Father Inire as Dionysus

Lee Berman · 24 Oct 2011, 02:41 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:41:21 -0400
Subject: (urth) Father Inire as Dionysus
Message-ID: <SNT123-W1903168E1EF646265F4055CFEF0 at phx.gbl>

>Antonio Pedro Marques: 'FI is GW' sounds terrific.

>David Stockhoff: I can't see Wolfe seeing himself as the Outsider

>...Going with Inire-as-Wolfe, my response must be that it actually explains 
>the reticence and mystery about Inire all by itself, making further 
>explanations unnecessary.

A fair and helpful suggestion for a refinement of my idea from you guys.

Thanks.

Since Wolfe probably hadn't decided to use the name Tzadkiel and very likely

hadn't conceived of The Outsider while writing the first four books of BotNS,

I think it is very reasonable to narrow the focus of a meta-fictive inclusion

of Gene Wolfe as author/demiurge to Father Inire.

>Andrew Mason: 'Abraxas' does seem to be a gnostic word, but apparently it's 

>unclear whether it is a name of  the Archon or of the true God, so it's
>uncertain what we should. 

I think it is more important to focus on how that word is used in the text first.

The Cumaean uses it to refer to someone who would seem to be her associate but

one who may be more wise or knowlegeable than she, at least in some areas.

UotNS rather explicitly pairs Father Inire and The Cumaean. I don't see what

other possible character she could be refering to other than Inire with the

term Abraxas. (Abaia maybe? he is just too distant and formless I think)

Only with the assumption she means Father Inire, does the earthly definition of 

Abraxas becomes useful, imho. Most Judeo-Christian interpret The Abraxas as an 

evil demon.  Yes, some gnostic, pagan sects worshipped him as a true god, which 

was also true for various other demons and fallen angels. The earthly Abraxas 

might even be characterized as a demiurgical figure.

For me, this is just one of numerous clues Wolfe gives us on how we should be 

interpreting the mysterious Father Inire character.

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