Father Inire as Dionysus

Lee Berman · 24 Oct 2011, 18:56 · from 2011-October.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:56:55 -0400
Subject: (urth) Father Inire as Dionysus
Message-ID: <SNT123-W546363B4B3CC4092806134CFEF0 at phx.gbl>

>Sergei Soloviev: Could not be the "way of air" just using flyers?

No, the Path of Air (Road of Air in Dr. Talos' play) is a specific area
of the House Absolute. It is described as a....the architectural term 
escapes me now...a sort of breezeway bordered by archways. Severian
views the woman who may be his mother from one of the archways both
in the play and in his own story at the end of UotNS.

>I like more this view - it makes sense if you remember how often
>Hethor is referred to as an "old sailor", how he is afraid to be recognized
>by Jonas. There are small details that speak a lot about his past
>on the spaceships (his "khaibit" or whatever that was killed
>by other crew). He has an access to high technology (his "mirrors")
>but on lesser level than Inire.

Yes, all of Hethor's stories (even Severian's dreams of him) are surely 
important (wolfe isn't just throwing surreal meaningless fluff at us, 
is he? Severian sees people/beings who resemble both Jonas and Hethor
on Tzadkiel's ship. Why is Hethor's mirror mastery less than Father Inire's?
Hethor produces some pretty impressive monsters. All we see Inire do is
produce a silver fish. Jonas uses the mirrors to get back..where? Where
else do the clues point to but Tzadkiel's ship?

>It makes no sense to build his human biography by such bits and scrapes
>if in fact he would be Inire.

Actually it makes a lot of sense. Because we completely lack any biography
for Father Inire. This fills in that gap. Is Hethor really so inferior to
Father Inire?

Inire has been vizier and the power behind the throne of the Commonwealth for 
a thousand years. But Hethor's stories suggest he was a sailor, a cook, the 
bosun, First Mate on Tzadkiel's ship. Then he participated in a mutiny, 
lost his poppet, his paracoita sex doll, and was banished from the Ship. 
(to Urth I think, to become Father Inire).I'm not sure second-in-command to 
Tzadkiel is a lesser post than vizier to the Commonwealth. Perhaps the opposite.

Both Hethor and Inire seem to share a fascination for young women, however.
A fascination shared by Biblical demons.  And of course Hethor's relationship to 
Tzadkiel mirrors that of Lucifer to God. And, as I've suggested previously, there 
are clues that identify Father Inire as a fallen angel/hierodule. Who was it who
said he'd rather reign in hell than serve in heaven?

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