Father Inire

Lee Berman · 02 Dec 2011, 13:15 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: severiansola at hotmail.com (Lee Berman)
Date: Fri, 2 Dec 2011 08:15:28 -0500
Subject: (urth) Father Inire
Message-ID: <SNT123-W42615AB96A55380F42D626CFB60 at phx.gbl>

On 12/2/2011 12:02 AM, Lee Berman wrote:

>> "Why, Father Inire...Who do you suppose?  Senile.  That's what they say.
>
>> Been vizier to I don't know how many autarchs since Ymar."

>Jeff Wilson: This is suspect, however, because Rudesind is the senile one; 

>putting the word alone in a sentence even gives it extra emphasis.

I agree. The whole conversation is fishy. Is Father Inire senile or is 

it Rudesind who just forgot his lines? Let's remember that Rudesind is small,

old and bent and looks like a monkey.

In this conversation, Rudesind is revealed to have been an artist. He was 

also the subject of a painting by Fechin. But there is a clue that painting

may have been a self-portrait.

Severian meets the Autarch after this conversation, and is then guided to the

thiasus by a small, hooded, cloaked person. Perhaps Rudesind put on a hooded

cloak?

>Gerry Quinn: The Cumaean does a little necromancy, but the artificial beautification 

>was the work of the Hierodules? pal Talos.

Merryn twice makes claims that The Cumaean is superior to Dr. Talos, both as a 

physician and a beautificator. Merryn herself appears to be a subject of The Cumaean's

work as she appears to be the same age as she was when Severian saw her some 15 years

previously. At that time, when Severian was a kid, Merryn's face was:

 "at once suggestive of beauty and disease. The witch to whom it beloned seemed old to

me and must actually have been about twenty or a little less..."She was not tall and 

she carried herself in the bent-backed posture of extreme age. Her face was so lovely 

and bloodless that it might have been a mask carved in ivory by some master sculptor".

Severian's connection to The Cumaean during the seance seems to give him the gift of

true sight. He sees The Cumaean in her snake-like form, "one of those who ride the 

night air who sometimes choose to borrow a human seeming".

He sees Merryn and observes, "Now that intelligence no longer animated that ivory mask

I saw that it was no more than parchment over bone".

Severian had it backwards in their first meeting, Merryn is really old but has been

made to appear young. This jibes with The Cumaean's decribed role as a beautifier and

her detailed knowledge of those arts including how Jolenta had been beautified.

FWIW, I think Merryn's age, name and lack of height disqualify her as a candidate for being 

Severian's twin. I think Jolenta's height, name and the incest factor make her a better 

candidate. Was she a witch before waitress?

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