by one trait but rather by daisy-
chaining connections of one to the next with no one feature shared by the
whole.  Thus small, old, bent and House Absolute leads us to the cowled 
servitor as being Father Inire.  Small, old, bent, obscured face and being 
a silent guide leads from the cowled servitor to the jungle guide. Dark,
metallic skin and the shaman/isangoma connection leads us to Isangoma.
And so on. Where does it end?  I don't know.

Regarding shapeshifting, I think it would be more believeable if Father 
Inire could be identified as being of the same type as Tzadkiel.  I think
this may be possible.

Consider this sequence from the Jungle Hut: 

>Isangoma: "The Proud One knows Isangoma loves the Preceptress. He would save her 
>if he could."

>Marie: "Save me from what? Do you think there's one of your dreadful beasts here? 
>If there were, Robert would shoot it with his gun."

If we are looking to Isangoma to find other iterations of Father Inire, this line
might suggest Hethor. Hethor is an old, small guy and he has come to Urth from a
space ship. Both he and Inire seem to have a thing for young women.  But surely the 
most telling connection to Father Inire is their shared mastery of mirrors.

Hethor's speech is very difficult to understand. But I think using his babbling and 
some other clues, we can conclude a few things. He was a sailor on Tzadkiel's ship. He
served in various capacities, including First Mate.  He instigated a mutiny, which 
failed and he was expelled from the ship.

I don't think a regular human being would have the power to instigate a mutiny against
Tzadkiel so I don't think it is a stretch to consider that Hethor (and thus Inire) 
started as an angelic shapeshifter like Tzadkiel and retained those abilities in exile
on Urth.

I like this interpretation not only because it invokes a God-Lucifer scenario between 
Hethor/Inire and Tzadkiel but also because it jibes with the events Severian encounters
on the Ship in UotNS.  There is a mutiny, Severian does encounter a mutiny leader who
resembles Hethor and Severian is offered a chance to join the mutineers but chooses 
the right side to fight with.

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